Some observations on the investigation of the Phoenicians/Canaanites in the ancient Mediterranean world

Abstract

The first part of this double special issue of the Journal of Mediterranean Studies is focussing its attention on Malta and the Phoenician World. The latter phrase is to be taken in a wide sense; it is not meant to indicate simply the explicit connections between Malta and the Phoenician and the Punic world at large. It mainly refers to the presence of the Phoenicians and the Carthaginians in the Mediterranean basin. because the available evidence shows that their presence did influence (though in varying degrees) the culture of Malta between the eighth and the second centuries B.C. Indeed. Holbl's recent study has shown beyond any reasonable doubt that as long as the Phoenicians from the Levant were a mercantile power in the Mediterranean. Malta and Gozo lay at the heart of their trade routes which linked the levantine coast with the western Mediterranean regions. During the Phoenician-Punic period, the main cultural links of Malta lay with the Phoenicians from the Levant. However. this does not exclude the fact that the Maltese archipelago did show signs of contact with the Punic world. In this sense, any contribution to our knowledge of the Phoenicians and the Carthaginians in the Mediterranean basin will ultimately turn out to be at one and the same time a contribution to our knowledge about Malta's position in this sea. in a period when Phoenician commercial power. and later Carthaginian commercial and political power were something to be reckoned with.