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"Grandpa, we're home!" Laurie shouted as she ran up the stairs.

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She had just come back from the beach with her dad and was carrying a jar full of seashells.

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"Choose any one you like, but only one," she said, standing at the study door.

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"Thank you!" Grandpa said, examining the shells closely.

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He took a small peach-colored shell from the jar. "I'll add this to my collection."

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"You have a shell collection too?" Laurie asked.

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"Well, I have just two shells, but they are very special ones from Lebanon!"

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Grandpa reached high on a shelf and took down a bowl with two spiny seashells in it.

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"These are sea-snail shells from the Mediterranean coastline.

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I found them when I visited Lebanon last year to research the ancient Phoenicians.

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They were seafaring merchants who lived there from around 2000 BC to 500 BC, when they were taken over by the Persian Empire."

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"What are seafaring merchants?" said Laurie.

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"People who spend a lot of time sailing at sea and make their living by trading things," Grandpa explained.

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"The coasts of Lebanon are surrounded by high, rugged mountains, which protected Phoenicia, but it also made it difficult to travel by land.

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So, out of necessity, the Phoenicians became great shipbuilders and seafarers.

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From their coastal cities, they sailed to other Middle Eastern cities, and to Africa and Europe.

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There, they traded their goods for things they couldn't find in their homeland.

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They are considered the first organized traders and merchants of the world.

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Even though we call them Phoenicians and the area they lived in Phoenicia, they weren't really united into a country or empire.

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Phoenicia was more like individual cities that developed close to one another.

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But when the Phoenicians traveled around selling their goods, they became known as one people, the Phoenicians."

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"Did they simply sell these seashells by the seashore?" Laurie asked, giggling.

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"No, silly, but the sea snails that came from these seashells—whew!—were the source of the Phoenicians' most valuable item: purple dye.

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Purple dye hadn't yet been discovered anywhere else,

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and when the Phoenicians began to make cloth dyed this wonderful purple, people loved it.

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But hundreds of snails were needed to dye even a small piece of fabric.

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So the dye-making process was very time-consuming, and therefore, the dye was worth a lot of money.

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It was so expensive that only royalty or the very wealthy could afford anything purple.

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That's how purple became known as the 'royal' color.

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Glass and cedarwood were also popular Phoenician items.

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Cedar, which grew in the mountains of Lebanon, was rare in neighboring lands; that made it highly desirable.

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It was also perfect for building and produced great-smelling oils.

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The Egyptians in particular bought lots of cedar, which they used to build temples, palaces, and coffins.

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The Phoenicians' seaside location helped them with something else—glassmaking, because glass is made with sand.

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People think Egyptians had been making glass for a while, but the Phoenicians developed it into an art.

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They made colored beads, clear vases, and other beautiful glasswork.

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We owe a lot to the Phoenicians for their creations.

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But they are most famous for one thing.

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You know, as merchants, it was important for them to keep records of all their sales.

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What do you think they invented to help them do this?" Grandpa paused.

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"Hmm . . . receipts?" Laurie guessed.

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"Well, yes, but how would they write receipts if they didn't have an alphabet?

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The Phoenicians invented the first 22-letter alphabet!

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Of course, written language had gradually been developing since the time of picture symbols, like hieroglyphics,

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but the Phoenicians created the first letters representing sound alone.

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We can even trace our alphabet back to theirs!

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Here, what do you think this says?"

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Grandpa wrote three Phoenician letters on a piece of paper.

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"Um, triangle, circle, cross . . . D-O-T! Dot!" Laurie cried excitedly.

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"Amazing! You can read Phoenician!" Grandpa laughed.

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He handed her an open book from his desk.

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The page showed a chart of the Phoenician alphabet.

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"Wow. Letters have come a long way in three thousand years.

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I wonder what they'll look like three thousand years from now!" Laurie said.

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She flipped to another page in the book.

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"Ooh, who is this? She's beautiful!" she whispered.

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"That's Jezebel, princess of Tyre. Tyre was a city on Phoenicia's coast.

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It was one of the richest, most powerful Phoenician cities.

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The king of Tyre married his beautiful daughter to the king of Israel's son, Ahab.

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He thought this would keep good relations between the two neighboring peoples, but he was wrong.

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In Israel, the Jewish people worshipped one god, while Phoenicians worshipped a number of gods and goddesses,

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who they believed controlled weather, harvests, the sea, the moon, and so on—in other words, the natural world.

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Now, Jezebel was a passionate woman who loved her husband but loved her native religion more.

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She asked Ahab to build temples to her gods and goddesses in his land, and she encouraged the people of Israel to join her in worship.

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The Jewish leaders got upset. They destroyed the Phoenician temples and killed the Phoenician priests.

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In all the political turmoil, Ahab and Jezebel were also killed." Grandpa sighed.

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"Wow! What a story for a beautiful Saturday afternoon!"

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"Oh! Why do strong women in history always die tragically?" Laurie cried.

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"One day soon, I'll have a story for you about a strong woman who lives to see a happy end," said Grandpa.

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"Well, I'm going to put this stuff in my room now.

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But I'll always think of crushed sea snails when I wear my purple tank top and of that ancient, funny-looking alphabet when I'm writing!

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And you can have another seashell. Catch!" Laurie said.

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She tossed another shell from her jar to Grandpa and walked out the door.