Meaning of UGARIT

This place, known today as Ras Shamra, is located on the Mediterranean coast of Syria, about 16 km north of Latakia and 40 km southwest of Antioch, and opposite the eastern tip of Cyprus.

I. The discovery.
Like so many other discoveries, this one was also accidental. In the spring of 1928 an Alawite farmer discovered a slab while plowing at Minet el-Beida (the "White Harbor"), near present-day Ras Shamra. Lifted up, it turned out to be a sepulchral chamber.

Further investigation and examination of pottery found in the tomb, as well as the tomb structure itself, led researchers to establish significant parallels with Mycenaean pottery and Cretan tombs.

These archaeological clues led a French archaeological expedition there, led by Claude Schaeffer.

After a few days of excavations in the Minet el-Beida necropolis they found an image of a fertility goddess. The awareness that they were excavating a necropolis led Schaeffer to raise the question of where his corresponding city had been.

Not far from there, a few hundred meters to the east, was a promontory covered with fennel, and which was known locally as "the hill of fennel", Ras Shamra. Schaeffer decided it was the most logical place to house the ruins of a long-gone city. Soon remains began to appear.

On May 14, 1929, a large number of tablets written in cuneiform were discovered. Among them there turned out to be large tablets with government treaties, others small ones, with personal correspondence of kings.

Of great importance, however, was the discovery that the majority of those tablets were written with cuneiform symbols, evidently not syllabic, but alphabetical, with only 27 different characters appearing (later it would be appreciated that there were actually 30).

After arduous statistical and cryptanalytic research, Hans Bauer managed to assign their phonetic value to 20 of the cuneiform symbols; Other researchers finished adjusting this work, which was crowned by Édouard Dhorme and Charles Virolleaud.

The language of these tablets turned out to be closely related to biblical Hebrew, both in its grammar and in its literary figures, poetic structure and other aspects that will be discussed later.

The languages of the other tablets were Sumerian, Akkadian, and Khar, conventionally identified with "Hurrian," but which must be identified with Carian (see HURRITES, HOREANS.)

The identification of Ras Shamra with Ugarit was already proposed in 1932 by E. Forrer, an identification that was confirmed by the discovery, a few years later, of tablets that bore the name of the city. Other objects that were discovered during the excavations were tools, jewelry, ceramic remains, cultural objects, etc.

In 1956 another collection of tablets was discovered; However, when the Suez crisis broke out in 1956, with the invasion of Egypt by the French, British and Israelis, French researchers were invited to leave Syria.

The tablets went on to the black market, and could be located many years later by Schaeffer in the security cameras of a Swiss bank. They were eventually acquired by the Institute of Antiquity and Christianity in Claremont. This collection was published by the Pontifical Biblical Institute.

In 1973 there was another accidental discovery of tablets, this time as a result of Syrian military construction in the area. Many of them were left illegible due to incorrect manipulation.

Those that could be preserved were published by Schaeffer in "Ugaritica VII" in 1978 (the Ugaritic series, large volumes of studies, was begun in 1939; its last volume, VIII, was completed by Schaeffer shortly before his death, and deals with of cylindrical seals).