Emar

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Carte Syrie Ville Emar FR.png

Emar , Imar , Assyrian Aštata, Roman Barbalissus, Arabic Bālis, today Meskene Qadime, is a Bronze Age city on the arch of the central Euphrates in Syria , 85 km west of Raqqa . It is already known from Ebla texts from the 24th century BC. It was at the crossroads of the trade routes between Mesopotamia and Syria via Tadmor on the one hand and to Anatolia on the other. The city extends over 1000 × 700 m and is now surrounded by the waters of Lake Assad .

Digs

The settlement was threatened by the construction of the Tabqa dam . A French team led by Jean Margueron carried out excavations between 1972 and 1976. Clay tablets with the name of the settlement were discovered in the first week of the excavation. A total of around 700 cuneiform tablets were uncovered and published by the epigraphist Daniel Arnaud . Further panels from illegitimate excavations ended up in the art trade. They come mainly from the Late Bronze Age and are in a Middle Babylonian dialect with a strong Aramaic or Arabic influence. Some Hittite and Hurrian texts have also been discovered. After the end of the excavations, the area of ​​the city was badly damaged by robbery excavations. Since 1996 a team from the University of Tübingen under the direction of Uwe Finkbeiner has been carrying out excavations and securing work there.

map

The Hittite city on the high bank had a regular rectangular network of streets and the building site was partially terraced. Muršili II mentions the construction of the city in his annals. They therefore owned a Hittite garrison under the command of the "superintendent of the country". There was also a Hittite civil administration under a prince ( dumu.lugal ). The city was protected on three sides by a steep drop and on the fourth side had a 30 m wide and 15 m deep trench, which was sunk into the limestone. In addition to two temples on the top of the plateau, a palace (Palace A) in the style of a bīt ḫilāni was excavated. Temple M2 had ceramic cylinders as decorations on the facade, as they are also known from Nuzi and Elam . The houses in the city had a very uniform plan. They usually consisted of three rooms, a staircase proves the existence of an upper floor.

history

The city had trade relations with Ebla and Mari . It was probably right on the banks of the Euphrates. Between the middle of the 14th century BC BC and 1187 BC As the capital of Aštata, Emar was a Hittite protectorate and outpost against Assyria. The king of Emar was a vassal of the king of Karkemiš , who was a relative of the great king and held the rank of viceroy. The city was besieged twice over a long period, either by Mitanni or by Assur (the texts only have troops from TAR.WA) and the need was so great that some citizens sold themselves into slavery. Under King Pilsu-Dagan, Emar was attacked by the King of Mitanni, but the latter was able to be repulsed with the help of the weather god . Arnaud considers that it could have been Qibi-Aššur , an Assyrian general.

The city was founded around 1175 BC. BC - probably by Aramaic groups - destroyed and only repopulated in Roman times.

Ruler

A total of four rulers of Emar have come down to us. Baʿal-Kabar, the first traditional ruler, had several sons, but Ahi-Reschep and Abbānu died before they could ascend the throne. Pilsu-Dagan had a rebellious brother named Bisu-Dagan, who, however, Durandt believes to be an alternative spelling of Pilsu-Dagan.

economy

In the Late Bronze Age, barley was mainly grown in the area of ​​Emar, there were also vineyards and vegetable gardens. Some lists of fields have come down to us. However, trade is likely to have been the most important industry. Merchants from Emar are recorded in Ugarit , Tadmor and the Assyrian Empire .

Material culture

The inhabitants used roll seals or stamps, some of which were bilingual, inscribed in hieroglyphic Luwian and Akkadian cuneiform.

religion

The highest priest of the city exercised the office of interpreter of signs ( lú -ḫal). He resided in the temple M1, from which numerous clay tablets come. He was consecrated to the god d -NIN.URTA, which is interpreted as Aštar or Bel māti. The second temple on the plateau was a Baal temple, in which the high priestess NIN.DINGIR probably resided as the god's wife. Also Dagan was an important god. He played a role especially in the zukru ritual, which took place every seven years. Some Hittite gods are also known from the pantheon of Emar.

literature

  • Alois Musil : The middle Euphrates. A topographical itinerary (= Oriental Explorations and Studies. 3, ZDB -ID 424325-0 ). American Geographical Society, New York NY 1927.
  • Daniel Arnaud: Les textes d'Emar et la chronologie de la fin du Bronze récént. In: Syria. Vol. 52, 1975, ISSN  0768-2506 , pp. 87-92, ( digitized version ).
  • Mark W. Chavalas (Ed.): Emar. The history, religion, and culture of a Syrian town in the late Bronze Age. CDL Press, Bethesda MD 1996, ISBN 1-883053-18-8 .
  • Eugen J. Pentiuc: West Semitic Vocabulary in the Akkadian Texts from Emar (= Harvard Semitic Studies. 49). Eisenbrauns, Winona Lake IN 2001, ISBN 1-575-06910-5 .
  • Uwe Finkbeiner , Betina Faist : Emar. A Syrian city under Hittite rule. In: The Hittites and their empire. The people of 1000 gods. Theiss, Bonn 2002, ISBN 3-8062-1676-2 , pp. 190-195, (exhibition catalog).
  • Lorenzo d'Alfonso, Yoram Cohen, Dietrich Sürenhagen (Eds.): The city of Emar among the Late Bronze Age Empires. History, landscape, and Society. Proceedings of the Konstanz Emar Conference, April 25-26, 2006 (= Old Orient and Old Testament. 349). Ugarit-Verlag, Münster 2008, ISBN 978-3-86835-006-7 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Daniel Arnaud: Les textes d'Emar et la chronologie de la fin du Bronze récént. In: Syria. Vol. 52, 1975, pp. 87-92, here pp. 88-89.
  2. ^ Edward Lipiński : On the Skirts of Canaan in the Iron Age. Historical and Topographical researches (= Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta. 153). Peeters, Leuven 2006, ISBN 90-429-1798-9 , p. 28.
  3. ↑ Horst Klengel : History of the Hittite Empire (= Handbook of Oriental Studies . Dept. 1: The Near and Middle East. Vol. 34). Brill, Leiden et al. 1999, ISBN 90-04-10201-9 , p. 318.

Coordinates: 35 ° 59 ′ 14.1 ″  N , 38 ° 6 ′ 36.9 ″  E