These ancient libraries would make any book lover drool. This list of 100 mustread books about ancient history reflects these changes. The city of ugarit at tell ras shamra 9781575060293. See more ideas about ancient near east, archaeology and ancient mesopotamia. Ritual and cult at ugarit writings from the ancient. Daughter zions trauma offers a new critical reading of the book of lamentations. Snell traces key developments in the history, daily life and religious beliefs of the people of ancient mesopotamia, egypt, israel and iran. Much has been made of the fact that the common hebrew word for god in the book of genesis, elohim, translates to gods in the plural. First, to examine in detail a number of ancient texts, mainly biblical until the rise of the neoassyrian empire, while evaluating each text in its own right as a potential historical source. Through structural analysis and use of the concept of nonreferential history as a. Its ruins are often called ras shamra after the headland where they lie. Facts and history about the only indigenous people of most northern europe.
On the basis of a wealth of documents from both the private and the literary realm, the book gives an exhaustive description and analysis of the rites of the ancestor cult and the devotion to local gods. This accessible book teaches the principal canaanite religious literature, and will be useful to students of the. Browse the amazon editors picks for the best books of 2019, featuring our. As gordon says, ugarit has yielded documents regulating the activities of the merchants of ura, so they are either one and the. Yahweh and the other deities in ancient israel the. History, book 6 at this site public domain unlike next selection, which is a more recent version. Ritual and cult at ugarit writings from the ancient world english, ugaritic and ugaritic edition 9781589830264. He was not aware that he accidentally came across the remains of an ancient seaport that was at its political, religious and economic greatness around the 12th century bc. The greatest discovery made at the site was a collection of tablets carved with a then unknown cuneiform script. Stories from ancient canaan, second edition kindle edition by coogan, michael d. This 2011 book is a history of religious life in the ancient near east from the beginnings of agriculture to alexander the greats invasion in the 300s bce. But for millennia, the ancient trading city was effectively lost to history after its destruction. Cuneiform tablets illustrate the religion of ancient canaan, i. In this dual biography patricia southern attempts to rescue both from the.
Early sources of information on the canaanite pantheon come from the city of ugarit which. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading stories from ancient canaan, second edition. Over the past seven decades, the scores of publications on ugarit in northern syria 15th. Nicolas wyatt is reader in religious studies in the university of edinburgh. Ugarit was an important sea port city in the northern levant. Stories from ancient canaan, second edition kindle. In the year 1928, the plow of a syrian farmer struck a stone that covered a tomb containing ancient ceramics. The name ugarit appeared in the records of the northern syrian city of mari and those of tell al amarna in egypt, as well the ancient cities of cyprus.
From ugarit to nabataea is a collection of articles on the texts and cultures of various near and middle eastern societies such as ugarit, ancient north arabia, nabatea, palmyra, edessa, the monasteries of mesopotamia, and modern day syriacspeaking communities. Oclcs webjunction has pulled together information and resources to assist library staff as they consider how to handle coronavirus. The author at one of the underground tombs in the ancient city of ugarit. Many tablets containing cuneiform latin for wedge shaped texts have been found throughout the near east and used to write many different languages including sumerian, akkadian and eblaite. Approximately 1,500 texts and fragments have been found to date. Ugaritic, a northwest semitic language spoken and written in northern syria during the second millennium b. This book has important essays regarding the history of the religion of israel compared to ugaritic texts. We recently placed what is, as far as we know, the first electronic digital library for the study of the ugaritic language and its literature on our prepub page ugaritic, the language of ancient ugarit in modern syria, isnt something that most people think about when it comes to bible. Ugarit had close connections to the hittite empire, sent tribute to egypt at. Though ugarit had been inhabited almost continuously since the neolithic period c. Hearing of this chance find, a french archaeological team led by claude schaeffer journeyed to the site the following year. Drought, death, and the sun in ugarit and ancient israel. Royal palace the neolithic settlement was already a port of. The forgotten ancient canaanite city of ugarit was discovered in 1928 by a local farmer ploughing his field.
Topics biblical history ugarit and the bible by jeff a. Documents written in this tongue have been discovered at ras shamra, site of the ancient ugarit, and at nearby ras ibn hani the texts were written on clay tablets in a unique cuneiform alphabetic script. In total, archaeologists have identified four different libraries in the ancient city of ugarit, located in modernday syria. Illustrated history of the ancient world and sacred places revised, expanded and indexed edition. Benner the history of ugarit the ugarit alphabet ugarit and the bible ugarit inscriptions the history of ugarit. Newcomers to manuscripts sometimes ask what such books tell us about the societies that created them.
