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UGARIT

Main street of the city of Ugarit (Ras Shamra). At right are the West Archives of the royal palace, which contained Ugaritic and Akkadian administrative documents and correspondence (David Toshio Tsumura)

An ancient city on the north coast of the eastern Mediterranean, located under a mound now known in Arabic as Ras (esh-)Shamra (“Fennel Cape”). It flourished in the 2nd millennium b.c.e. until its destruction ca. 1200. The mound is located ca. 1 km. (.6 mi.) from the Mediterranean Sea and ca. 10 km. (6 mi.) N of modern Lāḏiqīye (ancient Greek Laodikeia). Excavations at Tell Ras Shamra began in 1929 after the chance discovery of a funerary vault at the tiny port of Minet el-Beida. Attention quickly shifted to the large mound, Ras Shamra, 1 km. to the east. Excavations have continued year by year since then except for a decade hiatus around World War II (1939-1948). The present mound covers ca. 20 ha. (50 a.); however, the Late Bronze city was somewhat larger.

The ancient city was shaped by its location on the Mediterranean Sea. It was surrounded to the north, east, and south by mountains. Ancient Mt. Sapanu (1780 m. [5840 ft.]) on the northern horizon (also known as Mt. Zaphon in biblical literature, Mons Casius in Latin literature, today known as Jebel el-Aqraʿ) was the dwelling place of the storm-god Baal. A valley to the northeast of the city was the gateway to the ancient kingdoms in Mesopotamia. The plain around Ugarit was fertile, producing abundant wheat and barley. Foothills and mountains that surrounded Ugarit were cultivated for vineyards and olives. The mountains provided a ready source of the famed “cedars of Lebanon” for construction and trade. As an international harbor, Ugarit’s economy was naturally engaged in export and import. Ugarit also developed industries which were shaped by its maritime location, such as purple dye manufacturing (from the murex snails) and shipbuilding. In addition, the city developed craft industries related to its trade in raw materials such as copper. The fertile hinterland was also exploited for trade in grains and oil. In the internationalism that shaped the late 2nd millennium (15th-13th centuries), a certain uneasy equilibrium developed between the conflicting interests of the major powers of Egypt, the Hittites, Mitanni, Kassite Babylonia, and Assyria. Ugarit was well situated to serve as an intermediary of the commercial interests of these major states. The rise of Ugarit at this juncture reflects a skillful exploitation of the city’s geographical advantages.

Tell Ras Shamra has a long history. The earliest settlement of the site dates back to ca. the 6th millennium and continues almost uninterrupted through the 2nd millennium when it became a major commercial center. Even before the discovery of the ancient site, scholars had known of Ugarit’s existence and significance from other texts. It is mentioned in a number of the Amarna Letters, including one which belies its grandeur: “Look, there is no mayor’s residence like that of the residence in Tyre. It is like the residence in Ugarit. Exceedingly [gr]eat is the wealth [i]n it” (EA 89:48-53; W. L. Moran, ed., The Amarna Letters [Baltimore, 1992], 162). The importance of Ugarit as a commercial hub derives from its geographical location. Standing on the coastal highway of Syria with all the advantages of the Mediterranean trade, Ugarit connected the Mediterranean with the interior of northern Syria. Although Ugarit never became a major power, it did become a major commercial center as well as a medium-sized kingdom covering more than 3212 sq. km. (1240 sq. mi.). An important phase of Ugarit’s history began ca. 2000. Both the Ugaritic king list and the epic literature discovered at Ugarit point to the arrival of seminomadic pastoral tribes known as the Amorites, who settled ancient Ugarit and initiated a new urban phase of its history. The history of the kingdom was closely tied to the larger kingdoms of the Near East, first Mari in the early 2nd millennium, then Egypt, and finally the Hittite kingdom. The final destruction of Ugarit is usually attributed to the Sea Peoples in the early 12th century, although the disintegration of Ugarit’s palace-temple economy had already begun well before the Sea Peoples’ migrations. The end of the Late Bronze Age was marked by a general process of ruralization in the countryside that undermined the support of the urban economy and ultimately exacerbated the ultimate demise of Ugarit as well as other Late Bronze kingdoms.

