Phoenicians
Black Athena: New Proof
Minoans
Almost twenty years ago Martin Bernal's scholarly book Black Athena stunned the academic world. It presented clear proof of racial and cultural bias in that community against Black and Semitic people—bias which had buried those peoples' valuable contributions to the rise of what has been called Greek civilization. The architecture, arts, commerce and government developed by the Phoenicians and Egyptians in Asia and Africa strongly shaped the early Minoans and Greek culture. He argued that Western civilization was not "pure-European" in nature, but actually a diverse mix of cultures.
This contentious issue has been re-opened, and perhaps finally laid to rest, by a scholarly paper presented to the World History Association conference by Sanford Holst on June 24, 2006. He revealed new facts drawn from archaeological and historical evidence which finally proved the assertion that non-Europeans played a major role in the rise of Western civilization.
At the heart of this discussion was the beautiful Minoan palace society which existed on Crete from roughly 2000 BC to 1500 BC. These people were known for their arts, grand palaces, written records, laws and commerce. It is widely agreed that this highly cultured society, along with the more military Mycenaean society of the mainland, was a major contributor to the Greek society which followed.
Holst demonstrated the crucial role played by the Phoenicians in the rise of these Minoan people. The Egyptian culture brought from Africa also played a major role, as did later contributions directly from the Phoenicians to the Greeks such as the written alphabet.
A more people-oriented view of the Minoans and Phoenicians is found in Chapters 7 to 10 of the book Phoenicians: Lebanon's Epic Heritage. This includes many photographs, frescoes and maps to visually present this beautiful society.
Physical evidence at archaeological sites shows us that the roots of Western civilization were not an all-European affair, but rather a merger of East and West. Diversity was accepted then—and should be accepted today—as the normal and natural way forward to something better . . . and sometimes to something great.
Among the experts cited in the paper—in addition to Bernal and Holst—are Colin Renfrew, John Cherry, Jeremy Rutter, Mary Lefkowitz, Guy Rogers, Patricia Bikai, Glenn Markoe, Lesley Fitton, Martin Nilsson, Clive Gamble, Paul Halstead, Michael Grant, Tjeerd Van Andel, Curtis Runnels, W.A. Ward, Keith Branigan, Saul Weinberg, L. Vance Watrous, James Walter Graham, Vivian Davies, Renee Friedman, Herodotus, Thucydides, Jerry Bentley, Herbert Ziegler, Miriam Lichtheim, Maurice Dunand, Sturt Manning, Philip Betancourt, B.J. Kemp and R.S. Merrillees.
Paper by Sanford Holst
© 2006 Cambridge & Boston Press