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The Hellenization of the East
Four hundred years after being incorporated into an imperial framework (that of the Assyrians), an even greater cultural transformation takes place, as the East is subjugated by Greeks. It is the clash of Western doctrines with the entrenched civilizations of the East that will, in the fullness of time, produce Judeo-Christian ideology as we know it today.
The historical facts of this metamorphosis seem quite straightforward - between 334 and 330 BCE Alexander the Great, coming out of Macedonia, defeats the Persian emperor and brings the word of Greek enlightenment to all of his territories. Soon after Alexander's death, Hellenistic kingdoms mushroom from Egypt to Afghanistan. But why, after being established in place for millennia, did all of the Eastern civilizations capitulate their rich variety of religions, arts, mythologies and philosophies within a few years? Archaeological investigation, at Dor and at other places, tells a more intricate story.
The Phoenicians, in their role of harbingers of civilization to the west, also served as conduits for influences going the other way. The Phoenician towns were pre-disposed towards Hellenization before Alexander's conquests, and thereafter served as catalysts for the Hellenization process and bulwarks of 'Greek' culture.
The first Greek imports to Dor date as early as the tenth century BCE. This trickle is greatly enhanced after Assyrian occupation, and, by the fourth century BCE, most of the table ware at Dor is imported from Greece. By the mid-fourth century, Hellenic-type wares are probably locally produced and distributed. Figurines of the Persian period show deities with Greek-type attributes alongside traditional Phoenician 'fertility goddesses' and types associated with the ruling Persian cosmology. Ostraca and graffiti show that the locally spoken language was changing from Phoenician to Greek decades before the political fact of Alexander's occupation. On the other hand, some aspects of traditional Phoenician culture persist well into the Hellenistic period and even later, betraying the true nature of this 'Hellenized' society.
The Hellenization of the East
Four hundred years after being incorporated into an imperial framework (that of the Assyrians), an even greater cultural transformation takes place, as the East is subjugated by Greeks. It is the clash of Western doctrines with the entrenched civilizations of the East that will, in the fullness of time, produce Judeo-Christian ideology as we know it today.
The historical facts of this metamorphosis seem quite straightforward - between 334 and 330 BCE Alexander the Great, coming out of Macedonia, defeats the Persian emperor and brings the word of Greek enlightenment to all of his territories. Soon after Alexander's death, Hellenistic kingdoms mushroom from Egypt to Afghanistan. But why, after being established in place for millennia, did all of the Eastern civilizations capitulate their rich variety of religions, arts, mythologies and philosophies within a few years? Archaeological investigation, at Dor and at other places, tells a more intricate story.
The Phoenicians, in their role of harbingers of civilization to the west, also served as conduits for influences going the other way. The Phoenician towns were pre-disposed towards Hellenization before Alexander's conquests, and thereafter served as catalysts for the Hellenization process and bulwarks of 'Greek' culture.
The first Greek imports to Dor date as early as the tenth century BCE. This trickle is greatly enhanced after Assyrian occupation, and, by the fourth century BCE, most of the table ware at Dor is imported from Greece. By the mid-fourth century, Hellenic-type wares are probably locally produced and distributed. Figurines of the Persian period show deities with Greek-type attributes alongside traditional Phoenician 'fertility goddesses' and types associated with the ruling Persian cosmology. Ostraca and graffiti show that the locally spoken language was changing from Phoenician to Greek decades before the political fact of Alexander's occupation. On the other hand, some aspects of traditional Phoenician culture persist well into the Hellenistic period and even later, betraying the true nature of this 'Hellenized' society.
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