Phoenicia: Merchants of the Mediterranean Quiz

Answer: Lebanon

Lebanon was (and still is) very mountainous, making it hard to farm. So the Phoenicians, instead, turned to the sea to make a living. They fished and traded with other nations.

Answer: Purple merchants

The Phoenicians didn't call themselves Phoenicians; the Greeks did. It meant "purple merchants" because they often traded their unique purple dye.

Answer: Purple dye

Tyre was famous for its extremely expensive reddish-purple dye. The dye was made from a snail called the murex snail. It was expensive because each snail only gave about two drops of dye, and it had to be made in accordance with a very precise process. Gradually, the dye's prices rose until finally only royalty could afford it. That's why purple is often called a 'royal' color.

Answer: East

Phoenicia was located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It was so mountainous there that is was very hard for each city-state to communicate, which meant that the Phoenician city-states never united into a country.

Answer: Byblos

The Greeks called this city Byblos because of the large quantities of papyrus (paper made from the papyrus reed) that it traded. The words Bible, book, and bibliography come from that name.

Answer: False

Like all ancient Mediterranean civilizations (except for the Hebrews), they were polytheistic, believing in many gods and goddesses. "Poly-" means "many," and "mono-" means "one."

Answer: Carthage

Carthage was an extremely powerful colony of the Phoenicians that was located in present-day Tunisia in northern Africa.

Answer: True

This colony was Carthage. Carthage battled Rome during the Punic Wars over the island of Sicily and was finally defeated.

Answer: Britain

The Phoenicians were excellent sailors. They sailed from the eastern Mediterranean, through the Straits of Gibraltar, all the way into the Atlantic Ocean, and then finally to Britain to get tin.

Answer: Philistines and Canaanites

Both groups contributed something to the Phoenician culture. The Philistines gave the skills of shipbuilding and sailing, and the Canaanites gave their religion.