The culture of Ugarit was composite. It was all at the same time: a Syrian port with Mediterranean trade, a West Semitic city-state which was a vassal of the Hittite kingdom, and a West Semitic population in a cuneiform world. By whatever measure we use — personal names, language, religion, or material culture — Ugarit appears to be an eclectic admixture of Canaanite, Syrian, Anatolian, Mesopotamian, Egyptian, and Mediterranean cultures. Given that Ugarit was situated on the coastal route that united Asia Minor with Syria-Palestine as well as being the closest harbor on the eastern Mediterranean to Cyprus, it is hardly surprising that Ugarit was a multilingual society. This cosmopolitan character is reflected in the many languages and scripts discovered in the excavations at Ras Shamra. Clay tablets were found inscribed in a variety of scripts (cuneiform, alphabetic cuneiform, hieroglyphic) and languages (Ugaritic, Akkadian, Sumerian, Hurrian, Hittite, Egyptian, Cypro-Minonan), although the primary languages were Ugaritic and Akkadian. Nearly all the remains of the Ugaritic language have been discovered during excavations by Claude Schaeffer and his successors carried out at this site since 1929. A small number of Ugaritic texts have been found at the small port site of Ras Ibn Hani, 5 km. (3 mi.) S of Ras Shamra. A few short texts using the Ugaritic alphabet have been found elsewhere in the western Mediterranean area on Cyprus (Hala Sultan Tekke near Larnaca), in Syria (Tell Sukas, Tell Nebi Mend [Kedesh]), Lebanon (Kamid el-Loz, Sarepta), and Israel (Mt. Tabor, Taanach, Beth-shemesh). Archives were found primarily in the palace and temple areas of Ras Shamra, although texts were also found in the homes of apparently important individuals. The library of ancient Ugarit shows evidence of a multilingual and highly cultured society. Scribes were evidently persons of great standing in Ugaritic society with broad education. The library at Ugarit includes literary texts (myths), economic texts, letters, and school texts (e.g., exercises, lexicons, syllabaries). A most distinguished scribe was Ilimilku, who was responsible for the transcription and collation of many of the literary works found at Ugarit. The best preserved of these are the Legend of King Keret (or Kirtu), the Legend of Aqhat, and the Baal cycle. This literature has opened a window into Canaanite culture of the late 2nd millennium and has supplied a surprising treasure of cultural, religious, and linguistic insight into ancient Israel.

The head of state in ancient Ugarit was the king, whose line had divine sanction and whose authority was considered a religious obligation. There is some evidence to suggest that the king may have been given divine status in Ugarit (perhaps in contrast with ancient Israel). The good king defends the widow, the orphan, the poor, and the down-hearted (cf. Aqhat 1.21-25; 2.V.6-8; 127.33-34, 45-48). Members of the king’s clan exercised control in the secular and religious institutions, particularly the high priesthood. The Kirtu Epic associates the king with the clan of ṯaʿ and also glorifies the clan of ditana. King Niqmad is called a ṯaʿi-ite (ṯʿy). The chariot-warriors (maryanûma) include a group of priests called “sons of the taʿites” and “sons of the ditanites,” who are among the well-paid members of the army. Their family members are also listed on the military payroll.

Military manpower was derived from draft quotas taken from communities and guilds (cf. Solomon’s corvée, 1 Kgs. 9:15-21). There were two branches of military service: the army (including charioteers and infantry) and the navy. The professional military were paid in silver. Land grants including grants of livestock may have been made to professional soldiers. Based on the Code of Hammurabi (§§27-29, 31-32, 35-37, 41), we may assume that special legal protection over land and property was probably extended to these soldiers.

The religion of Ugarit is known mostly through the epic literary myths: Keret, Aqhat, and the Baal cycle. The latter are stories known from tablets of the high priest’s library. It probably formed a six-volume “set” produced by the scribe Ilimilku. From what remains of the tablets we can reconstruct three stories concerning (1) the storm-god Baal and the sea-god Yamm, (2) the building of Baal’s palace, and (3) Baal and his brother Mot, the god of death. Because the tablets are not complete, it is difficult to know with certainty the precise order of the cycle of stories. The story concerning Baal and Yamm is in many ways typical of Near Eastern cosmological stories (e.g., Enuma Elish; cf. Exod. 15) and marks Baal’s rise to power with his defeat of Yamm (cf. Marduk’s victory over Tiamat). The last story describes Mot (i.e., “Death”) killing Baal and confining him to the underworld, which results in a disruption of the fertility cycle. The goddess Anat kills Mot and rescues her brother Baal, who is returned to his throne. But Death (Mot) will not die, and only through the intervention of El, the head of the Ugaritic pantheon, is a kind of order restored. The Baal cycle, though incomplete, was apparently central to Ugaritic religious beliefs; indeed, since Baal was worshipped throughout Syria-Palestine, the Baal cycle necessarily forms one of the main sources for our understanding of the religious beliefs of the entire ancient Near East.

Bibliography. P. C. Craigie, Ugarit and the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, 1983); M. Heltzer, The Internal Organization of the Kingdom of Ugarit (Wiesbaden, 1982); G. del Olmo Lete, Canaanite Religion: According to the Liturgical Texts of Ugarit (Bethesda, 1999); M. S. Smith, ed., The Ugaritic Baal Cycle. VTSup 55 (Leiden, 1994); Smith et al., Ugaritic Narrative Poetry (Atlanta, 1997); M. Yon, The City of Ugarit at Tell Ras Shamra (Winona Lake, 1999).

William M. Schniedewind

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

UGARIT

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)