Tell Sukas

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Coordinates: 35 ° 18 ′ 22.5 ″  N , 35 ° 55 ′ 22 ″  E

Relief Map: Syria
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Tell Sukas​
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Syria

Tell Sukas ( Arabic تل سوكاس Tell Sūkās , DMG Tall Sūkās ) describes a settlement hill (Arabic Tell ) on the Levantine Mediterranean coast in today's Syria . Theremains of the settlement unearthedby Danish archaeologistsbetween 1958 and 1963are located about 6 kilometers south of the old town of Jabla and 24 kilometers southwest of the city of Latakia in the Syrian governorate of Latakia of the same name. Tell Sukas is located on a promontory thatextends west into the sea,surrounded by two harbor bays in the north and south. The Tell can probably be identifiedwith the place Suksu or Shuksa mentioned in ancient oriental sources.

history

Neolithic finds show that Tell Sukas was first settled in the period from 6550 to 4800 BC. Chr. There were similarities in the types of dwellings, burial customs and the economic structure with similar settlements in Mureybet , Tell Ramad , Tell Aswad and Tell Abu Hureyra . In Tell Sukas, however, there is no cultural evidence from the Copper Age and the Early Bronze Age . Traces of settlement can only be found again in the layers of the middle (around 2000 to 1600 BC) and late Bronze Age (around 1600 to 1170 BC). Along with Ugarit and Rās ibn-Ḥāni, Tell Sukas is one of the places where cuneiform script was found - clay tablets in Ugaritic script . Around 1170 BC Tell Sukas, which is believed to have been identical to the Late Bronze Age Shukshu (Šukšu) , seems to have been destroyed by fire, possibly by attacks by the Sea Peoples around the eighth year of the reign of the Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses III. or caused by an earthquake .

In the northeastern, highest part of Tell Sukas, the ruins of several private and public buildings from the late 2nd millennium to the second half of the 1st millennium BC have been preserved. The Iron Age development is divided into two phases, called Phoenician II (1170 to 850 BC) and Phoenician I (850 to 675 BC). The dividing line between the two periods is the partial destruction of the settlement around 850 BC. During the Assyrian invasion of the coast of Phenicia under Shalmaneser III. Imported Cypriot and Greek pottery indicate good relations between the Phoenician Tell Sukas with Cyprus and the Aegean region for the Iron Age .

Already under Shalmaneser III. there seems to have been the first settlements of Greeks . After Tell Sukas was destroyed again by the Assyrian king Asarhaddon in 677 BC. During the campaign against Sidon or 671 BC. During the campaign against Tire , allied with the Egyptian pharaoh Taharqa , they, including the Cypriots, formed the majority of the population. The establishment of a Greek sanctuary in the settlement can have been the result of a gradual development, as well as a fire or a military upheaval, including the killing or deportation of the ancestral Phoenician population. A small temple of the Antes stood on a high cult terrace in the south of Tell Sukas during this period . The Greek period is divided into three phases, Greek III (675 to 588 BC), Greek II (588 to 552 BC) and Greek I (552 to 498 BC). The separations of the three sections again indicate horizons of destruction, with that of 588 BC. Possibly due to the military operations of the Pharaoh Apries against the New Babylonian Empire under Nebuchadnezzar II and his Phoenician vassals, who from 552 BC On a punitive expedition of the neo-Babylonian ruler Nabonidus .

The Greek Tell Sukas was founded after 498 BC. BC (a terminus post quem ) abandoned. Reconstruction by Phoenician settlers only took place around 380 BC. The settlement of the 4th century BC. BC was laid out according to a completely new plan that did not follow the Hippodamian outlines of the former Greek structure. The Neophoenician period lasted until around 140 BC. This was followed by two Greek-influenced periods, called Hellenistic II (140 to 117 BC) and Hellenistic I (117 to 68 BC). Further, unspecified finds come from the Roman and Byzantine times as well as the time of the Crusaders and the late Middle Ages .

By Emil Forrer 1934 two first soundings were made in Tell Sukas, which in ancient Egyptian , Ugaritic and Hittite mentioned documents. Between 1958 and 1963, the Danish archaeologist Poul Jørgen Riis carried out five excavation campaigns at the site.

