I almost forgot to mention here, among their other myriad accomplishments in laying the foundational aspects of what later became modern civilizations, the Phoenecian alphabet was foundational to the evolvement of the proto-Hebrew alphabet and its eventual development into a separate and distinct written language.
Many of these determinations were pioneered in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries through the archaeological work of Sir Flinders Petrie and his colleagues at The Oriental Institute of The University of Chicago. Some of his most important discoveries were made in an ancient copper mining and smelting site on the Arabian penninsula that dated back at least 5,000 years.
Which also brings to mind the importance of metal mining and processing rituals which were foundational in the development of engineering and scientific skills later on around the globe. Metalworking is another global synchronicity that is common across all cultures where the ores were available. The Egyptian god Thoth is said to have brought the knowledge of it to the Egyptians.
Boats were also symbolically important in signifying physical and spiritual transitions in early civilizations, as you mentioned. Most prominentaly this was true with the Phoenicians, the Egyptians, the Scandinavians, the Polynesians, and the Chinese, to mention a few. Yet another global cultural phenomenon, along with pyramids, that should be given some serious thought.
Why ? How ?
flow....
