Ancient Palestine: history, culture and traditions. Ancient Phenicia and Palestine

Experts established that before the conquest by Jewish tribes at the end of the second millennium BC and the discovery of written history, Ancient Palestine was a territory where signs of human habitation were discovered six hundred thousand years before our era. Based on the found fragments of skeletons, tools of flint, elements of architecture, burials, scientists discovered that hunting and gathering in this region began about 0.6 million years ago and was subsequently followed by the production of tools from pebbles, chopped. Later, the inhabitants of this region mastered the technique of producing cutting objects by cleavage and flaking, which somewhat increased labor productivity in those times.

From hunting and gathering to urban life

The history of Ancient Palestine before the emergence of writing is divided, as a rule, into three stages. The first, which lasted until the 10th millennium BC, shows that people in this region were primarily engaged in gathering and hunting. Between 10,000 and 5,300 years BC, the inhabitants of most of the Palestinian lands developed agriculture, later moved to the era of cities characterized by the emergence of trade, permanent settlements that protect the nascent armies. Recording the same historical events began here about 2 thousand years before our era.

Ancient Palestine is remarkable for the fact that on its territory eight thousand years before Christ, as if "apart" existed the city of Jericho. It is one of the most ancient cities on the planet, located 260 meters below sea level (the lowest location). His first settlers did not own pottery, but they could cultivate the land and built walls around the city from wild stone, living at home in unfired brick. Natufiytsy (as they are called by scientists) appeared as a result of the mixing of Negro Australols and Caucasoids. They lived in Jericho in the 8-9 millennium BC. After them, this territory was occupied by representatives of the Tahuni culture - tribes already possessing pottery skills. This peculiar capital of Ancient Palestine was repeatedly destroyed, including by the order of Joshua in the early 12th century BC.

Palestinian cities did not become the center of a single civilization in ancient times

At the end of the fourth millennium BC in Palestine began to appear small city-states, quite prosperous due to the fact that in this area there were numerous trade routes connecting Europe, Asia and Africa. In addition, the inhabitants of the Palestinian lands themselves could offer goods that are in demand. It was salt and bitumen from the Dead Sea, antimony from the Levant, balms from Galilee, copper and turquoise from Sinai, olives, wine, livestock and crop production. At that time, Ancient Palestine was a region developed commercially, but did not become a civilizational center, unlike Egypt, northern Syria and Mesopotamia, where almost empires existed. In the Palestinian territories of that time there were already settlements similar to the medieval cities of Europe, but, unlike Egypt, there was no single writing and strong enough king who could unite separate administrative entities under his authority.

What cities at that time had Palestine? The ancient world, discovered by scientists during excavations in the twentieth century, was sufficiently developed for that time. In particular, in the still Neolithic Ashkelon, an unprecedented number of animal bones were discovered, which indicates that this was probably the site of a large ancient slaughterhouse, where the meat products were salted with the use of Dead Sea salts. In total, a cultural layer 16 meters thick was discovered in this area. During his research, it was established that through this city a path was taken from Egypt to the Hittites and then to Rome and Greece, the way from the Parthian kingdom to Egypt. Near this large settlement came the "road of incense" from Arabia and the "path of spices" from Nabataea and Petra through Eilat, the Yemeni ports to the Indian Ocean. Not surprisingly, the city sought to capture all who came to the Palestinian lands.

The settlements in Palestine are repeatedly mentioned in the Bible

What settlements were still known to contemporaries of Ancient Palestine? A lesson in the 5th grade of the school may be worth adding information about such settlements as Gaza and Ashdod. Gaza is considered one of the most ancient cities in the world (founded in 3 thousand BC), is part of the Philistine Pyatigrad - five settlements where the Philistines lived, who originally were the only ones in the Middle East who owned iron smelting technologies and were successful wars. In the Bible, Gaza is mentioned more than twenty times. The ancient city of Palestine, Ashdod, was densely populated as far back as the 10th millennium BC. The first buildings in this place belong to the seventeenth century BC, and the first written references - to the 14th century BC. Ashdod at all times was a major trading settlement, which alternately occupied Canaanites, Philistines, Assyrians, Egyptians, etc.

An interesting concept about the causes of migration to the Palestinian lands in the 2nd millennium BC. E.

Ancient Palestine (grade 5 of the school is unlikely to get acquainted with such theories) from the third millennium BC was exposed to significant immigration flows. Some science fiction scholars (Zakaria Sitchin, in particular) believe that the migration of peoples from the deserts of the west and northeast could be due to the use of a similarity of nuclear weapons in 2048 BC in the Sinai Peninsula by some more highly developed civilization. This caused radiation contamination of the terrain and a large wave of migration (traces of possible impact remained on the Sinai peninsula in the form of pebbles caked at the highest temperatures). In particular, numerous Hyksos tribes arrived in the Palestinian lands (possibly Amalekite, Khannane, Khurite and other nomadic tribes), which had chariot troops and easily conquered Egypt and Palestine, which at that time did not have cavalry troops.

