Food Supply Issues during the Circumnavigation of Africa by Phoenicians under Nechos II

Abstract

Herodotus tells us that the three-year Phoenician expedition around Africa sent by the pharaoh Nechos II towards 600 BCE halted at each autumn so as to till the soil and sailed again after the harvest. Modern scholars usually argue the Phoenicians halted twice, once in austral Africa and once in boreal Africa, but they do not take into account the extreme backwardness of austral Africa at that time, when it was still inhabited by Stone Age peoples. These peoples were not farmers, but hunters and gatherers, and therefore they were not able to provide food supply to the Phoenicians during their circumnavigation. The reliability of Herodotus’ tale is really supported by the Phoenicians’ stops aimed to till the soil because only at the south of equator they could have been forced to get food supply by themselves, whereas along the coasts of boreal Africa they could trade with natives without halting for months.