30th Jan, 2020: Vedant Sharma
Thalassocracy refers to a city state that portrays its power through the sea.
Phoenicians inhabited the place between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. This was the Mediterranean side of the Fertile Crescent. Their main focus was on trade. They existed from 2500 BC to 550 BC. It was also believed that the Phoenicians came from present day Bahrain.
Phoenicia was a city state ruled by kings. Byblos was the capital of Phoenicia from 2500 BC to 1000 BC. It was a major point of culture. Later in 900 BC, Tyre became the capital and remained till 550 BC. The hundred year gap from 1000 BC to 900 BC is known as the ‘Dark Age’. It refers to the period where culture and economic conditions started to disintegrate.
Phoenicians were the first ones to develop alphabets. They developed twenty – two alphabets and all were consonants. Later on, Greeks adapted these alphabets and developed it. This was afterwards converted into the English language. Before alphabets were developed, people used to communicate through local languages.
Ahiram was a king whose grave had all the twenty – two Phoenician alphabets engraved on it. The coffin in which he was buried was called Sarcophagus.
This civilization got wiped out in fifty years and never settled again. It was believed that some people came through the sea and destroyed the entire civilization. Archaeologists called them the sea people. It is also said that no one knew their identity or where they came from. This mystery still remains.
The Late Bronze Age Collapse took place from 1300 BC – 1200 BC. This change was considered to be very sudden and violent. It is also said that the literacy rate went down during this period.
The discussion on this period gave us a better understanding of it and we also got to know that it took place before the Greek civilization. It gave us a better insight of the different events that took place and how they affected the later period.
The Idealist 