History of the ancient Levant
The
The Levant is one of the earliest centers of sedentism and agriculture throughout history, and some of the earliest agrarian cultures, Pre-Pottery Neolithic, developed in the region.[3][4][5] Previously regarded as a peripheral region in the ancient Near East, modern academia largely considers the Levant was a center of civilization on its own, independent of Mesopotamia and Egypt.[6][7] Throughout the Bronze and Iron ages, the Levant was home to many ancient Semitic-speaking peoples and kingdoms, and is considered by many to be the urheimat of Semitic languages.
History of the Levant |
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Prehistory |
Ancient history |
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Classical antiquity |
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Middle Ages |
Modern history |
Stone Age
Paleolithic
Anatomically modern
A second move out of Africa is demonstrated by the Boker Tachtit Upper Paleolithic culture, from 52,000 to 50,000 BC, with humans at Ksar Akil XXV level being modern humans.[11] This culture bears close resemblance to the Badoshan Aurignacian culture of Iran, and the later Sebilian I Egyptian culture of c. 50,000 BC. Stephen Oppenheimer[12] suggests that this reflects a movement of modern human (possibly Caucasian) groups back into North Africa, at this time.
It would appear this sets the date by which Homo sapiens Upper Paleolithic cultures begin replacing Neanderthal
Epi-Palaeolithic
After the
Kebaran culture was quite successful, and was ancestral to the later Natufian culture (12,500–9,500 BC), which extended throughout the whole of the Levantine region. These people pioneered the first sedentary settlements, and may have supported themselves from fishing and the harvest of wild grains plentiful in the region at that time. As of July 2018,[update] the oldest remains of bread were discovered c. 12,400 BC at the archaeological site of Shubayqa 1, once home of the Natufian hunter-gatherers, roughly 4,000 years before the advent of agriculture.[16]
Natufian culture also demonstrates the earliest domestication of the
Neolithic and Chalcolithic
By 8500–7500 BC, the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (
During the period of 8500–7500 BC, another hunter-gatherer group, showing clear affinities with the cultures of Egypt (particularly the Outacha retouch technique for working stone) was in Sinai. This
In the
Copper Age
Kish civilization
The Kish civilization or Kish tradition is a concept created by
Bronze Age
Early and middle Bronze Age
Some recent scholars dealing with the Syrian part of the Levant during the
Ebla and Mari were incorporated into the
Now listen, their hands are destructive and their features are those of monkeys; (An Amorite) is one who eats what (the Moon-god) Nanna forbids and does not show reverence. They never stop roaming about [...], they are an abomination to the gods’ dwellings. Their ideas are confused; they cause only disturbance. (The Amorite) is clothed in sack-leather [...], lives in a tent, exposed to wind and rain, and cannot properly recite prayers. He lives in the mountains and ignores the places of gods, digs up truffles in the foothills, does not know how to bend the knee (in prayer), and eats raw flesh. He has no house during his life, and when he dies he will not be carried to a burial-place. My girlfriend, why would you marry Martu?[37]
The Amorites came to politically and culturally dominate much of the ancient Near East for centuries, and founded multiple kingdoms throughout the region including the Old Babylonian Empire.[33] Famed Amorites included Babylonian king Hammurabi and warlord Shamshi-Adad I.[38] After the decline of the Third dynasty of Ur, Amorite rulers gained power in a number of Mesopotamian city-states beginning in the Isin-Larsa period and peaking in the Old Babylonian period.
In southern Mesopotamia,
Amorite elements were also to be found in Egypt with the Fourteenth Dynasty of Egypt of the Nile Delta, whose rulers bore distinctly Amorite names such as Yakbim. The Hyksos, who overran Egypt and founded the Fifteenth dynasty, were an amalgam of Levantine elements including the Amorites.[45][46]
Foreign rule
By the 16th and 15th centuries BC, most of the major urban centers in the
Between 1550 and 1170 BC, much of the Levant was contested between
Late Bronze Age collapse
During the 12th century BC, between c. 1200 and 1150, all of these powers suddenly collapsed. Centralized state systems collapsed, and the region was hit by famine. Chaos ensued throughout the region, and many urban centers were burnt to the ground by famine-struck natives[57] and an assortment of raiders known as the Sea Peoples, who eventually settled in the Levant. The Sea Peoples' origins are ambiguous and many theories have proposed them to be Trojans, Sardinians, Achaeans, Sicilians or Lycians.[58][59][60][61]
Urban centers which survived Hittite and Egyptian expansions in 1600 BC, including Alalakh, Ugarit, Megiddo and Kadesh, were razed to the ground and were never rebuilt. The Hittite empire was destroyed, and its capital Tarḫuntašša was razed to the ground. Egypt repelled its attackers with only a major effort, and over the next century shrank to its territorial core, its central authority permanently weakened.
