Ugarit (Raʾs Šamrā)

This 16 cm ivory bust of a prince from the royal palace of Ugarit is one of the National Museum of Damascus' most precious acquisitions. The noble expressions of this powerful face have been displayed on Syrian stamps and banknotes for decades. Syria is in love with this effigy, courtesy of an anonymous artist from the 14th century B.C.

It all started with an accidental discovery made by a Syrian peasant plowing his field in March 1928 near the bay of al-Mīnā al-Bayḍā, located a dozen kilometers north of Latakia. The numerous ancient potteries discovered in what seemed to be a funerary vault prompted the authorities to dispatch a scientific expedition the following year, led by the French archaeologist Claude Schaeffer. The excavation of the nearby tell of Raʾs Šamrā resulted in the identification of the ancient city of Ugarit, mentioned in al-ʿAmārnā letters and some Hittite documents.

Further probing demonstrated an occupation of the site since the 7th millennium B.C., prior to the invention of pottery. The third millennium witnessed the appearance of bronze and the arrival of the Canaanites—Phoenicians, according to Herodotus and the Greeks—who imposed their language on their predecessors and emerged as the dominant population of the city by 2300 B.C.

Ugarit expanded in the second millennium. It developed commercial ties with the Nile Valley, Crete, Mycenae, and Cyprus. It also received new arrivals: Hurrians, Egyptians, and Cypriots, who contributed to its prosperity. Egyptian influence increased in the 16th century, and Thutmose III installed his mercenaries in the city in the first half of the 15th. The Battle of Qādiš in the 13th century resulted in a stalemate and the division of Syria into spheres of influence between the Egyptian Empire and that of the Hittites, with Ugarit falling under the latter's hegemony.

The city was destroyed by the Sea Peoples, mysterious invaders from the north who ravaged the Syrian coast shortly after 1200 BC.

Gérard Degeorge. Syrie. Art, histoire, architecture. Hermann, éditeurs des sciences et des arts 1983.