ADONIS: the legend says adonis was killed by a wild pig in the mountains of byblos and his blood flew in the water of the river turning its color into red and resurrected in spring, nature was always worshiped in byblos.
AGRICULTURAL: local agricultural products such as wine and olive oil grains of wheat barly and lentils were transported in the trademark jars used for long distance transport.
ALPHABET: the phoenician merged the hieroglyphic pictogram system the mesopotamian cuneiform symbols syllabry (syllabographics) the cretian pictographic syllabry into a linear alphabet syllabic system of writing. The phoenician linear alphabet consisted of 22 symbols all consonants.
ALTAR: the god had an altar and no statues.
AMULETS: amulets and pendants were also made of ivory.
ANICONISM: the phoenician religion had an aniconism aspect or a non-figuration of their gods.
ANIMALS: phoenician craftsmen used extensively animals.
ARCHITECTURE: the phoenician temples were always of extreme simplicity.
ART: phoenician art is a perpetual mixture of egyptian and assyrian.
ASTRATE: she had the title of queen of the heavens.
AYNEL: aynel was the last king and reigned under alexander the great.
BAAL: the title baal at byblos is reproduced on the inscription of king abibaal of byblos dated from 880 b.c.
BAALAT-GEBAL: is the most important temple in byblos (3000 b.c).
BAALIM: baal was invoked in the bible by baalim.
BANGLES: bangles going two or three times round the arms.
BASE: columns had no base.
BEADS: necklaces could be made of blue beads.
BETYL: in the middle of the temple of the obelisks rises a big rectangular stone which is a god representation called also a betyl.
BOTTLES: ivory was also used for perfume bottles.
BOWLS: cups and bowls in metal bronze silver or gold were filled with motives.
BRACELETS: some bracelets consist of a simple ring of massive gold without ornament, or a circle adorned by one or two heads of animals, others modelled into a chain or cable others no more than a cylindrical or prismatic rods of metal bent into circles and beaten out into flat table with engravings.
BRONZES: bronzes from the very birth of metallurgy is of phoenician origin.
BYBLOS: byblos is mainly known for being a major phoenician city.
BYBLOS-RUN: with the establishment of the byblos run constant trade between egypt and asia minor in particular the rapid growing land empire in mesopotamia and anatolia made of byblos a thriving commercial center and a flourishing wealthy city state.
CAP: the influence of the design of the cap comes from egypt and later babylon.
CELLA: the small cella of the temple was closed from three sides.
CHAINS: some of the more elaborate jewelry are formed of several pieces united by chains or rings.
CHEOPS: on pharaoh cheops burial barge are inscriptions about byblos boats transporting goods to egypt.
CHRONOLOGY: during excavations a relative chronology of urban evolution is extracted from the stratas then a reconstitution of the absolute chronology was made.
CITY-STATE: between 2500 and 2300 b.c byblos was the primary city-state in an extensive phoenician city system.
COINAGE: coinage and inscriptions were abundant at the time of persian rule in byblos, coinage appeared in seventh century b.c.
COINS: the monetary motives on byblos coins are organized around a central element the warship.
COLUMNS: columns found in byblos show that the phoenicians carved their columns shaft and cap from a single block of rock.
CONSTRUCTION: building activity reached its peak in the persian period after 650 b.c.
CONVOYS: the ships used to go in convoys sometimes reaching up to 40 to 70 ships.
COPPER: copper was shipped from cyprus.
CRYSTALS: some of the jewels and vessels were embellished with crystals and gems.
CULT: there is a strong parallelism between the phoenician cult and the cult in egypt.
DANCING: there were dancing and singing in the temple of baalat-gebal.
DEMOCRACY: in the habits of the phoenicians the system tended to a democracy.
DESIGNATION: L is for divinity designating a single divinity LM is followed by astrate in the form RBT LM STRT rabbat divinity astrate, we find also the syntax RBT GBL rabbat lady of gebal (byblos).
DESTRUCTION: french archaeologist Ernest Renan during his campaign in byblos at the end of the 19th century said that the biggest destruction of the site happened during the religious wars in ancient times.
DRACHM: the drachm of byblos is equivalent to the tetrobol of aradus.
DUNAND: excavations under him continued in 1926 till the 1950s.
EFFECTS: the phoenician gave effect by the combination of different materials.
EGYPT: egypt interest in byblos was mainly sparked by its need of cedar wood available in the hinterland of byblos.
EL: upon the legend the god El built the city of byblos.
EXCAVATED: the whole site has been excavated to the virgin soil.
EXCAVATIONS: which lasted for forty-three years.
EXPORTED: papyrus used to be exported by boats fromegypt on byblos boats to other parts of the mediterranean sea.
FESTIVALS: the temples had festivals corresponding to the changes of the seasons.
FIGURINES: number of very small figurines in ivory were made of dieties terracota or bronze.
FLINT: flint produced locally for the fabrication of tools like choppers knives saws and scrappers.
FREIGHTERS: the ships were very large comparable to modern freighters and could reach up to 100 feet, some ships could carry the equivalent of many donkey caravans and the transported goods on a ship could go up to 450 tons.
