Suddenly, for the first time, a large-scale seaborne division of labour became a possibility: wheat from Egypt could feed the Hittites in Anatolia; wool from Anatolia could clothe the Egyptians on the Nile; olive oil from Crete could enrich the diets of Assyrians in Mesopotamia. The ships of what is now Lebanon could trade for profit and scour the seas for tempting products. Grain, wine, honey, oil, resin, spices, ivory, ebony, leather, wool, cloth, tin, lead, iron, silver, horses, slaves, or a purple dye made from a gland in the body of the murex shellfish – there was little the Phoenicians
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