Excavations at Mureybet, Syria, have revealed a settlement where inhabitants made pottery and cultivated einkorn, a single-grain wheat, as early as the ninth millennium BC.
Middle East | Syria
Introduction
The story begins with the invention of writing, which occurred in southern Babylon, perhaps around 3000 BC (or BCE, before the Common Era), with writing being an original image character that later developed into cuneiform. Modern research, however, suggests that clay tokens found at several ancient Middle Eastern sites dating back to 8,000 BC may have been used as an archaic recording system and ultimately led to the invention of writing.
In the mid-3rd millennium BCE, several Semitic peoples migrated to Syria-Palestine and Babylon. Knowledge of this period has been greatly improved by excavations at Tall Mardikh (ancient Ebla), south of Aleppo. The palace has produced more than 17,000 inscribed clay tablets, dating from around 2600 to 2500 BCE, that detail the social, religious, economic and political life of this prosperous and powerful Syrian kingdom. The language of Ebla has been identified as Northwest Semitic.
Around 2320 BCE, Lugalzaggisi, the Sumerian ruler of Erech (Uruk), boasted an empire that extended to the Mediterranean. It was short-lived, as he was defeated by the Semitic Sargon of Akkad, who became the greatest conqueror and the most famous name in the history of Babylon. Sargon led his armies across the Euphrates to the "mountain of the cedar" (the Amanus) and beyond. Ebla was destroyed by Sargon at this time or perhaps by his grandson, Naram-sin (about 2275 BCE), and the region of Syria became part of the Akkadian empire. But, the Akkad dynasty was soon overthrown as its center and replaced by the dynasties first of Guti and then of Ur.
Nothing certain is known about the authority (if any) that the kings of Ur exercised in Syria, so far from their capital. The end of his dynasty, however, was caused mainly by the pressure of a new Semitic migration from Syria, this time from the Amorites (that is, the Westerners), as they were called in Babylon. Between about 2000 and 1800 BCE, they covered Syria and Mesopotamia with a multitude of small principalities and cities, most ruled by rulers with some name characteristic of the Semitic dialect that the Amorites spoke.
The period of Amorite ascendancy is vividly mirrored in the Mari Letters, a large archive of royal correspondence found at the site of Mari, near the modern border with Iraq.
Among the principal figures mentioned are the celebrated lawgiver Hammurabi of Babylon (himself an Amorite) and a king of Aleppo, whose kingdom was part of the city of Alalakh, on the Orontes near what was later Antioch. Around 1600 BCE, northern Syria, including the cities of Alalakh, Aleppo, and Ebla in its Amorite phase, suffered destruction at the hands of the aggressive Hittite kings, Hattusilis I or Mursilis I, of central Anatolia.
Previously, in the 18th century BCE, a movement of people from Syria had begun in the opposite direction. This resulted in Hyksos infiltration and eventual seizure (circa 1674 BCE) of royal authority in northern Egypt, which had been subject to this foreign rule for 108 years. The mixed crowd of Hyksos certainly included Hurrians, who were under the rule and influence of the Arians and learned to handle light chariots and horses in war, which were introduced into Egypt, Syria, and Mesopotamia. The Hurrians established the kingdom of Mitanni, with its center east of the Euphrates, and this was long the dominant power in Syria, reaching its zenith in the 15th century BCE. Documentary evidence for the Mitanni period comes from excavations carried out in the 1970s at Tall Hadidi (ancient Azu), on the banks of Lake Al-Assad (photo below).
However, other nations were growing at the same time, and in the fourteenth century Syria was the arena in which at least four major competitors fought. The Hurrians took possession first and maintained friendly relations with Egypt, which, after expelling the Hyksos, established a vast sphere of influence in Palestine and Syria under the kings of the 18th dynasty. The third of the powers disputing Syria in the 14th century were the Hittites, who thanks to their greatest warrior, Suppiluliumas (circa 1350 BCE), defeated the kingdom of Mitanni and established a strong hold in northern Syria with their main centers in Aleppo and Carchemish. The fourth was the emerging kingdom of Assyria, which became a serious competitor to the reign of Ashur-uballit I.
This was the period of the Amarna Letters, which illustrate the decline of Egyptian influence in Syria (especially under Akhenaten), the distress or duplicity of local governors, and the rivalry of the aforementioned powers.
