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Syria
Archaeological
Sites
Ugarit
Ugarit was a town located along
the eastern edge of the Mediterranean Sea. It was buried and stayed
enclosed in its capsule of sand until it was rediscovered in 1929 by
C.F.A. Schaeffer in the modern town of Lattakia. At its height
encompassing roughly twenty hectares, Ugarit was the capital of an
empire in what is today the modern country of Syria. Ugarit was a very
significant discovery because it gave us an insight into the life of
four thousand years ago at the height of Egyptian civilization.
Ugarit has a long history which
started seven thousand years ago. It was a great center of commerce
trading goods with nearby kingdoms particularly the Minoans. The city
was invaded by immigrants of the kingdoms of the Amorites and ancient
Semitic Canaanites. Because of this, Ugarit formed an alliance with
ancient Egypt. This all ended in the 12th century B.C. when
they were inevitably invaded by the Hittites and the town lost its
significance as a major trading port.
There have been many things
discovered within this ancient city. Many tablets written in
Cuneiform, the main language of the Near East at this time, have been
found. Also found were hieroglyphics of other languages including
Akkadian, Ugaritic a form of old Hebrew, Hurrian, and Hittite. Also
found within the city was a library, family houses, various public
buildings including an administrative building that contained the
financial records and two temples, one devoted to the god Baal and the
other to Dagon. Perhaps the most significant item that has come out of
Ugarit are the Cuneiform tablets containing a Semitic language closely
related to the Old Testament version of Hebrew.
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