Syria 2008 Site Gazetteer Page 1 The suitably-attired group in front of the main transcept of the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus. Syria Tour 2008 Site Gazetteer (arranged chronologically, sites we visited are in BOLD) Neolithic Period New Stone Age (10,000-4400 BC) The Neolithic period is widely represented in the Levant and many of the sites we visited would have had Neolithic foundations of some sort. The Neolithic period is characterised by the emergence of widespread agriculture, sedentary settlements and pottery manufacture. On our journey we mostly saw Neolithic remains in museums: most notably at the excellent Deir ez-zor museum, and to a lesser extent, at the Hama museum.
Syria 2008 Site Gazetteer Page 2 Chalcolithic Period Chalcolithic = Copper and Stone Age (4500-3200 BC) This is an important transition period and is characterised by the first smelting of metal (copper). Although we did not visit any specific Chalcolithic sites we can safely assume that many of the sites we visited also had Chalcolithic occupation. Again museums were the main places in which we saw Chalcolithic metallurgy and pottery. Bronze Age Divided into Early, Middle and Late (3200-1200 BC) During the Early, Middle and Late Bronze Ages, the Levant was the location of many amazingly vibrant civilisations. The Early Bronze Age (3200-1950 BC) This early period of powerful city states was well-represented on our travels. At Ebla we saw the massive mud-brick fortifications and many of the temples and palaces dating to the Early Bronze Age prior to its destruction at the hands of Narim-Sin in 2250 BC. Further east on the Euphrates we also visited Mari which was a thriving urban community at this time. First settled in 2900 BC, this city-state rose to rival those of Ebla and the Sumerian cities to the south. The Middle Bronze Age (1950-1550 BC) The Middle Bronze Age in the Levant was heralded by the increasing influence of the Semitic Amorites and concludes with the region richly adorned with prosperous city-states. Not all of the Early Bronze Age centres survived into this new period. At Mari we saw the later, second palace of Zimri-Lim, an Amorite king who was defeated in 1579 BC by Hammurabi of Babylon. For other centres, especially on the coast, it was a period of great prosperity. At Ugarit we mostly saw remains dating to the Late Bronze Age, but we remembered that this city typified the vibrant coastal trading cites of this earlier time. While at Ebla we noted that this ancient city finally succumbed in 1600 BC to a new force in the region, the Hittites. In the Idlib museum we saw a fine recreation of the royal archive room of Ebla, some of the actual clay tablets (one, interestingly, showing evidence of the Eblaites knowledge of transmittable diseases) and many of the other artefacts unearthed by the Italian excavators. The Late Bronze Age (1550-1200 BC) The Late Bronze Age was a period of great growth in cosmopolitan societies throughout the Levant as the region found itself at the cross-roads of great civilisations. During this time the resurgent Egypt of the New Kingdom expanded into Syria: the Egyptian pharaohs Thutmosis I and II mention the now-small town of Ebla as they bring Greater Syria under Egyptian influence, while at the Tishreen Dam at the foot of Jebel Khalid, we noted that this was the great bend of the Euphrates mentioned by Thutmosis III and the most northerly point of the Egyptian pharaoh s campaigns in Syria. On the coast, Ugarit becomes a great entrepôt linking the Orient and the Greeks and much of the palace and temples we saw date to this period. Illustrative of the wide-ranging contacts of Ugarit was the small, but important tablet recording the world s first alphabet that we saw in the National Museum of Damascus. Although represented in cuneiform, this breakthrough allowed the Ugaritians to represent the many languages found in
Syria 2008 Site Gazetteer Page 3 their city phonetically, rather than using more clumsy ideograms. The period was not without its turmoil and this is best represented by the great battle of Kadesh fought between Egyptian and Hittite forces in 1285 BC. We stood on top of Tell Nebi Mend (ancient Kadesh) and saw where this battle took place and we could almost see Ramses the Great riding off in the distance! The group at St Simeon s Church in northern Syria. Iron Age Early Period (1200-539 BC) With the breakdown in order following the end of the Nineteenth Dynasty in Egypt and the arrival of the Sea Peoples, the Early Iron Age is generally a period of reduced living standards and fragmentation into small city states. At Ain Dara, we saw the remains of the neo-hittite temple flanked by solemn basalt orthostats that was built between 1000-800 BC; a reminder of Anatolian influence in this region of northern Syria. From Tartous we sailed to the island of Arwad, a Phoenician centre that rivalled the more well-known centres of Tyre and Sidon to the south. Here we saw the remains of the Phoenician sea-walls and remembered that due to their sailing (and trading) expertise the Phoenicians were able to prosper in a time of general economic decline. The independence of the Syrian city states whether neo-hittite, Phoenician or Aramaean were soon to come under threat from the rising power of Assyria. At the Aleppo Museum we saw the frescoes from Tell Ahmar; a local palace built in a style imitating the newly-powerful Assyrian world of Salmanasar and Assurbanipal. A little later the Assyrians made their presence more firmly felt in the Levant when Tiglath-Pilaser sacked Damascus in 732 BC. Assyrian domination of the Levant was replaced by Babylonian control in 612 BC after their conquest of the Assyrian capital at Nineveh.
