Stone foundations and walls of the archaeological site of Ugarit at Ras Shamra

Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Country Record

Oldest City in Syria

CitéEn vedette

Ugarit

Q: De quand date Ugarit ?

Ugarit remonte approximativement à 6000 av. J.-C.–1185 av. J.-C..

Seyfi Cem Baskin

أوغاريت6000 av. J.-C. – 1185 av. J.-C.

The Late Bronze Age port city on Syria’s Mediterranean coast whose clay-tablet archives revealed the Ugaritic alphabet and Northwest Semitic myth cycles — one of the densest textual sites of the ancient Near East and the second-highest archaeological pageview gap in our multilingual audit.

Bronze Age Iron Age Canaanite Ugaritic

Intérêt 64

Localisation

Syrie

35.60°N · 35.78°E · Asie

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Peak period

Late Bronze Age, c. 1450–1185 BCE

Discovery

1928 peasant find; Schaeffer excavations from 1929

Localisation

Aperçu

Ugarit lies at modern Ras Shamra just north of Latakia on the Syrian coast. Chance discovery of a tomb in 1928 led Claude Schaeffer and successive French and Syrian missions to uncover a royal palace, temples of Baal and Dagan, residential quarters, and harbour installations of Minet el-Beida. Occupation peaked in the Late Bronze Age (c. 1450–1185 BCE) under a dynasty that wrote Akkadian diplomatic letters and local Ugaritic cuneiform.

The tablets — gods Baal, Anat, El; rituals; treaties; and the earliest fully attested Northwest Semitic alphabet — reshaped understanding of Canaanite religion and biblical parallel literature. House archives of merchants and scribes show a cosmopolitan trading city linked to Cyprus, Egypt, and Hatti. Around 1185 BCE the city burned in the coastal destructions associated with the Late Bronze Age collapse; it was never fully revived.

Architectural levels include the Palace courtyard complexes, the acropolis temples, and residences with corner cisterns. Pair with Hattusha and Troy for eastern Mediterranean collapse horizons, and with Jericho for Levantine city traditions.

Pourquoi c'est important

Ugarit’s alphabet and myth tablets are primary evidence for Northwest Semitic language, religion, and elite literacy before the Hebrew Bible’s compilation. Its destruction horizon is a fixed reference for the Late Bronze Age collapse along the Levantine coast.

Preuves et interprétation

Distinguer ce qui est bien établi de ce qui reste débattu.

Faits bien établis

Thousands of cuneiform tablets from palace and private archives establish Ugaritic language, calendar, and pantheon.
Burn layers and weapon finds correlate with the coastal Late Bronze Age collapse horizon around 1200 BCE.

Inférences savantes

Sea Peoples or mixed raiders may have delivered the final blow — the tablets cease abruptly without a clear ethnic signature.

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Récits liés

Guide

Carte des sites archéologiques de l'effondrement de l'âge du bronze

12 min de lecture

Comment citer cette page

Atlas Anatolia. (6000). Ugarit. Atlas Anatolia. https://atlasanatolia.com/fr/site/ugarit

Contenu sous licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — attribution requise en cas de réutilisation.

Graphique

Connexions avec des sites et récits associés.

Sources

The City of Ugarit at Tell Ras Shamra — Yon, Marguerite (2006)
Ritual and Cult at Ugarit — Pardee, Dennis (2002)

Questions fréquentes

Où se trouve Ugarit ?

Ugarit est situé à/en Syria.

De quand date Ugarit ?

Ugarit remonte approximativement à 6000 av. J.-C. – 1185 av. J.-C..

Quelles civilisations sont associées à Ugarit ?

Ugarit est associé à la civilisation Canaanite, Ugaritic.

Pourquoi Ugarit est-il important ?

Ugarit’s alphabet and myth tablets are primary evidence for Northwest Semitic language, religion, and elite literacy before the Hebrew Bible’s compilation.

Ugarit est-il inscrit au patrimoine mondial de l'UNESCO ?

Ugarit n'est pas actuellement inscrit sur la liste du patrimoine mondial de l'UNESCO.

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