é To close this page click on the name again
Athena Lynn Trakadas
Thesis: December 1999
Chair:
Dr.
Cemal Pulak
Nautical Archaeology Program
Presently, there are no known Phoenician texts that refer to ships or seafaring. As a result, nautical scholars interested in Phoenician maritime matters have been limited to the study of iconography and texts of other contemporary groups, such as the Assyrians, that depict or mention the renowned seafarers and their vessels. Conversely, Assyriologists have remained unaware of the importance to nautical history the Neo Assyrian palatial sculptures that portray Phoenician vessels and texts that record Phoenician maritime matters.
The extension of Assyrian hegemony, and its expansion into the Neo Assyrian
empire in the first several centuries of the first millennium B.C., led to
contact with and eventual subjugation of the Phoenician peoples who occupied
a portion of the Syro Palestinian coast. The social and economic
relationship that ensued between these two groups has been previously
analyzed by scholars. However, through this analysis of the available Neo
Assyrian textual and iconographical sources, the unique role the
Phoenicians' skills as shipwrights and seafarers played in this socio
economic association with Assyria can be better reconstructed.