Page 135 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol V

Ugarit

‘Umar ibn al-Khattab
United Nations

Universe, Origins of
Urban II

Urbanization
Utopia

Ugarit

garit is the name of an ancient urban center located
Uon the Syrian coast.The contemporary Arabic name
for the site is Ras Shamra (Fennel Cape). It was a cos-
mopolitan center of trade during the Middle Bronze II
and Late Bronze periods (2000–1550 BCE and 1550–
1200 BCE, respectively), with an ethnically diverse popu-
lation. Since 1929 many texts written in Hurrian, Akka-
dian, Sumerian, and Ugaritic—the native language of the
city’s inhabitants—have been discovered within its envi-
rons. Significant archeological discoveries have also been
made at Minet el-Beida (west of the city on the coast),
believed to be its port, and at Ras Ibn Hani, located some
4.5 kilometers to the south. The archeological record
indicates that Ugarit was first occupied in the seventh mil-
lennium BCE and enjoyed its cultural zenith from the four-
teenth through the thirteenth centuries BCE, from the time
of the reign of Niqmaddu II (reigned c. 1350–1315 BCE)
through the reign of Ammurapi (reigned c. 1215–1190/
1185 BCE). During this time, the city was the center of a
kingdom whose territorial expanse—at its height—was
roughly 5,425 square kilometers. Extant evidence suggests
that the city was destroyed around 1190 BCE by an invad-
ing force from the eastern Mediterranean region. Ugaritic
documents identify the invaders as the “Shikila people,”
part of the larger group of “sea peoples” known to have
attacked the Egyptian and Hittite kingdoms during the
same period. After its destruction, the site was occupied
only sparingly during the fifth to fourth centuries BCE and