Syria 2008 Site Gazetteer Page 4 Iron Age Persian (539-333 BC) In turn, Cyrus the Great of Persia defeated the Babylonians in 539 BC and their domains in the Levant came under his control. The Persians made Damascus the capital of their satrapy of Syria and at Amrit we had lunch beside the unique temple that dates to the Persian period and contains Phoenician and Mesopotamian influences. While the Persians brought peace and a degree of stability to the region, their forces were swept aside by the advance of Alexander the Great in 333 BC. Iron Age Hellenistic (333-64 BC) With the arrival of Alexander the Great the region came to be ruled by the Greeks or Hellenes (hence Hellenistic). Evidence of their three hundred year stay is manifest across Syria. We visited Jebel Khalid, a purely Hellenistic city, and had a personal tour of the site being shown the acropolis, temples and domestic housing. Far to the east on the Euphrates we visited Dura Europos which was founded as a Hellenistic frontier town guarding a vital crossing-point on the Euphrates River. In central Syria we strolled along the main street of Apamea, founded during the Hellenistic period by the Seleucids but also, unlike Jebel Khalid, occupied into the Roman and Byzantine periods. Roman Period (64 BC AD 330) The arrival of the Roman general Pompey in 64 BC saw the incorporation of much of the Levant as Roman provinces. Outside of this were the Nabataeans who maintained their independence in the south based on their city of Petra but whose influence spread north to Bosra and Damascus. At Bosra, those of us on the extension, saw monuments such as the Nabatean Gate with its unique horned capitals (which were also seen across the road from the Odeon at Shahbah). At Sia (also on the extension), among the beautiful landscape, we scrambled over the remains of a Nabataean religious precinct. When the Nabataeans were removed from Damascus by the Romans, the great central temple to the Semitic god Haddad was renamed as the Temple of Jupiter. We saw remains of this great Roman temple in the elaborately decorated gate at the end of Souk Al Hamidiyeh (once the gate through the outer Temenos wall) and in the perimeter wall of the Umayyad Mosque (once the inner Temenos wall of the Roman temple). In AD 256 Dura Europos was sacked by the Sassanians and we saw not only the sand that had been piled against the city s walls to prevent sapping, but, in the Damascus Museum, the incomparable frescoes from the synagogue that was preserved beneath the sand. Far to the north we visited Cyrrhus, now a lonely site with nothing more than sheep s bells to break the silence, but once a great legionary centre replete with walls, theatre and acropolis. At Palmyra we wandered among the ruins of the Bride of the Desert including the great Temple of Bel, the best-preserved example of the Syrio-Phoenician style of temple construction. Those of us who wandered through the ruins late in the afternoon saw the legacy of Zenobia s rule (ruled 267-272 AD) at the very end of the city in the form of Diocletian s camp, a reminder that after Zenobia s defeat the Romans took no more chances that such a rich city would slip from their grasp.
