Phoenician Art

The Phoenicians, from as early as 1500 BC, were mainly known for producing glass bottles and jars, especially for perfume.

The Phoenicians sold these jars to Egypt and to the Assyrians, and after the Dark Age they began to sell their jars (and the perfume) to the Greeks too.

After the expansion of the Roman Empire, the Phoenicians sold their glass all over the Mediterranean region, North Africa, and Europe. The invention of mold-blown glass about 50 BC made glass cheaper, so they sold a lot more of it after that.

The Phoenicians gradually got absorbed into the Roman Empire, so their later art history is the same as the history of Roman art, and then later Byzantine art and Islamic art.

To find out more about Phoenician art, check out these books from Amazon.com or from your local library:

The Phoenicians, by Elsa Marston (2001). For high schoolers.

The Phoenicians, edited by Sabatino Moscati (2000). A good summary, even though it's not specially for kids.

Phoenicians, by Glenn Markoe of the Cincinnati Art Museum (2001). Good pictures, and covers the whole time range down to the Hellenistic.

The Art and Architecture of the Ancient Orient, by Henri Frankfort (5th edition 1997). The standard for college art history classes. Not that much on the Phoenicians, though.

Main West Asian art page
More about the Phoenicians

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