Syrian History   It is in Ebla, the metropolis of an empire which grouped rather loosely, various small kingdoms of the coast, the western part of the Fertile Crescent, and the Middle Euphrates that a Semitic language was written (in cuneiform letters), thereafter called the Eblaite, similar to the Canaanean, an idiom formerly used in Palestine (Land of Chanaan) and in Phoenicia. It was translated, not without serious difficulties in some fields, (religious for example), by comparison with other Semitic languages, such as old Akkadian (used in Mesopotamia). Ebla prospered thanks to commerce and in particular by exporting woolens and timber from its mountains to Mesopotamia. But this wealth was soon to come to an end in 2550 when the city was devastated by Naram Sin, the sovereign of a powerful Akkadian empire founded around the middle of the 24th Century B.C. in Northern Mesopotamia. Ebla was still inhabited in the 2nd millenary, but the era of hegemony had long since passed. Other important cities still existed in Syria in the 3rd millenary, such as the port of Ugarit (Ras Shamra which was to become a flourishing city in the following millenary), Hama, Qatna (Tell Mishrifeh), Etc... Entry of Syria into history At the end of the 3rd millenary, the 3rd dynasty of Ur, in the land of Sumer, superseded the Akkadian empire in authority. Its duration was short and it came to an end under the blows of the Amorites (Amorean), Semites from the West who slowly infiltrated into Syria during more than three centuries around 2200 and a little later (2000 B.C) by mass migrations into Mesopotamia. They founded many kingdoms between the rivers Tigris and Euphrates. The first Babylonian Dynasty (1894-1595 B.C.) was the most reputed of all with the famous Hammourabi (1792-1750 B.C) as the group leader. In Syria, Ebla was reoccupied as of the early 2nd millenary and became the capital of an Amorite kingdom which reached its height of power in the 18th and 17th centuries B.C. It was one of the cradles of specifically Syrian culture in many aspects, especially regarding religion, with Mart, Ebla and Aleppo as main centers. Particularly remarkable is the history of the kingdom of Yamhad which, around 1780 B.C., with Aleppo as its main city, spread over territories at the foot of the East Taurus from the Mediterranean to Zagros. But the Mesopotamian influence (Babylonian and even Sumerian) over Syria was still very strong. The kingdom of Yamhad tottered under the blows of the Hittites, under the reign of Moursili I, in 1590 B.C., opening Northern Syria to another ethnic group still not clearly defined: that of the Hourrites.  Coming from the North, they imposed themselves in the 16th Century B.C. with the state of the Mitanni, whose capital, perhaps in the Djezirah, is still not found. Another influence, particularly interesting, manifested itself at the time. It is that of Pharaonic Egypt, existing at Ugarit, but still less known in the rest of Syria, except at the time of Thutmose III (1483-1450) who carried out seventeen military campaigns in the area. Everything leads us to believe that it was in this Mediterranean port, probably in the 16th Century B.C., that consonant alphabet (vowels were not used) was invented, an instrument which Semitic alphabets still in use nowadays, are the inheritors. It also gives a model for Greek and Latin alphabets, in particular through the Phoenician alphabet of Byblos. Northwards from Latakia, the site of Ras Shamra hid the ruins of ancient Ugarit, where continuous excavations have been going on since 1929. Numerous written documents tell us that this capital of the kingdom which was able to remain independent of the Mitanni, (then of the Hittites as of 1380 B.C) was in Syria the main center of trade and flow of ideas between Anatolia, Northwest Syria, Assyria, and Babylonia as well as Egypt, Cyprus, and the Minoan kingdom (Crete). Discoveries were obviously not limited only to written tablets, but a Royal Palace, temples and residential quarters have also been discovered. They tell of the high degree of prosperity reached by Ugarit in the Recent Bronze Age (1600-1200 B.C), until its final destruction early in the 12th Century B.C., by the Peoples of the Sea, hordes of various populations who mostly indulged in piracy in the Eastern Mediterranean.     Previous
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