Items not characteristic of the era and houses with two corners

Note that the prehistoric culture of Ancient Palestine is rich in archaeological riddles. In particular, scientists found in the layers belonging to the Middle Paleolithic, blades that differed technically from the main array of tools that cave people owned in that area. How they were there and why they quickly disappeared from circulation, remains a mystery until now. Studying how the Ancient Palestine was organized (grade 5 of the school), it is possible to draw the students' attention to the way ancient settlements were arranged in this area. Here in the beginning there were apse houses (with one rounded wall, which was contrasted with a wall with two corners). In several rooms of such a structure people lived, almost always together with livestock and food stocks.

In the later period, rich people began to build two-story rectangular structures, where the owners lived on the second floor, and on the first there was a stable, storage, utility rooms. Private houses in the cities themselves were small - most of the city's squares were defensive fortifications, public buildings, like temples, the streets were narrow. Most of the craftsmen lived there, they knew, soldiers, merchants, while the peasants lived outside the city walls, in villages.

Their temples looked like Mesopotamian

The presence in the settlements (Megiddo, Gai, Beth-Jaharov, Bet-Shan) of the remains of large structures, reaching tens of meters in length with columns, courtyards often oriented along the line "east-west", allowed to confirm to a number of scientists that the inhabitants of Palestine in Ancient times worshiped deities (temples are similar to the Mesopotamian temples of Baal-Dagon in structure). But during excavations in these cities it was not possible to find any semblance of altars and objects of worship. Therefore, some experts believe that these "temples" were simply granaries. Ancient Palestine experienced in the early period the existence of an invasion of peoples that left traces in its culture in the form of specific ceramics (grayish) and brought (not established from where) stone stupas with pestles, while the new people hardly used tools made of bone or flint . Influenced by the culture of this region and a powerful neighbor - Egypt, where, presumably, came the "fashion" for vessels made of red ceramics with a single handle, on a narrow stem.

In Ancient Palestine the font was a picture

The ancient state in Palestine acquired its first writing around the second millennium BC, and this letter was pictographic. The number of signs used included various geometric figures, for example, a cross and images of a person in different poses. Most often the marks were made on the vessels in which the goods were transported. But other civilizations wrote about this region much more. For example, in Egypt, in the twenty-fourth century BC, the first notes on military campaigns in the Syrian-Palestinian region (under the leadership of the commander Uni) appeared. In the Hannanean sources this area was referred to as, respectively, Canaan. Herodotus wrote about Palestine (Syrian Palestine), and of course, this territory is repeatedly mentioned in religious documents, including the Bible.

From the middle of the second millennium BC, the Ancient Phenicia and Palestine (almost completely), where the Canaanite (including the Philistines) and the Amonite tribes lived, began to be attacked by nomadic Habiri (ibra, the ancestors of ancient Jews) who, in their They gradually mastered a settled way of life. In their environment, on the basis of the development of trade exchange and constant wars, a class stratification arose that enabled enriched and strong members of society to claim the title of chiefs, who began to found small tribal unions against the background of the weakened influence of the empires of past centuries (Egypt). The heads of these unions began to unite the territories around them. Thus, in these territories appeared the Israeli kingdom of King Saul, which later became the united kingdom of Israel and Judah (under the kings David and Solomon). It disintegrated after the death of Solomon, and was partially conquered by the Assyrian king Sargon the Second.

In this region there is no peace for millennia

The history of ancient Palestine in the next millennium is associated with constant clashes of various interests, cultures, states and nationalities that exist to this day, without adding peace and tranquility to this region. For example, after the fall of Assyria in the end of the seventh century BC. E. Jews tried to return the Palestinian territories, but instead were later attacked by King Nebuchadnezzar and the pillage of his capital, etc. From these lands the population was repeatedly captured (Babylonian, Egyptian), but invariably returned there.

Differences between Palestine and Phenicia

The ancient Phenicia and Palestine, in spite of the similar composition of the peoples living in them and their proximity, have some peculiarities in the development of each territory. For example, Phenicia never possessed large agricultural areas, but it had large commercial port cities, where maritime business (military and civil) had long developed. Fine sailors, Phoenicians, supplied goods to Egypt, periodically falling under the yoke of this ancient empire (in the middle of the second millennium BC, for example). Later trade developed with Crete, which at that time had the largest reserves of copper.

Phoenician city-states produced dried fish, wine, olive oil, the first to use slaves for rowing on galleys. It was on this territory that the alphabetic system of writing on the basis of Egyptian hieroglyphs was born , which subsequently gave rise to the Greek alphabet. The Phoenician territory in the 12th century BC was able to become independent of Egypt and developed along the path of colonization of other territories. The brave inhabitants of cities went on sea voyages and founded cities, for example, Carthage, settlements in Malta and Sardinia.

The oldest Bible in the world was found in jars

With the territory of Israel, Judea, Palestine, there are also biblical stories that gave the world a new religion - Christianity. And it was on the coast of the Dead Sea, in the vicinity of Wadi Qumran, that ancient scrolls of the Qumran caves of Palestine were found. These documents, which are the oldest manuscripts of the Bible in the world, sealed in jugs, accidentally found a shepherd. Since the leather of the scrolls proved to be unsuitable for making sandals, the shepherd kept them for some time in their nomadic tent, and then sold for a pittance in Bethlehem in 1947. Scientists have found that these invaluable manuscripts for world culture were compiled by the Essenical religious community in the first century BC. They include almost all the books of the Old Testament and a number of accompanying documents.