The Phoenician alphabet — a consonant-based writing system of twenty-two letters — was far simpler to learn than the cuneiform or hieroglyphic systems of the Bronze Age world.

The Greeks adapted it to include vowels, producing the Greek alphabet.

The Greeks passed it to the Romans, who adapted it again to produce the Latin alphabet.

Every Western language that uses an alphabetic script today — English, French, Spanish, German, Russian, Arabic, Hebrew — is writing with a descendant of the Phoenician invention.

The connection between the Sea Peoples phenomenon and the Phoenician expansion is complex.

The collapse of the Bronze Age trade networks that had depended on palace administration created opportunities for independent merchant cities like Tyre and Sidon to fill the commercial vacuum.