The Phoenicians or Canaanites were an ancient Semitic people who from the fourth or beginning of the third millennium BC inhabited the eastern shores of the Mediterranean to the north of Mount Carmel, between Palestine and Syria. Throughout the history of the Phoenicians (including the western colony of Carthage), there is no literary evidence of Phoenician origin still extant, and hence our knowledge is derived from either archaeology or the writings of those who were their conquerors or their enemies. Unlike most ancient people, the Phoenicians were not primarily farmers, but already, from the beginning of their known history, some time after 2,900 BC, city dwellers and sailors. Phoenician ships carried their trade westwards to the Mediterranean coasts and islands, sometimes substituting slave-raiding or piracy for trading, according to which yielded the best profit.peer-reviewe
