Emar
𒂍𒈥 | |
Amorite | |
| Satellite of | Ebla, Yamhad, Carchemish |
|---|---|
| Site notes | |
| Excavation dates | 1972–1976 1996–2002 |
| Archaeologists | Jean-Claude Margueron |
| Ownership | Public |
| Public access | Yes |
Emar (
History
Emar was strategically sited as a trans-shipping point where trade on the Euphrates was reloaded for shipping by overland route.
Early Bronze
In the middle of the third millennium BC Emar came under the influence of the rulers of Ebla; the city is mentioned in archives at Ebla.
Middle Bronze
In
From 1760 BC onwards, the Kingdom of Mari ruled by Zimri-Lim had been destroyed by Hammurabi, and a new polity arose at Terqa as the Kingdom of Khana to the immediate east of Emar.
Late Bronze
For the thirteenth and the early twelfth centuries BC (Late Bronze Age), there is written documentation from Emar itself, mostly in the Akkadian language, and also references in contemporaneous texts from Hattusa, Ugarit, and in Assyrian archives; at the time Emar was within the Hittite sphere of influence, subject to the king of Carchemish, a Hittite client-king. It was the chief city of a Hittite border province known as the Land of Astata (Ashtata) which included Tell Fray. Correlating the kings of Emar with the known king-list of Carchemish provides some absolute dating.[3]
Archaeological and written documentation come to an end in the late twelfth century BC as a result of the
The site remained desolate at the unstable eastern borders of the
Archaeology
The initial salvage excavations in advance of the rising waters of the Syrian Tabqa Dam project impounding Lake El Assad were undertaken by two French teams, in 1972-76, under the direction of Jean-Claude Margueron.[5]
Late Bronze Age temple
Excavations revealed a temple area comprising the sanctuaries of the weather god Ba’al and possibly of his consort Astarte of the Late Bronze Age (thirteenth and early twelfth century BC).[citation needed]
Cuneiform tablets
After the conclusion of the French excavations the site was left unguarded and was systematically looted, bringing many cuneiform tablets onto the antiquities gray market stripped of their context. In 1992, the Syrian Directorate-General of Antiquities and Museums took charge of the site, and a fresh series of campaigns revealed earlier strata, of the Middle and Early Bronze Ages (second half of the third millennium and the first half of the second millennium BC) the Imar that was mentioned in the archives of Mari and elsewhere. Beginning in 1996, the Syrian effort was joined by a team from the University of Tübingen Germany.[6][7]
So far, around 1100 tablets in Akkadian have been recovered from the site, 800 from the excavation and around 300 emerging on the antiquities market. In addition 100 tablets in
Notes
- ^ Westenholz, Joan (2000). Cuniform Inscriptions in the Collection of the Bible Lands Museum Jerusalem: The Emar Tabltes. Styx. pp. 121, 129.
- ^ Jean-Claude Margueron and Veronica Boutte, "Emar, Capital of Aštata in the Fourteenth Century BCE" The Biblical Archaeologist 58.3 (September 1995:126-138); a single Old Babylonian tablet was recovered.
- ^ a b Adamthwaite (2001).
- ^ Daniel Arnaud, Les textes d'Emar et la chronologie de la fin du Bronze Recent, Syria, vol. 52, pp. 88-89, 1975
- ^ Margueron published findings at Emar between 1975 and 1990, beginning with "Les fouilles françaises de Meskéné-Emar", in Comptes-rendus de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belle-Lettres 1975:201-213; Daniel Arnaud published the cuneiform texts, 1985-87.
- ^ U. Finkbeiner, Emar & Balis 1996-1998. Preliminary Report of the Joint Syrian-German Excavations with the Collaboration of Princeton University, Berytus, vol. 44, pp.5-34, 2000
- ISBN 2-503-53320-5
See also
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- Cities of the ancient Near East
- Chronology of the ancient Near East
- Tell Hadidi
References
- Adamthwaite, Murray R. (2001). Late Hittite Emar: The Chronology, Synchronisms, and Socio-Political Aspects of a Late Bronze Age Fortress Town. Peeters. ISBN 90-429-0909-9.
- Arnaud, Daniel, Emar: Récherches au pays d'Aştata VI: Textes sumériens et akkadiens, Erc/Adpf, 1987, ISBN 2-86538-178-1
- D. Beyer, Meskene-Emar. Dix ans de travaux 1972-1982, Editions Recherche sur les Civilisations, 1982, ISBN 2-86538-044-0
- Chavalas, Mark William,Emar: the history, religion, and culture of a Syrian town in the late Bronze Age, CDL Press, 1996, ISBN 1-883053-18-8
- D'Alfonso, Lorenzo, Yoram Cohen Dietrich Sürenhagen, The City of Emar Among the Late Bronze Age Empires, Eisenbrauns, 2008, ISBN 3-86835-006-3
- Dalley, Stephanie and Beatrice Teissier, Tablets from the Vicinity of Emar and Elsewhere, Iraq, vol. 54, pp. 83–111, 1992
- Yoram Cohen, The Scribes and Scholars of the City of Emar in the Late Bronze Age, Eisenbrauns, 2009, ISBN 1-57506-931-8
- Fleming, Daniel E., Time at Emar: The Cultic Calendar and the Rituals from the Diviner's Archive, Mesopotamian Civilizations 11, Jerrold S. Cooper ed. Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, 2000.
- Fleming, Daniel E., The Installation of Baal's High Priestess at Emar: A Window on Ancient Syrian Religion, Harvard Semitic Studies 42. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1992.
- ISBN 1-57506-910-5
- ISBN 9056930230
External links
- History of Emar; state of current research, excavations (Tübingen University)