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Ugaritic abecedary, circa 1200 BCE |
In March of 1928, a farmer accidentally discovered the ruins
of the Canaanite city-state of Ugarit which initiated the excavation of the
site, and on May 14, 1929, archaeologists found the first of the cuneiform
tablets written in Ugaritic. (1) Ugaritic cuneiform letters were largely
deciphered and translated by July of 1931(2) and linguists classified the
language as Northwest Semitic, in the same language family as are Phoenician,
Hebrew, and Aramaic. These languages are related to each other much like the
Romance languages are related to one another. They are not the same language
and all of them are written in different alphabets, yet they share many
similarities such as syntax and word roots.
What follows is an accounting of the texts found at Ugarit:
“There are approximately 50 mythological texts in poetry and some 1500 texts in prose (including decipherable fragments). The primary types of prose texts are: religious (ritual, deity lists, votive), ominological (astral, malformed births, extispicy), medical (hippiatric), epistolary, administrative (contracts, lists of many sorts), and didactic (abecedaries, exercises).” (3)
The texts are written in Ugaritic, Akkadian, and Hurrian,
and even include musical scores. (4) The texts date to the Late Bronze Age,
approximately 1350 BCE (3350 years ago) (5), and the poetic narratives
detailing the deities’ adventures come from a far older oral tradition.(6)
Archaeologists believe there are even more texts which await excavation.(7) The
history of Ugarit itself is known from the city’s own documents, correspondence
exchanged with other kingdoms, and from the written documents found from their
neighbors in Mesopotamia, Anatolia, and Egypt. We’re dealing with a literate
culture located in the heart of where recorded history began. Given that they
were a literate people surrounded by literate people, reconstructing a religion
based on these primary and secondary documents is hardly building castles in
the air. Compare this with Celtic religion which relies on documents written by
Romans, and then by Christians living later than the Celts: i.e. secondary and
tertiary documents if the scholar’s luck holds.
Among these texts are ritual texts giving bare outlines as
to ritual activity and offerings with month names and solar occurrences noted;
texts on omens; and tales about the deities themselves. These tales include the
story of King Kirtu, the story of Aqhat, the Baʻal Epic, The Tale of the Gracious Gods; and many more. We
also have a seasonal calendar documented from Gezer in 925 BCE.
If you
would like to read translations of these texts yourself, read more than one translation
since translations differ in accordance to our changing and growing
understanding of the language, technological advances in epigraphy, and shifts
in scholars’ attitudes, theories, and biases. Here is a list of books which
include translated Ugaritic texts:
·
Cohen, Chaim and Daniel Sivan. The Ugaritic Hippiatric Texts: A Critical
Edition. American Oriental Society, New Haven, CT, USA, 1983.
·
Gibson, John C.L. Canaanite Myths and Legends, 2nd Edition. T. and T.
Clark, Ltd., Edinburgh, UK, 1978.
·
del Olmo Lete, Gregorio. Canaanite Religion According to the Liturgical Texts of Ugarit.
Eisenbrauns, Winona Lake, IN, USA, 2004.
·
Pardee, Dennis. Ritual and Cult at Ugarit. Society of Biblical Literature, Atlanta,
GA, USA, 2002.
·
Parker, Simon B., ed. Translated by Mark Smith,
et al. Ugaritic Narrative Poetry. Society
of Biblical Literature, USA, 1997.
·
Smith, Mark S. The Ugaritic Baal Cycle, Volume I: Introduction with Text, Translation
and Commentary of KTU 1.1-1.2. E.J. Brill, Leiden, the Netherlands, 1994.
In
addition to the written word, we also gain information looking into the
archaeological record. Here are a few suggestions, should you wish to learn
more:
·
Nakhai, Beth Alpert. Archaeology and the Religions of Canaan and Israel. The American
Schools of Oriental Research, Boston, MA, USA, 2001.
·
Negbi, Ora. Canaanite
Gods in Metal. Tel Aviv University, Institute of Archaeology, Tel Aviv,
Israel, 1976.
·
Yon, Marguerite. The City of Ugarit at Tell Ras Shamra. Eisenbrans, Winona Lake, IN,
USA, 2006.
Endnotes
1. Bordreuil and Pardee. A
Manual of Ugaritic. Eisenbrauns. 2009. p. 1-2
2. Bordreuil and Pardee, p. 5.
3. Bordreuil and Pardee, p. 9. Schniedewind and Hunt also
have the count at over 1500 texts: Schneidewind and Hunt, a Primer on Ugaritic Language, Culture, and
Literature. Cambridge University Press, 2007.
4. For more about the Hymn of Nikkal, and for links to audio recordings of the song, see Canaanite Music Links Bazaar here on this blog.
5. Schniedewind and Hunt, p. 12.
6. Bordreuil and Pardee, p. 10
7. Bordreuil and Pardee, p. 10
Today is:
Day 27 of [Gapnu] (month), Shanatu 84 (year)
Photo Notes:
Image has expired Syrian copyright, and thus is public domain.
Today is:
Day 27 of [Gapnu] (month), Shanatu 84 (year)
Photo Notes:
Image has expired Syrian copyright, and thus is public domain.
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