Syria 2008 Site Gazetteer Page 5 The extension group in the Roman period theatre at Bosra in southern Syria. In the south at Bosra, we walked down the Roman period Cardo, through the large public baths and were impressed by the fine carving which was achieved in the local black basalt building stone. In particular we saw the fantastically wellpreserved Roman theatre that gave us a very good idea of how these structures would have looked when complete. In Shahbah we saw the mosaic museum built over the remains of a house built by a cousin of the Roman Emperor Philip the Arab (Born in Shahbah, ruled 244-249 AD). Those of us on the extension also saw sites in Damascus associated with the travels of St Paul including Ananias Church a house where Paul was sheltered Bab Kisan where Paul was supposedly lowered over the city walls and on the outskirts of town we visited the site where Paul had his vision on the road to Damascus now occupied by a Russian Orthodox Church. Byzantine Period (AD 330-636) In the fourth century AD Christianity became the dominant religion in the Levant and the region was to play a vital role in the early church. We wandered among the evocative ruins of Serjilla and Al-Bara and were able to walk into Byzantine period houses as if they d been abandoned yesterday. To the north of Aleppo we visited St Simeon s Monastery with the vestigial stump of the once many metres high column on which St Simeon (390-459) spent most of his life. The church built between 476 and 491 became the first major cruciform church in the world. At Apamea we saw the Central Church which is seen as one of the predecessors of the great Justinian church of Aya Sophia in Istanbul. As part of the eastern defences of his empire Justinian established the river town of Halebiye whose walls still overlook the swiftly-flowing Euphrates. Elsewhere we were impressed by the simple beauty of Qasr Ibn Wardan; a palace and church complex also dating to the period of Justinian. Elsewhere, at Apamea, we saw beautiful mosaics dating to the Byzantine period and at Qanawat (for those on the extension) we saw a richly decorated palace next to the hospitable Druze family who offered us tea. At Ezraa, also on the extension, we visited the cathedral which is one of the longest continuously used churches in the world. Early Islamic Period (636-1099) The Islamic forces invaded the Levant in the seventh century AD and the region has remained predominantly Muslim ever since. In Damascus we wandered through the great Umayyad Mosque (and we passed close to the mosque of the same vintage in Aleppo). The close relationship between the first Islamic dynasty, the Umayyads, and the Byzantines who they replaced was clearly seen in the mosaics decorating the Umayyad Mosque.
Syria 2008 Site Gazetteer Page 6 The group in front of the Crusader period Krac des Chevaliers. Crusades Period (1099-1291) We were never far from the Crusaders on this trip. While we were in Aleppo and Damascus we remembered the pivotal role played by these cities in the defence of the Islamic world, principally under the instigation of the Zengi family, Nur al-din and finally Saladin; particularly the building of the Aleppo citadel where we had lunch on a rare rainy moment (weren t we lucky with the weather!). In the north of Syria we walked through the ruins of Qalaat Saladin, taken by Saladin shortly after his victory at Hattin in 1187. Early in our visit to Syria we missed visiting the white tower of Safita (not a tower but the inner keep of the fortress) due to a church service that was in progress. Later we visited the impeccably preserved Krac des Chevaliers, held by the Knights Hospitallers until taken by the Mamluks in 1271. At Musyaf we visited the Assassin castle held by the old man of the mountain a thorn in the side of both the Crusader and Muslim forces. At Hama, beside the water wheel in front of our hotel we saw a Seljuk period mosque; a reminder of the first of many Turkic groups who were to make their mark during the period of the Crusades and beyond. Below, on the coast, we visited the beautiful Gothic-style cathedral at Tartous and remembered that this town was one of the last to fall along this part of the coast (apart from some hold-outs on the island of Arwad which fell a few years later). Later Islamic Period (1291-1917) The principal influence during this period that ends with the First World War was the Ottoman Empire based in Constantinople. When we were in Aleppo and Damascus we wandered in the shade beneath Ottoman period covered markets and much of the Old City of Damascus dates to this period (including the Azem palaces that we saw in both Damascus and Hama). At Apamea we saw an Ottoman period caravanserai, now used as a local museum, and in Damascus we visited the spectacular Khan Asad Pasha al Azem. Fittingly the period is bought to a close with the exploits of Lawrence of Arabia whose unpaid bill we saw in Baron s Hotel, Aleppo. Ben Churcher 12/06/08