Where is ugarit

There also Egyptian artifacts were discovered and dated to the 2nd millennium B. In the identification of the site was made when some of the tablets were deciphered; the city was the ancient and famous site of Ugarit. All of the tablets found at Ugarit were written in the last period of its life around B.

That is, the texts were written in one of four languages; Sumerian, Akkadian, Hurritic and Ugaritic. The tablets were found in the royal palace, the house of the High Priest, and some private houses of evidently leading citizens. The Ugaritic literature demonstrates that Israel and Ugarit shared a common literary heritage and a common linguistic lineage. They are, in short, related languages and literatures. We can thus learn very much about the one from the other.

Our knowledge of the religion of Ancient Syria-Palestine and Canaan has been greatly increased by the Ugaritic materials and their significance cannot be overlooked. We have here, as it were, an open window on the culture and religion of Israel in its earliest period. According to the Guinness Book of Records, the earliest example of alphabetic writing was a clay tablet with 32 cuneiform letters found in Ugarit, Syria and dated to B.

The Ugarits condensed the Eblaite writing, with its hundreds of symbols, into a concise letter alphabet that was the precursor of the Phoenician alphabet. The Ugarites reduced all symbols with multiple consonant sounds to signs with a single consent sound. In the Ugarite system each sign consisted of one consonant plus any vowel. But most important is the local alphabetic script that records the native Semitic language "Ugaritic. The Ugaritic examples survive because the writing was on clay using cuneiform signs, rather than drawn on hide, wood, or papyrus.

The Hittite influence in the Levant was expanding at the expense of a shrinking Egyptian sphere of influence. The inevitable clash came at about B. The outcome of the battle is not known for certain though it is believed that the Hittites won the battle. In , the two sides signed a non-aggression pact, believed to be the oldest document of its kind in recorded history. The peace resulting from the accord was to have far-reaching effects on the fate of Phoenicia, including such cities as Tyre, Byblos, and Ugarit.

The latter, located near what is now the Syrian village of Ras-el-Shamra, is now known best for being the discovery site of the earliest alphabetic system used exclusively for writing, dating back to the fourteenth century. However, Ugarit was also for a period of three centuries the main site of import and export on the Eastern Mediterranean. It became a major terminal for land travel to, and from, Anatolia, inner Syria, and Mesopotamia as well as a trading port, serving merchants and travelers from Greece and Egypt.

Amongst those are such foodstuffs as wheat, olives, barley, dates, honey, wine and cummin; metals such as copper, tin, bronze, lead and iron then considered rare and valuable were traded in the form of weapons, vessels or tools.

Livestock traders dealt in horses, donkeys, sheep, cattle, geese and other birds. The Levant's forests made timber an important Ugaritic export: the customer could specify the desired measurements and variety of the needed timber and the king of Ugarit would send the timber logs of appropriate size. For example an order from the king of nearby Carshemish goes as follows: Thus says the king of Carshemish to Ibirani king of Ugarit: Greetings to you!

Now the dimensions-length and breadth-I have sent to you. Send two junipers according to those dimensions. Let them be as long as the specified length and as wide as the specified breadth. And, as to be expected from a wealthy city, slaves constituted a trade commodity as well.

Carpenters produced beds, chests, and other wooden furniture. Other artisans worked on bows and metal shaping. There was a marine industry which produced ships not only for the Ugaritic traders, but also for such maritime cities as Byblos and Tyre. As to be expected, Ugarit was a very cosmopolitan city. Foreign nationals resided there, as well as some diplomatic personnel including Hittites, Hurrians, Assyrians, Cretans and Cypriots.

The existence of so many foreigners led to a flourishing real estate industry and to the intervention of the state to regulate the industry. We are told, for example, of a group of four merchants jointly investing a total of shekels for a trading expedition to Egypt. Of course, being a trader abroad was not risk-free. Ugaritic records mention compensations to foreign merchants killed either there or in other cities. The importance of trade to the king of Ugarit was such that townsmen were made responsible for the safety of foreign merchants doing business in their town.

If a merchant were robbed and murdered and the guilty party were not caught, the citizens had to pay compensation. Ugarit texts refer to deities such as El, Asherah, Baak and Dagan, previously known only from the Bible and a handful of other texts. Ugarit literature is full of epic stories about gods and goddesses. This form of religion was revived by the early Hebrew prophets. An inch-high silver-and-gold statuette of a god, circa B.

The reason for this is simple to understand; the people of Israel worshipped these gods along with, and sometimes instead of, Yahweh, the God of Israel. This Biblical denunciation of these Canaanite gods received a fresh face when the Ugaritic texts were discovered, for at Ugarit these were the very gods that were worshipped. Yet El is also the name of God used in many of the Psalms for Yahweh; or at least that has been the presupposition among pious Christians.

Yet when one reads these Psalms and the Ugaritic texts one sees that the very attributes for which Yahweh is acclaimed are the same for which El is acclaimed.

In fact, these Psalms were most likely originally Ugaritic or Canaanite hymns to El which were simply adopted by Israel, much like the American National Anthem was set to a beer hall tune by Francis Scott Key. El is called the father of men, creator, and creator of the creation. These attributes are also granted Yahweh by the Old Testament.