Iron Age
North
Despite the tumultuous beginning of the
Along the coast of northern Canaan, the
South
During the Iron Age, various groups inhabited the southern Levant, with the Philistines and the Hebrews/Israelites emerging as the most renowned among them.[79] Dispersed pastoral nomadic groups in the began to settle down in the 11th century.[2] In Palestine, the Israelites gradually established many small communities that dotted the central highlands,[80] while the Philistines, a group of Aegean immigrants arrived in the southern shore of Canaan around 1175 BCE and settled there.[80] Further west, the Levantine coast was settled by the Sea Peoples, notably the Philistines around today's Gaza Strip.[81][82]
The 10th and 9th centuries BCE saw the emergence of several territorial kingdoms in the southern Levant. Two Israelite kingdoms emerged: the Kingdom of Israel, which ruled over the areas of Samaria, Galilee, Sharon and parts of Transjordan, and had its capital for the most of its history in the city of Samaria,[83] and the Kingdom of Judah, which controlled the Judaean Mountains, most of the Shfela, and the northern Naqab, and had its capital in Jerusalem.[84]
In Transjordan, three kingdoms—Moab, Ammon and Edom—began to arise at about the same period.[85][86]
Encroaching expansions
Unlike Egypt and Mesopotamia, the Iron Age Levant was characterized by patches of scattered kingdoms and tribal confederations which originated from the same cultural and linguistic milieu, and was much less densely populated than either.[2] Occasionally, these closely related entities united against expanding outer forces, notably in the Battle of Qarqar (853 BC) which saw an alliance of Aramaeans, Phoenicians, Israelites, Ammonites and Arabs united against the Assyrians under Shalmaneser III (859–824 BC).[88][89] The alliance, led by Hadadezer of Aram-Damascus, brought to a halt the Assyrian campaign, which boasted an army of 120,000 soldiers active in Syria.[90][74]
By 843 BC the political situation in central and southern Syria changed radically, after
The Assyrians, who had larger resources of manpower than the Levant,[74] only managed to subdue the Levantine states after multiple attempts and campaigns that were finalized under Tiglath-Pileser III (745–727 BC).[95][68][96][97][98][87][99][100] In 734 BC, when a wide-scale revolt against the Assyrians broke out in the coastal cities, Levantine states had been split into two axes: an anti-Assyrian axis that included Damascus–Tyre–Samaria–the Arabs; and a pro-Assyrian axis which included Arwad, Ashqalon and Gaza joined by Judah, Ammon, Moab and Edom.[74] The Assyrian axis quickly dissolved due to the agitation of the anti-Assyrian axis, who also started the famous Syro-Ephraimite War in order to force Judah to join them.[74] The anti-Assyrian forces were eventually crushed by 732 BC.[74] Aram-Damascus was annexed and its population was deported; Hamath was razed to the ground and Arameans were prohibited from rebuilding it;[101] the Kingdom of Israel based in Samaria was destroyed and, according to Biblical accounts, the city's population was deported into Assyrian captivity.[102]
The fierce resistance and fighting capabilities of the Arameans convinced the Assyrian kings to incorporate them into the army, namely the tribes of Gurru and Itu'u.[103] By the time of Shalmaneser V (727–722 BC), these tribes were an essential part of the empire, and were given the task of securing the empire's peripheries. The Aramaean identity of these tribes probably contributed to the consolidation of Aramaic's prestigious status as the empire's lingua franca.[95]
At their height, the Assyrians dominated all of the Levant,
The subsequent balance of power was, however, short-lived. In the 550s BC, the Achaemenids revolted against the Medes and gained control of their empire, and over the next few decades annexed the realms of Lydia, Damascus, Babylonia, and Egypt into their empire, consolidating control as far as India. This vast kingdom was divided up into various satrapies and governed roughly according to the Assyrian model, but with a far lighter hand. Babylon became one the empire's four capitals, and the lingua france was Aramaic. Around this time Zoroastrianism became the predominant religion in Persia.
