Travel Guide Ougarit

The road that leads from Lattakia to Ugarit begins a passage between rich orange orange from the wind by high cypress walls. Here, in the midst of loganberries and herbs, lies the remains of a brilliant civilization with its golden age between the th and th centuries BC.It will take the visitor's attention to discern ramparts, civil and religious administrative buildings and recreate, in the current serenity of the site, the hectic activity of the great commercial and cosmopolitan port of yesteryear. The visit, invariably entered in the tour programme organised, can however disappoint the non-specialists. It is therefore strongly recommended that you take a guide.In 1928, the fortuitous discovery of a tomb on the coast close to the saying de Ras Shamra decides on the systematic exploration of the site. The mission was entrusted to Claude Schaeffer by the Institut de France and then to Marguerite Yon in 1974. As a campaign campaign, excavations continue to the present day. Each year brings a lot of discoveries. Often fundamental to knowledge of the Ancient Middle East, they are disseminated through archaeology journals, colloquia, universities.Occupied from the Neolithic by hunters and farmers populations, the site of Ras Shamra develops regularly. First influenced by East Mesopotamia (up to the Fourth millennium), Ras Shamra testified to its attachment to the ancient culture in the Medium (Third millennium) bronze.Its climate, the proximity of its port facility (Boy el-Beida) promotes its vitality in the recent bronze (th-century).International trade, a well-developed local agriculture will set Ugarit at the heart of a network linking the Hittite Empire to the north, Egypt to the south, Mesopotamia to the east, Cyprus, Crete and Greece on its Mediterranean facade. This network included other important cities: Sidon, Tyre, Beirut and Byblos. To facilitate exchanges, one of the first alphabets of humanity has been developed here. The majority of the facilities still visible today date from this period, between the th and the th century BC.The port of Ugarit was among the largest in the world. Luxury craft, strongly influenced by the art of the countries in commerce with Ugarit, was also very developed. The most beautiful masterpieces of this cosmopolitan and refined civilization are now being exhibited in the national museums of Damascus, Aleppo and the Louvre: clothes of gold, sculpted ivories with égyptisantes shapes, statuettes of...... These pieces are contemporary of literary creativity, where mythological texts have striking parallels with the Bible.All commercial activity was commanded by the king from the palace. The sovereign was relayed by those that the texts named «Fils son», large owners, and «king of the king», grouped into corporations, usually craftsmen.The palace also controlled relations with the other cities. Ugarit had a correspondence with the greatest dynasties at the time in a wide variety of idioms. Like most of the coastal cities, Ugarit will be brutally destroyed in the early th century, probably by the peoples of the sea. The scene of a huge fire was identified in the scene. The site will no longer be significantly occupied beyond that date.