Lattakia, SANA- On Ras Shamra Hill, north of Latakia, lies a Syrian city that presented the world with the first written alphabet and the first recorded musical note in history, it is Ugarit, the capital of a kingdom of the same name, which flourished in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries BC, and was a unique commercial and cultural center in the eastern Mediterranean, where languages met, knowledge was strengthened, and words and tone were transformed into tools of civilization.
Origin of the name and discovery:
The word “Ugarit” is derived from “Ugaru” in Akkadian, which means “field” or “walled castle”, and its ruins were discovered by chance in 1928 when a farmer’s plow in the area collided with huge stones that turned out to be the roof of an underground burial ground, revealing an ancient kingdom.
The First Alphabet and Blog Music:
Archaeologist Dr. Bassam Jamous pointed out that Ugarit was the first to give humanity a complete alphabet consisting of 30 letters, engraved on a clay tablet, explaining that it is considered to this day the oldest phonetic writing system in history,
Ugarit did not stop at the limits of the word, but also excelled in music, as the first recorded musical note in history was found in one of its panels for a song called “Negal”, which uses an oriental-style sevens, making Ugarit the cradle of classical music.
City of Culture, Diplomacy and Industries:
Ugarit was more than a city; it was a center of innovation in all fields. Its libraries contained thousands of clay tablets that documented political, economic, and religious life in an advanced and unprecedented manner.
It was also known for its linguistic and cultural diversity, as its texts were written in more than seven cuneiform script systems, including Akkadian, Hittite, ancient Egyptian, Sumerian, and Cypriot, making it a center of communication between civilizations.
Economically, Ugarit was a major maritime industrial center, famous for shipbuilding, jewelry making, ivory furniture, textiles, and seals. Innovative weighing and measuring systems were used, reflecting its people’s skill in organization and management.
Political status despite the absence of armies:
Ugarit was not a military kingdom, but its soft power was represented by scholars, craftsmen, and artists who supported its political center among the Mediterranean kingdoms in the fourteenth and thirteenth centuries BC.
Recent discoveries promise more:
The Syrian National Mission, led by Dr. Khazami Bahloul, recently revealed a new clay figure that includes legal documents, buying and selling contracts, educational texts and others for drawing borders with neighboring kingdoms, which indicates the development of administrative and diplomatic systems in that era.
Dr. Jamous points out that most of the Ugaritic archives are still buried, which means that the future holds more surprises that may change our view of the emergence of civilizations.
khadega/Mazen Eyon
