Ugarit’s clay archives preserve the oldest systematic alphabet
Ugarit, at Ras Shamra near Latakia in northern Syria, revealed since 1928 the oldest known systematic alphabet. Occupied from the late eighth millennium BCE until destruction around 1185 BCE, the Late Bronze city ruled roughly today’s Latakia Governorate and kept Hittite vassal and Egyptian tribute ties.
The ruins lie at Ras Shamra, about ten kilometres north of Latakia, and have been excavated since 1928, when tablets revealed the oldest known systematic alphabet. People lived there from the late eighth millennium BC until the city was destroyed around 1185 BC.
The Middle Bronze Age began after a severe drought that ended around 2020 BC. About 1820 BC the kingdom of Yamhad, centred on Aleppo, rose under Sumu-Epuh, and Ugarit became one of its vassals. The archive of Mari, around 1765 BC, mentions Ugarit, whose goods moved through Aleppo, Emar and Mari to Babylon, and King Zimri-Lim of Mari paid a state visit. Contacts with Middle Kingdom Egypt left a carnelian bead naming Senusret I and objects of Senusret III and Amenemhet III.
When the Hittite kings Hattusili I and Mursili I attacked around 1620 and 1600 BC, Yamhad collapsed and much of inner Syria was devastated, but Ugarit, on the coast behind a mountain range, was largely spared.
Its golden age came between 1500 and 1200 BC, when it ruled a trading kingdom of about 2,000 square kilometres, roughly today’s Latakia Governorate, with 7,000 to 8,000 inhabitants in the city. It traded with Egypt, Cyprus, Minoan Crete and other Aegean states, the Hittites, Syrian polities and Levantine cities including Ascalon. As a Hittite vassal it also sent tribute to Egypt, and five of the Amarna letters of the mid-fourteenth century BC were written there. Its archives record dealings with Alashiya, possibly Cyprus, and contacts with the Mycenaean world.
Source: Ugarit
