In terms of archaeology, language, and religion, there is little to
set the Phoenicians apart as markedly different from other local
cultures of Canaan. However, they are unique in their remarkable seafaring achievements. Indeed, in the Amarna tablets of the 14th century BC they call themselves Kenaani or Kinaani (Canaanites); and even much later in the 6th century BC, Hecataeus writes that Phoenicia was formerly called χνα,
a name Philo of Byblos later adopted into his mythology as his eponym
for the Phoenicians: "Khna who was afterwards called Phoinix".
To many archaeologists therefore, the Phoenicians are simply indistinguishable from the descendants of coastal-dwelling Canaanites,
who over the centuries developed a particular seagoing culture and
skills. But others believe equally firmly, like Herodotus, that the
Phoenician culture must have been inspired from an external source. All
manner of suggestions have been made: that the Phoenicians were
sea-traders from the Land of Punt who co-opted the Canaanite population; or that they were connected with the Minoans; or the Sea Peoples or the Philistines further south; or on the other side of the fence, that they represent the activities of supposed coastal maritime Israelite tribes like Dan.
While the Semitic language of the Phoenicians, and some evidence of
invasion at the site of Byblos, suggest origins in the wave of Semitic
migration that hit the Fertile Crescent between 2300 and 2100 BC, many scholars, including Sabatino Moscati
believe that the Phoenicians evolved from a prior non-Semitic people of
the area, suggesting a mixture between the two populations. Historian Gerhard Herm further asserts that, because the Phoenicians' legendary sailing abilities are not well attested before the invasions of the Sea Peoples
around 1200 BC, that these Sea Peoples would have merged with the local
population to produce the Phoenicians, who seemingly gained these
abilities rather suddenly at that time. This idea is backed up by
archaeological evidence that the Philistines, often thought of as related to the Sea Peoples, were culturally linked to Mycenaean Greeks, who were also known to be great sailors even in this period.
And so the debate has persisted.
(from
Wikipedia)
So let's say that a good theory is that local natives were semitized becoming Canaanites and then
sailorized by the Sea Peoples becoming the Phoenicians that we know historically about.
The semites that aculturized the locals could well have come from that Arabian region of the Red Sea, why not?
Still, I suspect that the natives of Biblos area are connected to the
ancestors of the peoples of Cardium-Printed Pottery culture that
extended the Neolithic in Central and Western Mediterranean Europe in
the 6th and 5th milennia BCE. Some genetic markers would seem to
confirm that, while the ancient pottery of Biblos is at some phase
clearly Cardium type. If this would be the case, then the
pre-Phoenicians would have always been good sailors, as were
Mediterranean Neolithics beyond any doubt.
Edited by Maju