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reiver

December 26, 2008 08:40 AM

I heard once that the "Skull and Crossbones" was a symbol used by some Phoenicians. Is this true?

And if this is true, please provide more information about it. (Note the "Skull and Crossbones" is sometimes called the "Jolly Roger".)

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spoon

December 26, 2008 01:22 PM

That actually seems somewhat unlike from what I can tell. The Phoenician civilization exisited between 1550 BC and 300 BC while the first known Pirates to use this symbol (ie. the Jolly Roger) did so during the Crusades, which started in 1095 AD, in an attempt to confuse their enemies since the Skull and Crossbones was used by the Knights Templar at the time.
Source(s):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenicia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skull_and_crossbones#History_of_the_symbol

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reiver

December 26, 2008 08:04 PM

What I heard about the Phoenician usage of the "Skull and Crossbones" didn't say that those Phoenicians were Pirates.

If the "Skull and Crossbones" was in fact used by the Phoenicians, it might have had nothing to do with Pirates at that time. (The association with the "Skull and Crossbones" with Pirates may have come later.)

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spoon

December 26, 2008 08:08 PM

The information I mentioned shows that the Skull and Crossbones was used by the Knights Templar and Pirates around the same time. The sources I provided also give a little more information on this but still seems to show that this was the first time the skull and crossbones was widely used.

While it is possible that the Phoenicians used the symbol (documenting something from that era is iffy as it is) that would mean there is a gap from the first known use of it (during the knights templar/pirates time of the crusades) back to the time the Phoenicians could have used it.

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