Phoenician Trade

Phoenician trade was the Iron Age maritime commerce conducted from the Levantine cities of Tyre, Sidon, and Byblos across the Mediterranean from about 1200 to 300 BCE. Sailing round-hulled merchantmen, the Phoenicians traded cedar, purple dye, glass, and metals, founded colonies including Carthage and Gadir, and are credited with spreading the alphabet. Their reach extended to the Atlantic coasts of Iberia and West Africa, and a circumnavigation of Africa is attributed to them by Herodotus. Their wrecks and ports are key archaeological evidence.