But on a related note, I read recently that the Pheonicians are stated by Herodotus to have originated in BAhrain -- I find that fascinating
Herodotus wrote that the Persians told him that the Phoenicians had lived "on the shores of the Erythraean Sea", his term for the entire Indian Ocean, but in this case probably referring to the Red Sea (modern Eritrea may have taken its name from this older term). Herodotus also refers to the circumnavigation of Africa, an expedition bankrolled by the Egyptian pharaoh but carried out by the Phoenicians, who departed from the Red Sea, arriving a couple years later in the Nile Delta. Thanks Cronos.