FUNCTION: every function of the city had a person in charge like the supervisor of the port or person in charge of the affairs of the temple.
GEBAL: or gebla or goubla or byblos.
GEOMETRICAL: they used extensively geometrical designs for the decoration.
GLAZING: glazing could have been started by the phoenicians.
GOLD: in return ships brought back from egypt gold for the fabrication of jewelry and for the decoration of temples.
GOOD: astrate was associated with the idea of good.
GRAMMAR: the verbs follow a semantic pattern. the verb usage was capable of expressing past present future conditional past as well as injunctive nuances. sentences in their constructed form is written syllabry.
GUBIA: in early history byblos used to be called gubia.
GUBIL: the assyrians use to call it gubil.
HALL: in general in phoenician temples less importance is attached to the cella and the focus was on the great court or the open air hall in the centre of which the tabernacle.
HATHOR: since the ancient empire the egyptian goddess hathor has been identified with the goddess baalat gebal of byblos.
HERISHEF: reshef is the equivalent of herishef worshiped in egypt.
HERODOTE: mainly herodote called it byblos.
HIEROGLYPHIC: during the new kingdom in egypt byblos scribes used a simplified hieroglyphic script for the correspondence with egypt.
HORSEBACK: there are records of astarte on horseback according to a representations from the 18th dynasty in egypt.
HOUSES: early settelers in byblos use to live in houses made of sharp cut rectangular large stones.
HYPOSTYLES: phoenician nearly never built hypo styles like those of egypt.
INSCRIPTION: king yehawmilk leaving behind him a famous inscription describing works done on the temple of baalat gebal.
ISIS: isis will succeed hathor in the egyptian version of the lady of byblos.
IVORY: phoenicians were fond of carving ivory.
JARS: the body was painted in different colors as black and red.
JEWELRY: some jewelries consist of a bronze core overlaid with gold or they can be in gold and decorated with glass beads or stones such as carnelions.
KEPEN: the egyptianscalled byblos kepen.
LEVEL: during excavtions of the site of byblos a confusion was made between the notions of level, stratum and layer, a level is a horizontal plane the stratum including vestiges and can be of varying thickness.
LIBERTY: it is said in phoenicia and in particular byblos that municipal liberty made its first appearance in history.
LINAGE: king yehawmilk father and grand father reigned before him.
LINES: the decoration can be a combinations of straight and curved lines.
LOW RELIEF: the tablets which formed the sides and lid of a box is often carved in low relief.
MAGISTRATE: in byblos a legislative body with a high civil magistrate implemented the law.
MANUFACTURE: since the third millennium b c the phoenicians of byblos imported raw materials processed them in their workshops and exported them they established a complex production system producing in large quantities.
METAL: in the phoenician industry the most authentic are the works in metal , the artist made very good use of the assyrian models.
MIXTURE: phoenician art was never content to draw its inspiration from a single source but it was a mixture of egyptian and asiatic elements.
MKST: on coins it may designate a boat cabin or i acquire taxes.
MODELERS: phoenician modelers were to imitate the types from greece in the doric and ionian cities and asia minor.
MONEY: during the persian era money coins were struck in the city though it is said that their main usage was inside phoenicia.
MONTET: a series of four campaigns in fourteen month were undertook by archeologist pierre mounted in byblos.
MOUNTAINS: byblos of lebanon with its mountains and forests was to become for many millennium further the depot for timber for the people in the desertic countries and the vehicle for trade in the region.
MYCENAEN: the far more extensive influence of the mycenaean civilisation on phoenician was in pottery and in the small figurines and covers several hundred years.
MYTHOLOGY: phoenician pantheon is a reproduction of the egyptian pantheon.
NAMES: osiris had her worshipers and this is proved by the place osiris occupy in phoenician proper names.
NATURE: astarte was the phoenician goddess of nature life and fertility.
OLD KINGDOM: ties between byblos at the time named gubia with egypt go back to the 3200 b.c back to the 1st dynasty.
ORDER: artifacts were built with a fine order and rich decorations.
OSISRIS: the legend says that osisris found her lover isis fused into a tree under the sea in byblos.
PAPYRUS: the name byblos became associated with papyrus and with the writing of books.
PATTERN BOOKS: the phoenician workman had pattern books from which these designs were taken.
PATTERNS: the commonest patterns are zigzags wavy lines, straight lines checkers, lozenges network and concentric circles.
PENDANTS: the great length and considerable weight of some of these jewel suggests that they were made for deposition in a grave.
PERFUME: the air in the temples was full of perfume.
PERSONNEL: it is not been proved but it is said that perhaps the settlements in the site were reserved to the city personnel and the people taking care of the temples and that the populations lived outside the walls towards the north and east of the acropolis.
PICTOGRAPHIC: the alphabet shows some affinity with the pictographic syllabry writing system used in crete.
POLITICS: the political system was an aristocratic republic in a metropolitarian system of city and was analogous to the cities in europe like genoa at the time when it was a maritime power.
