The Oxford Handbook of the Phoenician and Punic Mediterranean

The Phoenicians created the Mediterranean world as we know it--yet they remain a shadowy and poorly understood group. The academic study of the Phoenicians has come to an important crossroads; the field has grown in sheer content, sophistication of analysis, and diversity of interpretation, and we now need a current overview of where the study of these ancient seafarers and craftsman stands, and where it is going. Moreover, the field of Phoenician studies is particularly fragmented and scattered. While there is growing interest in all things Phoenician and Punic, the latest advances are mostly published in specialized journals and conference volumes in a plethora of languages.
This Handbook is the first of its type to appear in over two decades, and the first ever to appear in English. In these chapters, written by a wide range of prominent and promising scholars from across Europe, North America, Australia, and the Mediterranean world, readers will find summary studies on key historical moments (such as the history of Carthage); areas of culture (organized around language, religion, and material culture); regional studies and areas of contact (spanning from the Levant and the Aegean to Iberia and North Africa); and the reception of the Phoenicians as an idea, entangled with the formation of other cultural identities, both ancient and modern.

Carolina López-Ruiz is Professor at the University of Chicago Divinity School and Department of Classics. She is the author of Phoenicians and the Making of the Mediterranean, for which she received the support of the National Endowment of the Humanities. Her previous books include Tartessos and the Phoenicians in Iberia, When the Gods Were Born: Greek Cosmogonies and the Near East, and Colonial Encounters in Ancient Iberia: Phoenician, Greek, and Indigenous Relations (co-edited with M. Dietler). Some of her books have been translated into Turkish and Spanish. Brian R. Doak is Professor of Biblical Studies and Faculty Fellow in the William Penn Honors Program at George Fox University, just outside of Portland, Oregon. He is the recipient of the Aviram Prize for archaeological research as well as the George Fox University Undergraduate Researcher of the Year. He is the author of several books, including Phoenician Aniconism in its Mediterranean and Ancient Near Eastern Contexts, Ancient Israel's Neighbors, and Heroic Bodies in Ancient Israel.

Introduction (Carolina López-Ruiz and Brian R. Doak) Research Tools (Philip Schmitz) Birth and Prospects of a Discipline (Nicholas C. Vella) Part One: Histories The East Canaanite Roots and the Proto-Phoenician Period: c. 1300-1000 BCE (Ann E. Killebrew) Phoenicia in the Later Iron Age: Tenth Century BCE to the Assyrian and Babylonian Periods (Guy Bunnens) Tyre and its Colonial Expansion (María Eugenia Aubet Semmler) Phoenicia under the Achaemenid Empire (Vadim Jigoulov) The Hellenistic Period and Hellenization in Phoenicia (Corinne Bonnet) Phoenicia in the Roman Empire (Julien Aliquot) The Archaeology of Phoenician Cities (Hélène Sader) The West Early Carthage: From its Foundation to the Battle of Himera (ca. 814-480 BCE) (Hédi Dridi) Classical-Hellenistic Carthage before the Punic Wars (479-265 BCE) (Dexter Hoyos) The Punic Wars (264-146 BCE) (Christopher de Lisle) Carthage after the Punic Wars and the Neo-Punic Legacy (Matthew Hobson) Part Two: Areas of Culture Language and Literature The Language (Maria Giulia Amadasi Guzzo) Inscriptions (Madadh Richey) The Alphabet and its Legacy (Madadh Richey) Phoenician Literature (Carolina López-Ruiz ) Religion Religion (Paolo Xella) Ritual and the Afterlife (Mireia López-Bertran) The tophet and Infant Sacrifice (Matthew McCarty) Material Culture Pottery and Trade (Francisco J. Núñez) Art and Iconography (Eric Gubel) Levantine Art in the Orientalizing Period (Marian Feldman) Coins (John Betlyon) Metallurgy and Other Technologies (Philip Andrew Johnston and Brett Kaufman) Seafaring and Shipwreck Archaeology (Jeffrey P. Emanuel) Residential Architecture (Roald Docter) Agriculture (Carlos Gómez Bellard) Part Three: Regional Studies and Interactions The Levant (Gunnar Lehmann) Cyprus (Sabine Fourrier) The Aegean (Nikos Stampolidis) The Italian Peninsula (Jeremy Hayne) Sardinia (Andrea Roppa) Sicily (Salvatore de Vincenzo) Malta and Gozo (Nicholas C. Vella and Maxine Anastasi) Ibiza (Benjamí Costa) The Iberian Peninsula (José Luis López Castro) Phoenicians in Portugal (Ana Margarida Arruda) The Gadir-Tyre Axis (Manuel Álvarez Martí-Aguilar) North Africa: from the Atlantic to Algeria (Alfredo Mederos) Phoenician Exploration (Duane W. Roller) Part Four: Receptions Phoenicians in the Hebrew Bible (Brian R. Doak) Phoenicians and Carthaginians in Classical Literature (Josephine C. Quinn) Neo-Phoenician Identities in the Roman Empire (Anthony Kaldellis) Phoenicians and Carthaginians in the Western Imagination (Brien Garnand) Phoenician Identity in Modern Lebanon (Claude Doumet-Serhal) Punic Heritage in Tunisia (Kathryn Lafrenz Samuels and Peter van Dommelen)