Ugaritic texts

On excavation of the site, several deposits of cuneiform clay tablets were found; all dating from the last phase of Ugarit, around 1200 BCE. These represented a palace library, a temple library and—apparently unique in the world at the time—two private libraries, one belonging to a diplomat named Rapanu. The libraries at Ugarit contained diplomatic, legal, economic, administrative, scholastic, literary and religious texts. Various tablets are written in Sumerian, Hurrian, Akkadian (the language of diplomacy at this time in the ancient Near East), and Ugaritic (a previously unknown Northwest Semitic language). No less than seven different scripts were in use at Ugarit: Egyptian and Luwian hieroglyphs, and Cypro-Minoan, Sumerian, Akkadian, Hurrian, and Ugaritic cuneiform. Unique among the texts in Ugaritic are the earliest known abecedaries, lists of letters in alphabetic cuneiform, where not only the canonical order of Hebrew-Phoenician script is evidenced, but also the traditional names for letters of the alphabet.^[1]

During excavations in 1958, yet another library of tablets was uncovered. These were, however, sold on the black market and not immediately recovered. The "Claremont Ras Shamra Tablets" are now housed at the Institute for Antiquity and Christianity, School of Religion, Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, California. They were edited by Loren R. Fisher in 1971.^[2]

After 1970, succeeding Claude Schaeffer were Henri de Contenson, followed by Jean Margueron, Marguerite Yon, then Yves Calvet and Bassam Jamous, who since 2005 has held the office of Director General of Antiquities and Museums.^[3]

In 1973, an archive containing around 120 tablets was discovered during rescue excavations; in 1994 more than 300 further tablets dating to the end of the Late Bronze Age were discovered within a large ashlar masonry building.

Walls in the city of Ugarit and remains of destroyed buildings.

The most important literary document recovered from Ugarit is arguably the Baal cycle, describing the basis for the religion and cult of the Canaanite Baal. There are also among the religious texts the Hurrian songs, including a noteworthy hymn to the moon goddess Nikkal, the oldest surviving substantial musical notation in the world. Its music is a series of 2-toned intervals played upon a 9-string lyre.^[4]

These tablets reveal parallels between ancient Canaanite and Israelite practices; for example, levirate marriage, giving the eldest son a larger share of the inheritance or redeeming the first-born son were practices common to the people of Ugarit.^{[citation needed]}

References

^ Aaron Demsky, 1977. "A Proto-Canaanite Abecedary dating from the period of the Judges and its implications for the history of the Alphabet", Tel Aviv 4:47ff.
^ Loren R. Fisher, The Claremont Ras Shamra Tablets, Loyola Press, 1972, ISBN 978-88-7653-248-1
^ Henri de Contenson, Préhistoire de Ras Shamra, Ras Shamra-Ougarit VIII, 2 volumes, ERC, 1992; Marguerite Yon, The City of Ugarit at Tell Ras Shamra, Eisenbrauns, 2004, ISBN 1-57506-029-9 (Translation of La cité d'Ugarit sur le Tell de Ras Shamra 1979)
^ See Prof Anne D. Kilmer. 1984. "A Music Tablet from Sippar(?): BM 65217 + 66616". Iraq 46:69–80. This covers all 6 readable tablets up to that time.

[1] Aaron Demsky, 1977. "A Proto-Canaanite Abecedary dating from the period of the Judges and its implications for the history of the Alphabet", Tel Aviv 4:47ff.

[2] Loren R. Fisher, The Claremont Ras Shamra Tablets, Loyola Press, 1972, ISBN 978-88-7653-248-1

[3] Henri de Contenson, Préhistoire de Ras Shamra, Ras Shamra-Ougarit VIII, 2 volumes, ERC, 1992; Marguerite Yon, The City of Ugarit at Tell Ras Shamra, Eisenbrauns, 2004, ISBN 1-57506-029-9 (Translation of La cité d'Ugarit sur le Tell de Ras Shamra 1979)

[4] See Prof Anne D. Kilmer. 1984. "A Music Tablet from Sippar(?): BM 65217 + 66616". Iraq 46:69–80. This covers all 6 readable tablets up to that time.

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