Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Scribes in Ugarit appear to have originated the so called Ugaritic alphabet around 1400
BC; comprising 30 letters that corresponded to sounds. These were adapted from cunei-
form characters and inscribed on clay tablets
The destruction of Ugarit by the mysterious Sea People is estimated to have occurred
around 1178 BC.
A letter sent by the King at the time stressed the seriousness of the crisis faced by many
near eastern states from invasion by the advancing Sea Peoples, when he wrote a dramatic
response to a plea for assistance from the king of Alasiya:
My father, behold, the enemy's ships came (here); to my cities … were burned, and they
did evil things in my country. Does not my father know that all my troops and chariots …
are in the Land of Hatti, and all my ships are in the Land of Lukka?...Thus, the country is
abandoned to itself. May my father know it: the seven ships of the enemy that came here
inflicted much damage upon us.
Unfortunately for Ugarit, that damage was terminal and the city burned to the ground.
The Egyptians originally coined the name "Peoples of the Sea" for the foreign contingents
the Libyans brought in to support their attack on Egypt in 1220 BC during the reign of
Pharaoh Merneptah.
The major problem of identification is that there are only sketchy written records of their
attacks on the established cultures of Egypt and the Near East, and these give only a vague
idea of where they came from. Also, as the name suggests, they were a group of distinct
peoples of diverse origins, and not a single culture.
I found Ugarit to be a less than edifying site. There were no distinctive elements, although
there were several underground tomb chambers. On walking through the site I felt that it
was a bit of a shambles with much still to do.
Mohammed told us that we were not far from Latakia, the principal Syrian port on the
Mediterranean and home of the Assads, the President's family. (This was one of the cities
where there were protests in 2011 against the Assad regime.)
