List of Illustrations ix Abbreviations xi Introduction xiii Phantom Phoenicians 1 There Are No Camels in Lebanon 3 2 Sons of Tyre 25 3 Sea People 44 Many Worlds 4 Cultural Politics 65 5 The Circle of the Tophet 91 6 Melqart's Mediterranean 113 Imperial Identities 7 The First Phoenician 135 8 A New Phoenician World 153 9 Phoenician Islands 176 Conclusion 201 Notes 209 Bibliography 273 Image Credits 319 Index 321
Josephine Quinn is associate professor of ancient history at the University of Oxford and a fellow of Worcester College. She is the coeditor ofThe Hellenistic West andThe Punic Mediterranean.
"Winner of the Charles J. Goodwin Award of Merit, Society for
Classical Studies"
"[A] marvellous book. . . . Entertaining and accessible. . . . In
Search of the Phoenicians represents the best of ancient history
writing today."---David Mattingly, Times Literary Supplement
"Quinn’s narrative is both exhilarating and cautionary because it
shows how antiquity can be reimagined to promote ideological
prejudices. One of the many lessons of her work is that ancient
history is rarely stable, and dogmas that were current in both the
remote and proximate past are constantly subject to correction or
rejection."---G.W. Bowersock, New York Review of Books
"[An] extraordinary book. . . . In Search of the Phoenicians
demonstrates both how important the interpretation of antiquity is
for the present, and how important the history of interpretation is
for understanding the past."---Robert L. Cioffi, London Review of
Books
"Quinn's ambitious study ties history and political science
together to reveal the ways that antiquity remains relevant
today."
*Publishers Weekly*
"For some high-fibre holiday reading, I shall be packing . . . In
Search of the Phoenicians, which dares to ask whether the famous
ancient people really existed, and promises to expose the modern
fantasies and ideologies that created them."---Mary Beard, The
Guardian
"Filled with informative, arresting images and deep-thinking
argumentation, Quinn's In Search of the Phoenicians makes a
compelling, wide-ranging case that suggests ‘Phoenician’ was a
political rather than a personal description."
*Foreword Reviews*
"'Quinn's analysis of how ideas of modern nationhood have corrupted
our understanding of past identities is expert and
wide-ranging.""---Dominic Green, Minerva
"Quinn’s story is most compelling when she plays to her strength as
a historian and archaeologist. . . . She leaves no stone unturned,
from archaeological ruins and funerary inscriptions to poetry and
drama, in her quest to understand how Phoenicians have . . . become
a people."---Justin Marozzi, The Spectator
"What makes Quinn’s book especially interesting is her
investigation of the later uses of the idea of a Phoenician people
by modern nationalists from Ireland to Lebanon. The people who
lived in the ancient cities of ‘Phoenicia’ didn’t think of
themselves as Phoenicians, but a remarkable number of people in
other times and places have found that invented identity useful in
making their own claims of nationhood."---Daniel Larison, The
American Conservative
"Composed of a set of politically independent city-states around
the Mediterranean--most notably, Tyre, Arwad, Byblos, and
Carthage--Phoenicia is typically thought of as a unified precursor
to the Greek civilization that ultimately eclipsed it. In a new
book, however, Josephine Quinn, an associate professor of ancient
history at the University of Oxford, argues that the entire idea of
a proto-nationalist ‘Phoenician’ identity or culture may not have
existed at all. Rather, evidence suggests that it is unlikely that
Phoenicians saw themselves as a collective that rose above the
level of the city or indeed family. As such, Quinn argues that the
histories of Phoenicia that invented and sustained this narrative
of a Phoenician national identity are themselves worthy of study. .
. . Quinn’s In Search of the Phoenicians will serve as a
comprehensive introduction to the literary, artistic, dramatic, and
technological cultures of these ancient societies."
*The New Criterion*
"In this provocative, brilliant and original book, Josephine Quinn
not only sheds new light on the ancient civilization of Phoenicia
but actually questions its very existence."
*Arab News*
"Quinn’s In Search of the Phoenicians can serve as useful reminder
that turning to the lure of a mythical past for finding a path to
the future can be fraught with risk."---Thomas Schellen and Riad
Al-Khouri, Executive Magazine
"Quinn's relaxed, engaging and authoritative prose style means that
In Search of the Phoenicians is an enjoyable and intellectually
rewarding read."
*History Today*
"A learned and carefully written scholarly work on identity in the
city states commonly lumped together as Phoenician, theoretically
informed by current ideas of ethnicity’s constructed nature."---T.
Doran, Choice
"Quinn provides an important contribution to theories of identity,
colonialism and its impact."---Aron Tillema, Reading Religion
"Cleverly written . . . . Analytical astuteness."---Michael Sommer,
Journal of Hellenic Studies
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