Classical Age
Hellenistic rule
When Alexander and later the
- Antioch (the capital of the Seleucid empire)
- Apamea
- Decapolis (a league of ten Hellenistic cities)
- Laodicea
- Seleucia Pieria
- Larissa in Syria
- Cyrrhus
- Chalcis ad Belum
The Greek settlers would be used to form the Seleucid
Resurgence of local kingdoms
The Seleucids gradually lost their domains in Bactria to the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom, and in Iran and Mesopotamia to the rising Parthian Empire. Eventually, this limited Seleucid domains to the Levant, and the power decline would lead to the formation of several breakaway states in the Levant.
In the north, Greco-Iranian satrap Ptolemaeus declared himself the king of Commagene in 163 BC,[112] while the Arab Abgarids ruled Osroene independently since 132 BC.[113][114] The Maccabean Revolt in Palestine inaugurated the Hasmonean kingdom in 140 BCE.[115] The Nabataeans further south had maintained their kingdom since the 3rd century BC.[116] This rendered the Seleucids a weak, vulnerable state limited to parts of Syria and Lebanon.
Roman period
The
Between the 1st and 3rd centuries, the
The region of
During the
Following the permanent division of the Roman Empire in 391, the Levantine provinces became part of the
The devastating Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628 ended with Byzantine recapture of the land, but left the empire rather exhausted, which taxed the inhabitants heavily. The Levant became the frontline between the Byzantines and the Persian Sassanids, which devastated the region.[130][131][132] The war triggered the displacement of many inhabitants from Syria and Palestine to Egypt, and from there to Carthage and Sicily,[133] although archaeological evidence suggests smooth continuity and little displacement of the overall population.[134]
Muslim conquest and period
Eastern Roman control over the Levant lasted until 636 when Arab armies conquered the Levant, after which it became a part of the Rashidun Caliphate and was known as Bilād ash-Shām.
Under the Umayyads, the capital was moved to Damascus. However, the Levant did not experience wide-scale Arabian tribal settlement unlike in Iraq, where the focus of Arabian tribal migration was. Archaeological and historical evidence strongly suggest there was smooth population continuity and no large-scale abandonment of major sites and regions of the Levant after the Muslim conquest.[131][135][136][137] Moreover, in contrast to Iran, Iraq and North Africa, where Muslim soldiers established separate garrison cities (amsar), Muslim troops in the Levant settled alongside locals in pre-existing cities such as Damascus, Homs, Jerusalem and Tiberias.[138] The Umayyads also relied on the native Syrian Arab tribes for their military, who oversaw a recruitment policy that resulted in considerable numbers of tribesmen and frontier peasants filling the ranks of the regular and auxiliary forces.[139] These were Arab tribes who inhabited the Levant before Islam, and included tribes such as Lakhm, Judham, Ghassan, Amilah, Balqayn, Salih and Tanukh.[139] When the Abbasids moved the capital to Baghdad in 750, this exposed the Muslim Arabs to the challenge of the strong and well-articulated identity of Iran, whereas in Damascus, they had only to contend with the numerous parochial and fractured identities of the Levant.[140]
Abbasid focus on Iraq and Iran neglected the Levant, which in turn experienced a period of frequent uprisings and revolts. Syria became fertile grounds for anti-Abbasid sentiments, in various contrasting pro-Umayyad and pro-Shiite forms. In 841,
See also
- Names of the Levant
- History of the Middle East
- List of archaeological periods (Levant)
- Ancient Near East
- Levantine archaeology
- Near Eastern bioarchaeology
- History of the ancient Levant
- History of Cyprus
- History of Palestine – same as "History of Israel", with a non-Jewish focus
- History of Israel i.e. of the "land of Israel" – same as "History of Palestine", with a Jewish focus
- History of Jordan
- History of the Sinai Peninsula
- Prehistory of the Levant
- History of Islam
References
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General references
- Philip Mansel, Levant: Splendour and Catastrophe on the Mediterranean, London, John Murray, 11 November 2010, hardback, 480 pages, ISBN 978-0-300-17264-5