Architecture And Social System In Ancient Syria
The academia usually refers the grand civilization established by Egypt, Babylon Hittites and Athelia as “ancient east”. However the definition of “ancient east” has led to the exclusion of a series of ancient civilizations that was emerged during the Bronze Age. The fact should be noticed, there were evidence of urban cities and civilizations that were established by Hurrians and Canaanites now known as the ancestors of Syrian, Palestinian and other ethnic groups. The academic community has not realized the importance of these civilizations and religions. Ancient Syria has only rarely been studied as a main project, it is more likely to be mentioned as a supportive evidence and ancillary content of Egyptian studies that was established about a hundred years ago. Therefore the historical and archaeological facts of ancient Syria were unclear. During that time ancient Syria was regarded as a transitional “courtyard” that has witnessed armies from Assyria Babylon and Canaan.
However, the archaeological finds of the past decade have uncovered an unknown chapter of ancient Syria. The amazing civilization they created during Bronze Age are presented in turn. The city of Qatna is an outstanding embodiment of this civilization it represents the skills of ancient Syria’s architects and it’s social system. The city of Qatna presents the distinct features of the Bronze Age. It shows how empowered the royal family was, the central piece of the city is the Imperial Palace, and other administrative buildings were built around the palace. However, the palace was destroyed by Hittites in the middle of the 14th century BC. During the Bronze Age, the competition between the rulers of the major powers in Syria, Mali, Akabating and Qatna was to see who could built a more magnificent palace. The palace of Qatna was built around 1750 BC, and its appearance resembles the famous Mali palace at the time.
According to the letter that was written by King Kagam e of Ukranit during18th century BC, he proposed to go to Mali to observe the unique and magnificent palace. There was no evidence that the rulers of Qatna actually went to visit Mali after making the request. However, one of his daughters married the King of Mali and became a queen. She constantly wrote to her father about her palace of residence. The palaces’ architectural styles of the two countries are very similar. From the layout of the halls and the number of the doors are exactly the same. The surface area of Qatna’s palace is three times larger than Mali’s. The palace of Qatna is unprecedentedly magnificent. In 2008, during the excavation of Qatna, archaeologists discovered seven large skull head pieces. Although skull pieces were discovered in two different rooms of the palace, they are likely to belong to the same species. After studying about the skull the evidence shows they were confirmed to belong to the same elephant. According to the scholar, elephant have existed in Syria for more than a thousand years. It could indicate that some hobby of the King, hunting might be one of them. The finding of elephant skull also attracted a lot of attention in other archaeological fields.
Especially in the room where the elephant bones were found. It was a pit- shaped chamber in the basement of the palace. The height of the room and the surface area of the room is very disproportionate. The surface area was only 9 square meters, but the height was 5 meters. The only entrance to the room is on the basement ceiling, there were not any proper doors. The elephants head bones were placed in the middle of this pit, it was proper positioned. The second room in the basement was set to a higher ground. According to the historical materials, the Assyrian emperors of the past also likes hunting.
In 2002, archaeologists discovered an emperor’s tomb under the palace. The tomb was chiseled in a thick rock, the collapsed wall blocked the entrance, that might be the reason this tomb survived from looting. The tomb has been kept in secret for about 33 centuries. According to the research the Qatna tomb was built at the same period a Tutankhamun Mausoleum, However the funerary objects were not as rich as Tutankhamnun’s. Although it was not as impressive, still there were outstanding objects, for example, there are two 85 cm high basalt sculptures. Each stands on either side of the entrance to the main burial room, with gold- plated pieces on the floor which was fall off the statue. According to the research the two statues were identified as carved in the 18th century BC- the 17th century BC. The image of the statue is probably two famous rulers of Kaltra. Three rooms are next to the main cemetery, which were believed was using for living (with a total surface area of 64 square meters). The archaeologists discovered nearly 20 human remaining, all of whom are likely to be members of the royal family. In addition, more than 2,000 items were found in the cemetery. Including more that 1,000 pieces of gold ornament, 250 ceramic pots and plates. Many of the findings were actually Egyptian made, stone and bronze containers, gemstones ornaments, round seals, arrows, transcripts and an amber lion head form Baltic Sea.
A coffin in the main tomb was very special. It was placed on a stone bench. Inside the coffin were some human remains, according to the research the body was a 15 years old women. The remain was wrapped in two layer of fabric. The fabric is meters long smeared with precious purple dye. There were also cloth on the body, the condition of the body suggests that she was placed at a high temperature (200 degrees – 250 degrees), probably to avoid the decay of the body. Another example of Palaces that were discovered in Syria is the palace in Ebla. In 1975, at 34 miles south of Aleppo in northern Syria, the site of the Ebla Palace was discovered. The site of the archive of the palace was established 4400 years ago. There are 15,000 pieces of clay plates engraved with cuneiform characters. This is three times more than known texts of this era. This is one of the major discoveries of archaeological studies in West Asia in recent years. The land of the ancient country- Ebla, it covers the area of about 140 Mu, however the archaeologists only discovered the corner of the palace and some affiliated construction. The clay plates that has been discovered was carved with cuneiform. The cuneiform text was firstly unrecognizable, and later the archaeologists found a dictionary- like book. With Sumerian interpret this kind of text called Eblet. There are some similarity between Eblet and the ancient Hebrew that was used in the Bible.
Although it is still not possible to identify all the text on the clay plate, we still have some understanding of its main content. There are hundreds of hymns and spells were recorded on the clay plate. This indicates that religion was well known. There are also names are the same as some of the names in the Bible, such as Abraham, David, etc. Also the myth that was recorded is worth to pay attention to, it also mentions the gods of creation and the flood myth. They are both similar to the ancient Hebrew legends. Although the similarity occurred, the Hebrews came to Palestine (which is 380km northern west) a thousand years after theses Ebola Clay plates were carved. According to the clay plates, Ebla is a country with a prosperous cultures and well developed business. It is associated with Mesopotamia and Egypt. It most flourishing period is from 2400 BC – 2250 BC. The clay plates which were made during this period are mainly administrative and commercial records as well as records of few battles, trading laws and records of metalworking industry.
In addition, the excavation team also found artifacts in the palace. Which includes stairways engraved with shells; wood, stone and metal furniture which were craved with abstract decorative patterns (might be religious or legendary related, but there are no evidence). The carvings include lions rushing to buffalo and warriors fighting with swords. There is one carving that is worth attention to, a wooden cow with a human head which might link to the Greek myth character – Minotanos, the song of Crete King’s wife Pasiphaë. These superb artwork gathers the wisdom of the people of Ebla.
