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Ugarit: Ras Shamra
An account of recent archaeological developments at the biblical site of Ugarit, aimed the general reader, the student and the tourist.
128 pages, Paperback
First published November 30, 1987
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
January 10, 2018
Ancient cities fascinate me because they're puzzles. They can be excavated for years, but never fully discovered, so scholars and archaeologists take what they can find and try to create the most complete picture possible. Even the most complete picture still leaves a lot to the imagination, and there are always new places to dig in directions sideways and down.
Ugarit is one of those cities, and it's an interesting place. It lies on a headland on the Mediterranean shore of modern Syria, south of the Turkish border. It was settled and abandoned more than once between 6000 and 2000 BC, and finally reached its peak development in the middle and late bronze ages between about 1800 and 1200 BC. It was destroyed and abandoned for good during the cataclysmic Bronze Age Collapse that took place around 1200-1100 BC - the same event that saw the fall of a great many cities in the area, including the Hittite empire of ancient Turkey and the Mycenaean civilization in what is now Greece.
During its heyday, it was an important nexus for trade, being at the northern edge of Egyptian influence, the eastern edge of Mycenaean influence, the southern edge of Hittite influence, and the western edge of Mittanian and Assyrian (and before them Akkadian) influence. It was occupied by a mix of Semitic and Hurrian speaking people.
The most important discoveries from Ugarit are the written tablets containing what has become known as the Ugaritic Script - perhaps the earliest alphabetic script - which was used to write the Ugaritic language - a semitic language related to Hebrew. These ancient writing tablets contain records of financial transactions, correspondence, and most important, the most complete records of Canaanite myth so far discovered.
Ugarit by Adrian Curtis, describes the early history of the city, life in its golden age (including a brief summary of some of the sordid affairs of its kings), a descripton of the city based on archaeology, a summary of the myths discovered, and two more in-depth essays on what the religion of the city might have looked like and why all of this is relevant to bible scholars.
I particularly enjoyed reading about King Ammistamru's troubles involving his brothers and what seemed to be two divorces, all of which seemed to need the interference of the Hittite king to be settled. I also enjoyed reading the myths of the city god, Baal, and the discussion of how he relates to the Hebrew god, Yahweh.
This volume by Curtis is one of only two book length treatments of the city I'm aware of. The other by Marguerite Yon, translated into English from the original french, is a little newer and probably probably more up-to-date, since a major find of 300 tablets was discovered in the years between when these two books were published. I haven't read that book, but would be inclined to suggest it instead of this one simply because it is more current. But if you happen to see the Curtis book on a used book shop shelf someone, by all means pick it up and give it a read.
Ugarit is one of those cities, and it's an interesting place. It lies on a headland on the Mediterranean shore of modern Syria, south of the Turkish border. It was settled and abandoned more than once between 6000 and 2000 BC, and finally reached its peak development in the middle and late bronze ages between about 1800 and 1200 BC. It was destroyed and abandoned for good during the cataclysmic Bronze Age Collapse that took place around 1200-1100 BC - the same event that saw the fall of a great many cities in the area, including the Hittite empire of ancient Turkey and the Mycenaean civilization in what is now Greece.
During its heyday, it was an important nexus for trade, being at the northern edge of Egyptian influence, the eastern edge of Mycenaean influence, the southern edge of Hittite influence, and the western edge of Mittanian and Assyrian (and before them Akkadian) influence. It was occupied by a mix of Semitic and Hurrian speaking people.
The most important discoveries from Ugarit are the written tablets containing what has become known as the Ugaritic Script - perhaps the earliest alphabetic script - which was used to write the Ugaritic language - a semitic language related to Hebrew. These ancient writing tablets contain records of financial transactions, correspondence, and most important, the most complete records of Canaanite myth so far discovered.
Ugarit by Adrian Curtis, describes the early history of the city, life in its golden age (including a brief summary of some of the sordid affairs of its kings), a descripton of the city based on archaeology, a summary of the myths discovered, and two more in-depth essays on what the religion of the city might have looked like and why all of this is relevant to bible scholars.
I particularly enjoyed reading about King Ammistamru's troubles involving his brothers and what seemed to be two divorces, all of which seemed to need the interference of the Hittite king to be settled. I also enjoyed reading the myths of the city god, Baal, and the discussion of how he relates to the Hebrew god, Yahweh.
This volume by Curtis is one of only two book length treatments of the city I'm aware of. The other by Marguerite Yon, translated into English from the original french, is a little newer and probably probably more up-to-date, since a major find of 300 tablets was discovered in the years between when these two books were published. I haven't read that book, but would be inclined to suggest it instead of this one simply because it is more current. But if you happen to see the Curtis book on a used book shop shelf someone, by all means pick it up and give it a read.
May 26, 2023
An excellent introduction to Ugarit (which I’m already quite familiar with) although it mostly avoids any historical detail and spends most of its time dealing with cultural and religious matters. With that said, the chapter on Ugaritic literature and myth is astounding and perfectly summarised. I also found the chapter on Ugaritic religion fascinating as it divulged on many possible theories as to how the Ugaritic texts were utilised in ceremonies. Due to the lack of evidence, much of this appears to be left to the imagination. One thing I constantly take issue with however in books about Ugarit, specifically those written by biblical scholars, is that they feel the need to resort to defend the Old Testament at the last moment, after essentially raising up a mountain of scepticism and plagiarism accusations (such as noting the similarities in Yahweh and Baal’s epithets and theological resemblances) before adding a last paragraph at the end about how great Yahweh is. A similar feature is found in Hooke’s books for example, and it seems, at least ostensibly to me, to be an attempt to deliberately manufacture a misconstrued conclusion.
August 17, 2014
Excellent
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews