Saturday, October 31, 2009

Ebla, Apamea and Ugarit










Ebla as a working site was still very nuch in action with excavators finishing off their season. You can see above the kitchen with its grinding stones looking towards the main gate and the destruction layers in the walls. Apamea was a cavalry base with both 300 elephants, that didn't work out as the climate was wrong for them and later 33,ooo horses. The very long and elaborate colonade was unsurprisingly the victim of the frequent earthquakes in the region.
Ugarit, as a part of the Empire that Akhenaten lost to the Hittites despite extreme diplomatic efforts to save it, is very interesting to me. There was more to see than I thought as the guide books were unfairly scathing about it. From the strangely Mycenean front gate to the palace with its plumbing and gardens, the streets, houses of the wealthy with thier inbuilt tombs and water storage arrangements, it was easy to read, admittedly the temple area at the top is more of a jumble but I don't know why the guides strongly implies there was nothing discernable.

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