Download it once and read it on your kindle device, pc, phones or tablets. The ugaritic texts are a corpus of ancient cuneiform texts discovered since 1928 in ugarit ras shamra and ras ibn hani in syria, and written in ugaritic, an otherwise unknown northwest semitic language. Stories from ancient canaan is the first to offer a onevolume translation of all four. Cities of the biblical world book summary and study guide. Ancient history encyclopedia foundation is a nonprofit organization registered in canada. Controversial ancient book of veles remains an unexplained mystery. He could not have imagined the significance of his discovery. Contained on fifteen of the cuneiform tables uncovered at the ancient canaanite city of ugarit are the four major oral ugartic myths of aqhat, the healers, kirta and baal. At one level, these gospel books describe nothing, for they are not local chronicles but standard latin translations of religious texts from far away. Its ruins, about half a mile from the shore, were first uncovered by the plow of a peasant at albay. See introduction for an explanation of the sourcebooks goals.
History of mankind ancient egyptian era history of a people. Full illustrations, diagrams, schematics, and photographs transport you to a time and a place that played a crucial role in defining biblical religions today. Ugarit and the bible ahrc ancient hebrew research center. This study of the history of the philistines during the first quarter of the first millennium b. The texts were written in the th and 12th centuries bce. Ugarit, ancient city lying in a large artificial mound called ras shamra ra. The gods of ancient ugarit history and archaeology online.
Though never a world power, ugarit was a key economic center in the ancient near east, serving as a major trade center between egypt and the major powers of bronze age asia minor and mesopotamia. Their sophistication is clearly seen the library included a bilingual dictionary of ugaritichurrian legal terms. This fully revised edition takes into account advances in the reading, understanding, and. This beautiful guide takes you step by step through the excavation of the ancient bronze age city of ugarit, modernday ras shamra.
Ugarit was a flourishing city, its streets lined with twostory houses dominated on the. It was a bustling place and the evidence suggests that the libraries of ugarit were some of the mostprogressive cultural centres of the age, and scholars still study their collections. Charts, photographs, layouts and professional drawings illustrate the archeology, culture, atmosphere, and image of this ancient city. One also gains a thorough understanding of canaanite religion through the ancient ras shamra texts. Ugarit was an ancient port city in northern syria, in the outskirts of modern latakia, discovered by accident in 1928 together with the ugaritic texts. African studies american studies ancient near east and egypt art history asian studies book history and cartography biblical studies. Thus, any account of the sites early history must piece together. A manual of ugaritic by dennis pardee, 9781575061535, available at book. For what its worth, the book of jubilees places eber and his early descendants at ur, which either contradicts the following theory or it is an indication that the city of ur was indeed the city of ugarit itself. In 1932 the identification of the site was made when some of the tablets were deciphered. The ancient archives of the city of ebla from the 3rd millennium b.
Bronze age port in northern syria, destroyed in the. Popular ancient history books goodreads share book. The city of ugarit at tell ras shamra by marquerite yon is an indepth view into ancient ugarit. The internet ancient history sourcebook has expanded greatly since its creation, and now contains hundred of local files as well as links to source texts throughout the net. The tragic love affair of marc antony and cleopatra is a staple of popular ancient history, immortalised by shakespeare and hollywood and mercilessly parodied in carry on cleo.
Over the past seven decades, the scores of publications on ugarit in northern syria 15th to 11th centuries bce are so scattered that a good overall view of the subject is virtually impossible. Remains of the citys temples along with fragments of cuneiform tablets help rebuild a picture of the gods of ancient ugarit, their roles in society and their myths. He has written extensively on ugaritic language and poetry and coedited the newsletter for ugaritic studies and ugarit, religion and culture ugaritverlag, 1996. Age came to an end and whether the collapse of those ancient civilizations might hold some warnings for our current society. Sutherland the forgotten ancient canaanite city of ugarit was discovered in 1928 by a local farmer ploughing his field. This volume deals with the religious practices of the family in the ancient babylonian, syrian, and israelite civilizations. A beautiful book, well researched, conceived and lavishly printed, reflecting the beauty and importance of the art of phoenicia, ugarit, amrit, arwad and carthage throughout the centuries from day one till the end of the. The texts from ancient ugarit are among the most important modern discoveries for understanding the bible.
A webpage for the book series coniectanea biblica old testament series published by penn state university press. Wilfred watson and nicolas wyatt, the editors of the present handbook in the series handbook of oriental studies, have brought together and made accessible this accumulated knowledge on the archives. The texts of the ugaritic data bank has been established by j. Ugarit also spelled ougarit, especially in french publications was the name of an ancient city as well as the surrounding kingdom of which it served. This resource includes transcriptions of the entire corpus of ugaritic alphabetic texts with bibliography, variant readings from a wide variety of publications, notes on the tablets, including provinence and dimensions, and maps. Ugarit and the bible quartz hill school of theology. The archaeology of the ancient city of ugarit in syria gives us a remarkable insight into the religious beliefs of the ancient levant. A chapter on computer analysis of these documents concludes the work. For more than thirty years, stories from ancient canaan has been recognized as a highly authoritative and readable presentation of the principal canaanite myths and epics discovered at ugarit.
The ancient history encyclopedia logo is a registered eu trademark. Cunchillos et alii, hermeneumatics lab csic madrid y zaragoza. Was a statue of asherah hidden in the ark of the covenant. The palace library, with thousands of tablets, was excavated by an italian expedition in1975. Numerous and frequentlyupdated resource results are available from this search.