Towards the end of the Bronze Age (around 1200 BCE) there was already trade between the early Phoenicians; Egypt; Cyprus; and Greece. The Phoenicians were famous metalworkers; and by the end of the 8th Century BC; Greek city-states were sending out envoys to the Levant (the eastern Mediterranean) for metal goods.

The height of Phoenician trade was around the 7th and 8th centuries. There is a dispersal of imports (ceramic; stone; and faience) from the Levant that traces a Phoenician commercial channel to the Greek mainland via the central Aegean.

The Phoenicians even derived their name from the Greeks due to their trade. Their most famous trading product was Purple Tyrian dye; the Greek word for which is phoenos.