Egyptians and Hittites continued their struggle into the 13th century; the Battle of Kadesh (circa 1290 BCE) led to a treaty that maintained the balance. Assyria had already swept away the remains of Mitanni, but soon fell into decline, and it was not long before the Hittites were driven from their center in Asia Minor by the migration of the "Sea Peoples", western invaders from the Aegean islands and Europe. The displacement of peoples at this time apparently also led to the migration into northern Syria of a related Indo-European group from Anatolia, the so-called Neo-Hittites. They established several principalities and the area became known as "Hatti land".
As early as the 14th century, several documents mention the Akhlame, the precursors of another vast movement of Semitic tribes called, generically, Arameans. By the end of the 13th century, they had dominated, with their small and scattered principalities, all of central and northern Syria. The Assyrians, however, were able to protect their homeland from this penetration, and from then on much of the Assyrian kings' warfare was aimed at the Aramaic states of Syria. Almost simultaneously with the invasion of the Arameans, the exodus of the Israelite tribes from Egypt was taking place.
When the Israelites in the late 11th century established a kingdom centered in Jerusalem, the Arameans established their main kingdom in Damascus. The wars between the kings of Judah (or Israel) and the kings of Syria constitute a large part of the story of the Tanakh (better known as the Hebrew Bible or "Old Testament"). However, the greatest enemies of the Arameans and, often, of the Hebrews were the great Assyrian military kings. In the 9th and 8th centuries BCE, the Assyrian empire was established in the west. At the Battle of Karkar in 853 BCE, Shalmaneser III of Assyria was opposed by Bar-hadad I (Hebrew Ben-hadad I; throne name, Hadadezer; Akkadian Adad-idri) of Damascus, Ahab of Israel, and 12 vassal monarchs . In 732, Damascus, the capital of Syria, was finally captured by Tiglath-Pileser III. But campaigns against the Arameans and Neo-Hittites of northern Syria had to be undertaken by the Assyrians until almost the end of the Assyrian empire.
Culturally, the Arameans' most important achievement was bringing the alphabet into general use for public and private business. Before the end of the eighth century BCE, a large southward movement of people, partly of Aryan descent, began from the north and west. The pressure of this movement on the Assyrian domains and homeland became increasingly intense, which profoundly affected Syria. In the 7th century, the Cimmerians invaded, followed by the Scythians. To these and the Medes, Assyria finally succumbed with the fall of Nineveh in 612 BCE. Nebuchadnezzar II, crown prince of Babylon, finally defeated the attempted rescue of Assyria by Necho II, king of Egypt, and annihilated his army at Carchemish in 605 BCE. In 597, he captured Jerusalem and took its people into exile. After that, Syria was for half a century under the rule of Nebuchadnezzar's successors on the throne of Babylon.
Later, another and greater power, that of the Persians, came to light. Under the leadership of Cyrus II, they extended their conquests into Asia Minor and then came to a final collision with Babylon, which Cyrus occupied in 539 BCE. He sent the exiled Jewish community back to Jerusalem, encouraging them to rebuild their temple. In the great organization of the Persian dominions of Darius I, Syria, with Palestine and Cyprus, was the fifth satrapy, with the name "On the other side of the river" (i.e. the Euphrates), with tribute set at 350 talents of silver.
Damascus and the Phoenician cities were still the main centers of Syria under Persian rule, and in Sidon was the center of the Phoenician revolt against Artaxerxes III, which ended with the destruction of that city in 345 BCE. But by this time, the end of Persian rule was near and the Macedonians under Alexander the Great were about to bring the entire Middle East under the rule and influence of the Greeks. Alexander invaded Asia Minor in 334 BCE and his victory over the Persians at Issus in 333 was followed by the capture and enslavement of Tire and Gaza. With the Battle of Gaugamela and the destruction of Persepolis, the fall of Persia was complete.
Hellenistic Period
After the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BCE, his marshals fought for control of the country until, after the Battle of Ipsus (301), Seleucus I Nicator gained the northern part and Ptolemy I Soter gained the south (Cele Syria). . This partition between the Seleucids and the Ptolemies was maintained for 100 years. Their administrative methods varied. In the south, the Ptolemies respected existing autonomous cities, imposed a bureaucratic system on the rest of the country, and did not establish colonies. The Seleucids divided the north into four governments and founded many cities and military colonies, among them Antioch, Seleucia Pieria, Apamea and Laodicea, based on European settlers. Republics replaced kings in the Phoenician coastal cities of Tire (274 BCE), Sidon, Byblos, and Aradus. Other political and cultural changes followed.
In approximately 200 BC, Antiochus III defeated Ptolemy V Epiphanes at the Battle of Panium and secured control of southern Syria, where he introduced the satrap (protector of the provinces) system.