In 1 Kings we read of Yahweh meeting with his heavenly council. This is the very description of heaven which one finds in the Ugaritic texts. For in those texts the sons of god are the sons of El. All of these names are applied to Yahweh by the writers of the Old Testament. What this means is that the Hebrew theologians adopted the titles of the Canaanite gods and attributed them to Yahweh in an effort to eliminate them. If Yahweh is all of these there is no need for the Canaanite gods to exist!

This process is known as assimilation. The most important of these lesser gods were Baal familiar to all readers of the Bible , Asherah also familiar to readers of the Bible , Yam the god of the sea and Mot the god of death. What is of great interest here is that Yam is the Hebrew word for sea and Mot is the Hebrew word for death! Is this because the Hebrews also adopted these Canaanite ideas as well? Most likely they did. There she is called the wife of Baal; but she is also known as the consort of Yahweh!

That is, among some Yahwists, Ahserah is Yahweh s female counterpart! Inscriptions found at Kuntillet Ajrud dated between and B. That Yahwists worshipped Asherah until the 3rd century before Christ is well known from the Elephantine Papyri.

Thus, for many in ancient Israel, Yahweh, like Baal, had a consort. Although condemned by the prophets, this aspect of the popular religion of Israel was difficult to overcome and indeed among many was never overcome. Baal is described as the rider on the clouds in the Ugarit text KTU 1. Interestingly enough, this description is also used of Yahweh in Psalm The prophets protested constantly against the love affair the Israelites had with Baal cf.

Hosea , for example. The reason Israel was so attracted to Baal was that, first of all, some Israelites viewed Yahweh as a God of the desert and so when they arrived in Canaan they thought it only proper to adopt Baal, the god of fertility.

As the old saying goes, whose land, his god. For these Israelites Yahweh was useful in the desert but not much help in the land. KTU 1. The folks at Ugarit were also plagued by a host of demons and lesser gods. The people at Ugarit saw the desert as the place which was most inhabited by demons and they were like the Israelites in this belief. One of the most famous of the lesser deities at Ugarit was a chap named Dan il. It is clear that the city dominated the surrounding land though the full extent of the kingdom is uncertain.

From around B. This was mainly a result of repeated attacks by the Hittites of Central Anatolia. Eventually, around B. According to the texts, other states had tried to draw Ugarit into an anti-Hittite alliance, but the city refused and called on the Hittites for help.

After the Hittites conquered the region, a treaty was drawn up that made Ugarit a Hittite subject-state. The Akkadian version of the treaty, covering several tablets, was recovered at Ugarit. The Ugarit state grew as a result, gaining territories from the defeated alliance. Texts, however, suggest that an enormous tribute was paid to the Hittites.

The citizens engaged in trade, and many foreign merchants were based in the state, for example from Cyprus exchanging copper ingots in the shape of ox hides. The presence of Minoan and Mycenaean pottery suggests Aegean contacts with the city.

It was also the central storage place for grain supplies moving from the wheat plains of northern Syria to the Hittite court. The population was mixed with Canaanites inhabitants of the Levant and Hurrians from Syria and northern Mesopotamia. The Ugaritic examples survive because the writing was on clay using cuneiform signs, rather than drawn on hide, wood, or papyrus.

While most of the texts are administrative, legal, and economic, there are also a large number of literary texts with close parallels to some of the poetry found in the Hebrew Bible. Besides its palace and temples, there has also been excavated, a well-preserved grave with clay and bronze instruments used in funerary rites, stone bases of a great number of structures, wells and watercourses, and numerous streets.

The city continues to be a rich source of historic information for archaeologists. On a continuing basis, every year, excavation teams working in the ruins unearth new finds. Recent archaeological artifacts, discovered by these excavation teams verify that Ugarit was the source of creative architecture and it was a kingdom where cultivation of the land flourished. The unearthed findings, dating back to the first half of the second millennium B.

From the findings, it was determined that building activities flourished in the Kingdom and Ugarit developed a unique architecture. Most homes comprised two stories closely connected to form well-arranged quarters divided by parallel streets, which were vertically traversed with main roads. In many houses, there were courtyards, which included family cemeteries and wells — covered with decorated stones. In addition, it has been recently substantiated that the Ugaritic developed handcrafted products made from gold, silver, bronze, and copper, as well as different types of decorated clothes.

Unique and ornamented utensils, made of bone, stone, pottery, and clay were also discovered during the excavations. One of the richest archaeological sites in the world, the ruins of Ugarit are continuing to give archaeologists an insight into the immense contribution made by this ancient city to the later civilizations. The excitement my professor friend felt when pressing that tiny replica of a clay tablet in his hand I, myself, still feel today.

Habeeb Salloum is a travel and food writer and an expert on Middle Eastern foods. He lives in Toronto Canada. Click his name above to see his books on Amazon. Your email address will not be published. Skip to content Menu. Author Habeeb Salloum surveying the ruins of the site of Ugarit.

Habeeb Salloum photos. Abandoned and Uninhabited It had lain abandoned and uninhabited since, B. The remains of an ancient water channel in the city. Records on Clay Since that time more of these records on clay are continually being discovered in the ruins.

The entrance to a tomb in the ruins of the city. Find a well-preserved tablet at the National Museum of Damascus, Syria Some of the mythological poetry found, much older than the Iliad and Odyssey, are enchanting in their beauty.