literature

Final publication of the excavation

  • Poul Jørgen Riis: Sūkās 1: The North-East Sanctuary and the First Settling of Greeks in Syria and Palestine (Publications of the Carlsberg Expedition to Phenicia 1). København, Munksgaard 1970.
  • Gunhild Ploug: Sūkās 2: The Aegean, Corinthian and Eastern Greek Pottery and Terracottas (Publications of the Carlsberg Expedition to Phenicia 2). København, Munksgaard 1973. ISBN 87-7304-012-6
  • Poul Jørgen Riis; Henrik Thrane: Sūkās 3: The Neolithic Periods (Publications of the Carlsberg Expedition to Phenicia 3). København, Munksgaard 1974. ISBN 87-7304-026-6
  • Henrik Thrane: Sūkās 4: A Middle Bronze Age Collective Grave on Tall Sūkās (Publications of the Carlsberg Expedition to Phenicia 5). København, Munksgaard 1978. ISBN 87-7304-051-7
  • Verner Alexandersen: Sūkās 5: A Study of Teeth and Jaws From a Middle Bronze Age Collective Grave on Tall Sūkās (Publications of the Carlsberg Expedition to Phenicia 6). København, Munksgaard 1978. ISBN 87-7304-057-6
  • Poul Jørgen Riis: Sūkās 6: The Graeco-Phoenician Cemetery and Sanctuary at the Southern Harbor (Publications of the Carlsberg Expedition to Phenicia 7). København, Munksgaard 1979. ISBN 87-7304-061-4
  • Marie-Louise Buhl: Sūkās 7: The Near Eastern Pottery and Objects of Other Materials From the Upper Strata (Publications of the Carlsberg Expedition to Phenicia 9). København, Munksgaard 1983. ISBN 87-7304-125-4
  • John Lund: Sūkās 8: The Habitation Quarters (Publications of the Carlsberg Expedition to Phenicia 10). København, Munksgaard 1986. ISBN 87-7304-161-0
  • Evelyn Oldenburg: Sūkās 9: The Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age Periods (Publications of the Carlsberg Expedition to Phenicia 11). København, Munksgaard, 1991. ISBN 87-7304-218-8
  • Poul Jørgen Riis: Sūkās 10: The Bronze and Early Iron Age Remains at the Southern Harbor (Publications of the Carlsberg Expedition to Phenicia 12). København, Munksgaard 1996. ISBN 87-7304-271-4

more publishments

  • Ali Abou Assaf: Tell Sukas. In: The Oxford Encyclopedia of Archeology in the Near East Vol. 5. Ed. Eric M. Meyers, pp. 90-91. Oxford University Press, New York 1997.
  • Gunnar Lehmann: Investigations on the Late Iron Age in Syria and Lebanon: Stratigraphy and ceramic forms between approx. 720 to 300 BC (Ancient Studies of the Middle East: Archaeological Studies on the Culture and History of the Old Orient 5). Ugarit-Verlag, Münster 1996, pp. 235-252. ISBN 3-927120-33-2
  • Gunnar Lehmann: Sukās, Tall , in: Bibliography of archaeological sites and surveys in Syria and Lebanon. Leidorf, Rahden / Westfalen 2002. ISBN 3-89646-639-9
  • John Lund: Tell Soukas. In: Le royaume d'Ougarit. Aux origenes de l'alphabet. Eds. Geneviève Galliano, Yves Calvet, p. 63. Somogy, Paris; Lyon 2004. ISBN 2-85056-785-X .
  • Antonia Ciasca : Phenicia . In: Sabatino Moscati (Ed.): The Phoenicians . IBTauris, London & New York 2001, ISBN 1-85043-533-2 , Suqas, pp. 183 ( books.google.de ).
  • Nicola Schreiber: The Cypro-Phoenician Pottery of the Iron Age . Koninklijke Brill, Leiden 2003, ISBN 90-04-12854-9 , Tell Sukas, p. 208/209 ( books.google.de ).

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Frank Rainer Scheck, Johannes Odenthal: Syrien . High cultures between the Mediterranean and the Arabian desert (=  Dumont art travel guide ). DuMont Reiseverlag, Cologne 1998, ISBN 978-3-7701-3978-1 , history, p. 31 ( books.google.de [accessed January 15, 2012]).
  2. ^ Stanislav Segert: A basic grammar of the Ugaritic language . University of California Press, Berkeley, Los Angeles, London 1984, ISBN 0-520-03999-8 , Introduction, pp. 13 ( books.google.de ).
  3. ↑ a b Michael Sommer : The Phoenicians. History and culture (=  C. H. Beck Wissen . Volume 2444 ). C. H. Beck, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-406-56244-0 , Phenicia - A land of cities, p. 20 .
  4. ^ A b c d e Andrew Michael Tangye Moore: Tell Sukas in Syria: The Neolithic Period through the Present. In: The Neolithic of the Levant (1978). ancientneareast.tripod.com, accessed January 11, 2012 .
  5. ↑ Herbert Niehr: The Phoenician city pantheon of Lebanon and its relationship to kingship in pre-Hellenistic times . In: Reinhard Gregor Kratz, Hermann Spieckermann (ed.): Images of Gods, Images of God, Images of the World - Research on the Old Testament, 2nd row (17) . Volume I: Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persia, Asia Minor, Syria, Palestine. Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2006, ISBN 978-3-16-148673-9 , The Phoenician royal cities of Lebanon in pre-Hellenistic times, p. 304 ( books.google.de ).

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