Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

SYRIA

In ancient times, the region bordering the eastern Mediterranean and extending northward from (and sometimes including) Palestine and Phoenicia to the Euphrates in the northeast and the Taurus Mountains in the northwest.

Syria’s cultural heritage begins with Stone Age hunters who pursued migrating animal herds that moved northward through the Orontes River valley until they reached the valley of Nahr el-Kabir. At that point, the game trail must have turned westward toward the Mediterranean Sea. Analysis of the stone tools, and the geomorphological setting at sites such as Sitt Marko and Latamne, date them from 500 thousand to 1 million years old. The most ancient archaeological sites in Syria are associated with Homo erectus populations that were replaced ca. 100 to 200 thousand years ago by both modern Homo sapien and Homo sapien var. Neandertal populations.

Ten thousand years ago, the hunting and gathering bands scattered across wide sections of Syria began to establish more settled villages such as Mureybet and Abu Hureyra. Animal bones and carbonized seeds recovered from these Neolithic villages demonstrate that domesticated wheat, barley, sheep, goats, and cattle would replace a diet of wild gazelle and gathered wild seeds. The change from hunting and gathering to food production by cultivation went hand in hand with population increases, advances in domestic architecture, and the rise of complex burial rituals designed to honor the dead.

The need to control economic surplus in the Neolithic settlements would eventually give rise to a system of fingersize clay tokens designed to keep track of commodities such as bread, oil, meat, beer, and garments. Tokens, a precursor to writing, would remain in use in urban settings until the advent of cuneiform script written on clay tablets. In some rural contexts, even after 3rd-millennium urban populations had shifted to the cuneiform script, tokens would continue in use as a recording technique.

Rich economies developed in Syria during the 3rd millennium when the western arc of the Fertile Crescent was formed by Syria. The modern cities of Damascus and Aleppo trace their origins to this period. Large urban centers, surrounded by circular walls, develop during the 3rd millennium in northern Syria at sites such as Tell Leilan, Tell Chuera, and Tell Mozan. Discoveries at Tell Mozan have demonstrated that it was the ancient city of Urkesh ruled by people speaking Hurrian.

Unquestionably the most remarkable of Syria’s first cities was ancient Ebla (Tell Mardikh). Extensive research at Ebla has demonstrated that the city thrived for 800 years and that the urban center included extensive palaces, temples, workshops, and royal tombs. A major archive of cuneiform tablets, discovered during 1975, continues to expand our understanding of the city’s political, economic, and religious traditions. Ebla’s economy was fueled by its agricultural surpluses and textile industries, while trade brought objects to the kingdom including lapis lazuli from Afghanistan and carved stone vessels from Egypt. Cuneiform texts from Ebla provide clues to its pantheon of ca. 40 principal deities including Kura (principal god of the city), Hadad (storm-god), Dagan (lord of the region), Rashap (god of the underworld), Adamma (underworld goddess and spouse of Rashap), Ishara (principal goddess of the city), Ishtar (goddess of love and war), and Idabal (god associated with the Orontes Valley).

Complex patterns of urban growth and abandonment at the end of the 3rd millennium would coincide with the expansion and political ascension of West Semitic nomadic and seminomadic tribes often called Amorites. An Amorite king named Yaggid-lim established a powerful lineage at Mari (modern Tell Hariri) which would eventually be displaced by Šamši-adad, progenitor of the subsequent Assyrian Empire. The story of Mari began in the 3rd millennium and ended when the palace of Zimri-lim was destroyed (ca. 1759 b.c.) by Hammurabi of Babylon. Mari is of particular importance because of the ca. 15 thousand cuneiform documents discovered during the decades of excavation by French archaeologists. Physical remains of three temples have been identified near the palace; the temples were dedicated to the goddesses Ishtar, Ninizaza, and Ishtarat. Cuneiform texts attest to the importance of several deities including Itur-mer (lord of the land of Mari), Šamaš (sun-god), Dagan, and a principal pantheon of ca. 40 gods and goddesses.

Heavy defensive walls are a hallmark of the cities of Syria during the 2nd and 3rd millennia. The walls were meant to defend against the armies from southern Mesopotamia, Turkey, Egypt, and the islands of the Mediterranean Sea. One such invasion was led by the Egyptian king Thutmose I (1504-1492), who invaded the Mitannian kingdom situated within Syria and north of the Euphrates River. Thutmose I’s invasion was in retribution for the invasion of the Egyptian delta by Syro-Palestinians, but it also brought rich tribute into the Egyptian Empire. The rich agricultural resources of Syria made it a target for expansionist empires. In 1285, at Qadesh on the Orontes River, Egyptian troops under Rameses II clashed with the infantry and chariots of the Hittite king Muwatallis. Rameses claimed victory in his monumental reliefs, but the extension of Hittite influence southward to Damascus suggests greater reliability in the Hittite version.

Ancient cities were established in both the interior of Syria and along its Mediterranean coastline. Ancient Ugarit (Ras Shamra) is the best investigated site along the Syrian coast. The builders of Ugarit were able to take advantage of stone suitable for palaces, temples, houses, and a defensive wall. Artifacts point to trade routes reaching south to Egypt and west to the Mycenean culture in Greece. The kingdom of Ugarit would fall victim to the Sea Peoples between 1180 and 1175. Among the significant discoveries of Ugarit is a small tablet dated to the 14th century bearing an abecedary. The two main temples in the city of Ugarit were dedicated to Dagan (god of the underworld) and Baal (god of strength and fertility). Cuneiform texts refer to a pantheon including El (father of the gods), Athirat (goddess of the sea and spouse of El), ʿAnat, Mot (death), Rashap, Nikkal, and Kotarot.

Aramean and Neo-Hittite principalities rose in power after 1200, but their autonomy was curtailed as the Assyrian Empire annexed the cities of Syria. An exceptional temple from this period is situated at Ain Dara, in the Afrin Valley near Aleppo. The iconography of the Ain Dara temple links it with Ishtar, goddess of fertility. The exterior of the temple is decorated with carved designs of mountain gods, sphinxes, and lions.

In 612 the Babylonians and Iranian Medes toppled the Neo-Assyrian Empire and Syria came under Babylonian control. The Achaemenid Persians annexed Syria into their empire during the 6th century, but lost it to the Greeks during the 4th century. The mixture of the Greek and Syrian traditions resulted in artistic and architectural achievements that would continue even after the Romans dislodged Greek control from Syria. The Greek and Roman period produced many of Syria’s greatest monuments, still preserved at sites such as Dura Europos, Palmyra, Bosra, and Apamea. Of great significance is the fact that two Syrians, Elagabalus (a.d. 213-222) and Philippus (244-249), achieved the rank of emperor.

Roman period cities like Dura Europos supported thriving multi-ethnic/multi-religious communities. Several temples to traditional Syrian and Roman deities, a house church, and an elaborately decorated synagogue were all found at Dura Europos. This mixture changed as the Christian communities steadily grew and as the traditional temples dwindled in power and influence.

Bibliography. H. Weiss, ed., Ebla to Damascus: Art and Archaeology of Ancient Syria (Washington, 1985).

Michael J. Fuller

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

SYRIA

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)