The Phoenician homeland was a coastal strip
roughly corresponding to modern day Lebanon.
‘Phoenicia’ is a Greek word meaning red/purple
and was used to refer to the people of the
Levantine coast because the inhabitants of Tyre
were renowned for their ability to produce fine
purple dye. The dominant influence in the area
lay with the city-states, especially Sidon, Byblos
and Tyre. These cities were ruled separately but-
despite their often hostile relations- their
common maritime interests held the area
together as a recognisable political entity. From
the ninth century BC overseas colonies, at
Carthage and Cyprus (Kition), reinforced the
Phoenicians’ trade in the Mediterranean. Over the
following centuries they established outposts
further afield in Sicily and Spain. This expansion
was motivated by the desire to find new markets
for their goods and sources of precious metals
which were particularly plentiful in the African
interior and the Iberian coast.
The maritime success of the Phoenicians had two
consequences for the arts. Firstly it provided the
material wealth to support a large community of
craftsmen. Secondly it brought the Phoenicians
into contact with the visual arts of other cultures,
especially the Egyptians and the Ionian Greeks.
An Egyptian influence is particularly apparent in
this magnificent terracotta coffin lid. The idea of
creating a coffin in shape of a human being
gradually evolved in Egypt as a result of the
practice of mummification. From the late 3rd
millennium BC masks were placed over the
mummy’s face and gradually extended to cover
the whole body. This example depicts the face
and bust of a woman. The features are highly
stylised with large almond shaped eyes, thick
parted lips and a heart-shaped face. Several rows
of round curls run along the top of the forehead
and frame the large ears, which are depicted
frontally. Long strands of hair, terminating the
same style of round curls, frame the face and
may represent a wig of some kind. The neck is
only faintly indicated in the surface of the
terracotta and there is no attempt to suggest the
woman’s arms. The only feature on the bust
itself is a pair of small cone-shaped breasts.
The contrast between the level of detail on the
face and the relatively plain body is a feature of
Phoenician funerary sculpture in other media.
The famous marble tombs found at Sidon, which
date from the 5th-4th centuries BC, feature
extremely sophisticated carving on the face but
the shape of the body is only hinted at or
ignored completely.
The Phoenicians excelled in the production of
terracotta figurines and masks which were
exported all over the Mediterranean. As a
material terracotta is both economical and
malleable- yet it can be used to create extremely
sophisticated works of art. This life-size coffin
lid may well have been painted originally as there
are traces of black pigment in the curls of the
hair. There is a similar sarcophagus fragment in
the Louvre, dated between the sixth and the fifth
centuries BC. (AM)
