Byblos

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Byblos
جبيل
Byblos Lebanon 2003.JPG
Byblos in 2003
State : LebanonLebanon Lebanon
Governorate : Mount Lebanon
Founded : approx. 5000 BC Chr.
Coordinates : 34 ° 7 '  N , 35 ° 39'  E Coordinates: 34 ° 7 '  N , 35 ° 39'  E
 
Residents : 40,000
Time zone : UTC + 2
Byblos (Lebanon)
Byblos
Byblos
Roman colonnades
Crusader castle

Byblos ( ancient Greek Βύβλος , Akkadian Gubla , ancient Egyptian Kbn (Kubna) later Kpn (Kupna) , Arabic جبيل Jubail ) is a port city on the Mediterranean coast north of Beirut in Lebanon . It is one of the oldest permanently populated places on earth. Its port was of particular importance in Phoenician and Roman times and during the Crusades in the Middle Ages.

history

Settlement remains can be found in the urban area of ​​Byblos as early as the 5th millennium BC. In the 3rd millennium BC Byblos developed into an important port and received around 2800 BC. A city wall. In the Middle Bronze Age it was the main port of the Levant , especially for the trade in cedar wood to Egypt . This is confirmed by Egyptian vases made of alabaster and clay vessels with the name hieroglyphs of pharaohs found here. Transport ships were built in the port on behalf of the Egyptians. This trade relationship eventually turned into a political dependency. The city kings of Byblos were vassals of the Egyptian pharaohs, even wrote their names in Egyptian hieroglyphics and bore Egyptian titles.

Byblos was the main hub for papyrus , the raw material for the production of papyrus rolls, which were also used for the transmission of literature in the Greek world. After the city, the Greeks designated the papyrus scroll with the neuter βιβλίον biblion (generally “little book”), which in turn gave rise to the word “ Bible ”. Papyrus as a new writing material and the development of its own signature seems to be related: the new syllabary of Byblos was easy to write on papyrus, other than that already in Ugarit developed cuneiform alphabet .

In the second half of the 2nd millennium BC Ugarit Byblos ran out of rank as the most important port in the eastern Mediterranean. Byblos remained an important port city, especially in trade with Egypt, and briefly regained its importance when Ugarit around 1200 BC. Was destroyed. From 900 BC The city came more and more into the sphere of influence of the Assyrians . Tiglat-Pileser III. received from 743 tribute from Schipitba'al (Schipit-Ba'al II.), the king of Byblos. Presumably the Assyrian vassal body began with Sulmanu-ašared III. , who made numerous cities tribute, using a war between Israel ( Ahab ) and Judah ( Jehu ), who made alliances with Syrian cities, to conquer the region.

Later the city came under the rule of the Babylonians and Persians . Byblos had a kind of vassal status. It had its own kings, but had to pay tribute to the great empires. From the 4th century BC Byblos also minted its own coins, of which the names of some kings are known.

After the death of Alexander the great , the city became part of the Seleucid Empire and no longer had its own kings. It lost all political independence. Byblos experienced a period of general prosperity during the Roman period , as evidenced by numerous mosaics, a theater, a colonnade and a nymphaeum . The city also minted its own coins again. After Philo of Alexandria, Byblos had the reputation of being the oldest city in the world.

In Christian times, Byblos was a bishopric under the name Gibelet or Giblet and an important base for the Crusaders , who built a fortress and a cathedral dedicated to John the Baptist here. The city was the center of the Gibelet rule within Tripoli County . It was conquered by Saladin in 1187, recaptured by the crusaders ( Henry VI's crusade ) in 1197 and only finally conquered by the Mameluks in 1298 . In 1516 Byblos came under the control of the Ottoman Empire .

archeology

Temple of the Obelisks
Old port facilities

Byblos was excavated by Pierre Montet and Maurice Dunand from 1920 to 1924 . Important buildings in the city are the Temple of the Obelisks (approx. 1900–1600 BC), in which numerous bronze figures were found, various un-plundered tombs of kings (around 1800 BC), the tomb of Ahiram with its decorated sarcophagus as well as a Roman theater.

In 1984 Byblos was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

religion

Byblos was the main center of the Adonis cult in ancient times . According to legend, Adonis died at a spring a few kilometers south of Byblos. In Byblos, people mourned their death for eight days each year and celebrated their resurrection.

See also

literature

Web links

Commons : Byblos  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

References and comments

  1. ^ Hugo Gressmann : Byblos. With a double plaque by K. Galling. In: Journal for Old Testament Science . Vol. 43 = NF Vol. 2, 1925, pp. 225-242, doi: 10.1515 / zatw.1925.43.1.225 .
  2. ↑ Kurt Sethe : On the oldest history of the Egyptian sea traffic with Byblos and the Lebanon area. 1. The oldest Egyptian name of Byblos . In: Journal for Egyptian Language and Antiquity . tape 45 , 1908, pp. 7-9 ( archive.org ).
  3. ↑ Dunand: Byblos. 1972, p. 30 f.
  4. ↑ UNESCO World Heritage Center: Byblos. Retrieved August 29, 2017 .
  5. ↑ Dunand: Byblos. 1972, p. 93 f.