His subsequent defeat by the Romans at Magnesia (December 190 or January 189), however, resulted in the loss of his territory in Asia Minor and his prestige, weakening the Seleucid Empire, which ceased to be a Mediterranean power. Antiochus IV Epiphanes (175-163) encouraged the spread of Greek culture and political ideas in Syria through a policy of urbanization. The increase in city organization and municipal autonomy involved greater decentralization of its kingdom. His attempt to Hellenize the Jews is well known.
Under the Seleucid kings, with rival claimants to the throne and constant civil war, Syria disintegrated. In the north, the Seleucids controlled little more than the areas of Antioch and Damascus. Southern Syria was divided by three tribal dynasties: the Ithurians, the Jews and the Nabataeans. The country was later conquered by Tigranes II the Great of Armenia (83); he ruled until his defeat by Pompey, who ended the years of anarchy by making Syria a Roman province (64-63).
Roman Provincial Organization
Pompey generally accepted the status quo, but reestablished several cities and reduced the kingdom of Judea, ten interior cities formed a league: the Decapolis. The native client kingdoms of Commagene, Ituraea, Judaea and Nabataea were henceforth subjected to Roman Syria. The Parthian invasions were repelled in 51-50 and 40-39 BCE, and Mark Antony's extensive territorial grants to Cleopatra (including Ituraea, Damascus, and Coele Syria) involved only temporary adjustments.
At the beginning of the empire, Syria, which extended northeast to the upper Euphrates and, until 73 CE, included eastern Cilicia, became one of the most important provinces. Its governor, a consular legate, usually commanded four legions until 70 CE. Administrative changes followed, as Rome gradually annexed client kingdoms. Ituraea was incorporated (that is, its territories were assigned to neighboring cities) partly in 24 BCE, partly around 93 CE.
Judea became a separate province in 6 CE, ruled by procurators (apart from the short-lived control of Herod Agrippa I, 41–44 CE), until the destruction of Jerusalem in 70.
Then, the governor was a praetorian legate in command of a legion; next, under Hadrian, he was consular with two legions, and the province was called Syria Palaestina. Commagene was permanently annexed by Vespasian in 72. The caravan city of Palmyra came under Roman control, possibly during the reign of Tiberius. Finally, Nabataea was made a province of Arabia in 105 and ruled by a praetorian legate with a legion.
Syria itself was later divided by Septimius Severus into two provinces - Syria Coele in the north with two legions and Syria Phoenicia with one. At the beginning of the 5th century, it was subdivided into at least five provinces. Syria's borders were guarded by a system of fortified limes, which was completely reorganized by Diocletian and his successors (particularly against cavalry attacks) and which lasted until the Arab conquest. Much of the knowledge of this “defense in depth” system was obtained with the aid of aerial photography.
Economy and Culture
Syria's economic prosperity depended on its natural products (including wine, olives, vegetables, fruits and nuts), its industries (purple dyeing, glassmaking in Sidon, linen weaving, wool and metallurgy) and its control and organization of trade passing by caravans from the east to the Mediterranean through centers such as Palmyra, Damascus, Bostra and Petra. Syria remained essentially rural.
The urban upper and middle classes might be Hellenized, but the lower classes still spoke Aramaic and other Semitic dialects. Roman influences were naturally weaker than Greek influences, although the army at first helped to spread Romanization.
The splendor of Syrian culture is seen in the magnificence of the cities (Antioch, ranked among the largest cities in the empire, was the residence of the governor and then comes from the East, who governed the diocese of the East). This sumptuousness is also evident in its schools of rhetoric, law, medicine, art, literature and philosophy, in addition to its religious variety, both pagan and Christian.
Byzantine Syria
During the three centuries Syria was administered from Constantinople, its cultural and economic life remained active. The government became more bureaucratic, however, efficient. In the 4th century, during the campaigns of Constantine I and Julian against Persia, Syria again became a base of operations and sometimes suffered Persian invasions. The Persian threat diminished during the 5th century, but returned in the 6th century, when the Arabs also increased their strength. The Persian Khosrow I captured Antioch itself (540), and by 573 the Persians were back. Khosrow II's invasion, which began in 606, was later reversed by the victories of Heraclius, but the peace of 628 did not bring tranquility to Syria.
Source:
Encyclopedia Britannica
Author: Vanessa Chamma
Graduated in Arabic Literature and bachelor's in international relations
Researcher and Author
Lines of Research: History, Middle East, Geopolitics.
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