PORT: byblos known as gubia became the key port city from the mouth of the oronte to the gates of egypt.
POTTERY: the forms of pottery are grouped in some half-dozen main types like small amphorae with one or two handles jugs with globular bodies, large amphorae with vertical side handles, globular bottle with long neck with or without handles, two handled globular amphorae, the commonest variety is the reddish clay ware.
PROPORTIONS: designs were in good proportions.
PROSPERITY: by 1900 b.c byblos reestablished its position as a major port city again and prosperity returned to the city.
REJUVINATION: they worshiped the energy shown by nature in destroying and reproducing life.
RESHEF: he was the god of the armament and the equipment and was the protector of the metallurgy, some of the statuettes represent him as a horned god, reshef was represented also with the lightning.
RESIN: resin of coniferous trees from the mountains of byblos was used for the mummification.
ROCK: another characteristic of phoenician architecture is building using the living rock.
ROSETTES: rosettes occur as well in ivory.
RUDENESS: columns and statues have they the rudeness of the rock.
RULER: he had full control over the business affairs of the city and any private enterprise operating in the city had to be in conjunction with the king as well as trading with other cities.
SANCHTUATON: in the book sanchtuaton of philo of byblos he tells the story about a legend where knosos built a huge palace in byblos for his son.
SCARAB: an inscription on a scarab dedicated to the goddess astrate the lady of byblos mentions the granted favor of the goddess to her people.
SETTLEMENTS: signs of human settlements in byblos date from more than 7000 years ago.
SETTLERS: the neolithic settlers use to buryin jars with their gold.
ROUTE: the byblos ships followed a counter clockwise maritime route that brought goods from egypt to byblos to cyprus to anatolia to crete to the aegian islands and to the greek mainland.
SHIPS: these ships had square sails high sides decks and were deep bellied cargos they were stubby ships with heavy hulls rounded at both ends, they had a hogging truss or a cable from stem to stem and had many oars.
SILVER: byblos ships carried to and from egypt and the others countries on the mediteranean iron and silver from anatolia for the fabrication of silverware and ornaments.
SITE: the site of the ruins of byblos is about 5ha in area and has a perimeter of 1.5km and it is where all the civilizations made their temples.
SOLOMON: king solomon made his temple from the cedar woods exported from byblos.
SPIRALS: bracelet designs with spirals were found in the caucasus similar to the ones in byblos.
STAPLES: staples were used for the assembly of jewelry and metal vessels.
STEPPED: the altar had a stepped ornament sometimes.
STONE: prestige stone vessels were imported on byblos ships from anatolia such as obsidian, travertine, porphyria.
STORM GOD: in the neolithic period in the 4th millennium b.c the people use to worship the storm god.
STRATA: during the excavation of the site thirty-six strata have been recognized.
STRUCK: significant coinage was struck under his king yehawmilk rule.
STRUCTURE: stone columns were nearly never used to support a roof.
SUN DISC: the goddess baalat gebal with the sun disc on the head was represented on cylindrical seals found in byblos and in egypt.
SURVEY: the survey of the structures were done by scrapping the site with horizontal layers of 20 cm thick called a levies (5 per meter) allowing an identical reconstruction of the entire strata of the site.
SYLLABRY: the hieroglyphics pictograms and the summerian cuneiform symbols syllabry were the only forms of writings before the alphabet though a more indigenous form of the byblos syllabic script can be perhaps dated back to between 2000 and 1750 b.c.
SYMBOL: the alphabet letters were a mix of pictograms and symbols.
TABERNACLE: the phoenicians brought from the egyptians the idea of a tabernacle.
TEMPLE: the temple is the reduction of an egyptian shrine.
TEXTILE: byblos imported textile fabrics from mesopotamia.
THRIVING: the city which had its own kings was thriving economically and was a regional administration center in the persion period.
TORQUES: similar torques of bronze have been found in great numbers in the caucasian tombs in armenia.
TRADE: byblos played a major role in the trade between mesopotamia and egypt.
TRINKETS: trinkets were made up of glass beads.
ULURBURUN: were found great artifacts from byblos on the phoenician ship the ulurburun that wrecked of the cost of turkey.
UTILITARIAN: due to the utilitarian aspect of the phoenicians their art and architecture leaked the sense of elaborate detailing in the plastic sense.
VASSAL: after the invasion by egypt of the levant during the new kingdom in egypt byblos became a vassal city-state (1550to 1300 b.c).
VESSEL: for seven or eight centuries the phoenicians had a monopoly in the manufacture of vessels in copper bronze silver and gold.
WATER: water is abundant in phoenician temples.
WEALTHIEST: in the iron age (1200 to 1100 b.c) byblos was the central city-state in phoenicia and the major port in the mediterranean sea during this time it was ranked as one of the wealthiest and most important of phoenician cities and it was an important coastal emporium.
WEAPONS: phoenicians enjoyed for centuries the reputation of being the best makers of weapons and defensive armor.
WOOD: shipment of cedar wood from the hinterland of byblos dates from 3200b.c.
WRITING: from pictographic to linear writing is only a matter of difference in writing techniques.