Royal Palace of Ugarit facts for kids
A postern gate of the Royal Palace of Ugarit
|
|
| Location | Ugarit, northwestern Syria |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 35°36′06″N 35°46′59″E / 35.601719°N 35.783008°E |
| Type | Royal residence |
| Part of | Acropolis of Ugarit |
| Length | 110 metres (360 ft) |
| Width | 75 metres (246 ft) |
| Area | 6,500 square metres (70,000 sq ft) |
| History | |
| Material | Ashlar stone, wooden crossbeams, plaster |
| Founded | c. 15th – c. 13th-century BC |
| Abandoned | c. 1180 BC |
| Periods | Bronze Age |
| Cultures | Canaanite |
| Associated with | Niqmaddu II, Niqmepa, Ibiranu, Ammurapi, Ahatmilku |
| Site notes | |
| Excavation dates | 1929–1939 1948–1955 |
| Archaeologists | Claude F. A. Schaeffer |
| Condition | Partial restoration |
| Public access | yes |
The Royal Palace of Ugarit was a grand home for the kings of an ancient kingdom called Ugarit. This kingdom was located right on the Mediterranean Sea coast in Syria. French archaeologist Claude F. A. Schaeffer and his team dug up the palace starting in the 1930s. Finding this palace was one of the most important discoveries made at Ugarit.
Contents
Exploring the Royal Palace
How the Palace Was Designed
The palace was in the northwest part of the city. It was huge, covering an area of about 6,500 square meters. A strong, fortified wall built around the 15th century BC protected the palace. The main entrance was guarded by tall towers, called the Fortress. These towers had very thick walls, about 5 meters wide!
The palace had ninety rooms spread across two floors. These rooms were built around four large courtyards and four smaller ones. Imagine having a big garden right inside your palace! There was one at the western end. On the north side, there were three secret underground burial rooms.
The ground floor was used for important work. It had offices, places to keep records, storage rooms, and homes for the staff. The second floor was where the royal family lived. You could reach it by climbing one of twelve staircases. The palace had three ways to get in: the main gate near the Fortress, and two smaller entrances on the northeast and southwest sides.
How the Palace Was Built
The Royal Palace was built in four main steps between the 15th and 13th centuries BC. It was made from large, carefully cut stone blocks called ashlar stone. Wooden beams were used to support the floors and roof. The walls were covered with a thick layer of smooth plaster. The strong outer wall, built around the 15th century BC, was made of tightly packed stones. It sloped outwards at a 45-degree angle, making it even harder to attack.
The way the palace was designed was common for royal homes in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Ancient Near East. The palace didn't have a perfectly regular shape, and its rooms weren't laid out in a perfectly even way. This shows that new parts were added and changes were made over time. The underground burial rooms had special arched ceilings called corbelled vaults. This building style was also seen in Hittite and Mycenaean buildings.
Discoveries at the Palace
Local farmers accidentally found the ancient city of Ugarit in 1929. After this, French archaeologist Claude F. A. Schaeffer led ten digging trips. These early digs only explored the northwest part of the city. The work stopped during World War II but started again in 1948. Between 1950 and 1955, Schaeffer focused on digging up the palace. During this time, they found many amazing objects and clay tablets.
Cool Objects Found
Many interesting things were found at the palace. These included beautiful ivory carvings, pieces of furniture, tall stone stelae (carved stone slabs), and small figurines. They even found a partially broken vase made of alabaster from Ancient Egypt. This vase had carvings that showed the wedding of Ugarit King Niqmaddu II to an important Egyptian woman. Other Egyptian vases were found too, some with the special names (called cartouches) of Egyptian Kings Ramesses II and Horemheb.
Ancient Clay Tablets
Archaeologists found eight different collections of cuneiform tablets within the palace. Cuneiform is an ancient writing system using wedge-shaped marks. There were over 1,000 tablets in total! Most were written in Akkadian and Ugaritic. A smaller number were in Hurrian and Hittite.
These tablets were organized by what they were about. They included:
- Reports about areas Ugarit controlled
- Records of court cases and laws
- Letters between the kings of Ugarit and other rulers
- Practice tablets used by new scribes (people who wrote) to learn how to write
The tablets also contained about 36 ancient songs, known as the Hurrian songs.
