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[German version] Greek name for the mountain range today known as Ǧabal Lubnān aš- Šarqiya (East Lebanon) which lies north-west of Damascus. Between these mountains and the main ridge of the  Lebanon stretches the fertile plain of the Orontes and Litani, the Beqa, an important link between central Syria and Palestine and an area which was settled at a very early stage. Klengel, Horst (Berlin)

[German version] This item can be found on the following maps: Mesopotamia Town in North West Syria (today Tall Mardı̄ḫ, c. 60 km southwest of Aleppo). Excavations since 1964 show proof of extensive building developments from the 3rd and 2nd millennia BC; since 1974, substantial archives with c. 17,000 clay tablets and fragments (24th/23rd cents. BC) have come to light. They are written in the  Cuneiform script adopted from Mesopotamia and composed in an archaic Semitic language on whose character there are differing opinions ( Eblaite). So…

[German version] [1] Term used for semi-nomadic groups In texts in cuneiform script from the 3rd millennium, this term is used for semi-nomadic groups (Sumerian Mardu, Akkadian Amurru; also Amurrite, Amorite) on the edge of the Syrian desert. In spite of great efforts by Mesopotamian rulers to keep the Amurru away from the cultivated land of Mesopotamia, the Amurru succeeded in spreading not only into Mesopotamia, but also into Syria and achieving political power in many places, particularly at the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. Klengel, Horst (Berlin) [German version] [2] Centra…

[German version] This item can be found on the following maps: Mesopotamia | Aegean Koine According to cuneiform records, name of the Bronze Age city (nowadays: Tell Açana) on the Amuq Plain of the lower Orontes, 32 km east of Antakya; among other ruins, a temple and palace from the first half of the 2nd millennium BC were uncovered, whose style indicate contact with Minoan culture. A cuneiform archive from the 18th-17th cents. BC provides documentary evidence that A. was the seat of a secundogeniture of Ḫalab…

[German version] A corpus of more than 350 letters written in cuneiform script on clay tablets, dating from the mid 14th century BC, discovered in 1887 in  Amarna. They are written almost exclusively in the Akkadian language, which was the lingua franca used for interregional communication at that time. Amongst the senders are kings of Babylon, Assyria, Mitanni in Upper Mesopotamia, the kingdoms of the Hittites and the  Arzawa in Asia Minor, and also of  Cyprus. The main bulk of the letters, howev…

[German version] (Bότρυς; Bótrys) Greek name of a coastal town south-west of Tripoli (Lebanon), now Batrun; mentioned several times, as Batruna, in the  Amarna letters (middle of the 14th cent. BC), it was under strong economic and political Egyptian influence; a topographical list of  Ramses II names place names of the area of B., Pol. 5,68 mentions B. as involved in  Antiochus III's battles with Egypt (218 BC). B. also appears in later ancient transmission, where Str. 16,2,18 refers to B.'s being…

[German version] (Akkadian also Aḫlamu). Name of an originally semi-nomadic ethnic group of the late 2nd and 1st millennium BC, which is mentioned as the A. in Assyrian and biblical written tradition. At the end of the 2nd millennium, the A. moved out of the areas on the edge of the steppe into the cultivated areas of Syria and Mesopotamia. The kings of the Neo-Assyrian state did battle with the A. and their history is therefore mainly reflected in the inscriptions of Assyrian kings. The A. found…

This item can be found on the following maps: Writing | Syria | Theatre | Caesar | Christianity | | Coloniae | Alexander | Commerce | Hasmonaeans | Hellenistic states | India, trade with | Mesopotamia | Phoenicians, Poeni | Pilgrimage [German version] A. Ancient Orient Oasis situated on the eastern edge of Antilebanon, watered by the undrained Barada, first mentioned in lists of Syrian towns of the pharaohs Thutmosis III and Amenophis III ( tmsq, Tamasqu) and then in the  Amarna letters ( Di/Dumašqu). In the 13th cent. BC too, D. was under Egyptian control. At the turn of the…

(Συρία/ Syría, Συρίη/ Syríē, Hdt. 2,12; 116; Ἀσσυρία/ Assyría; Latin Syria, Assyria). [German version] I. Geography The use of the geographical term S. requires further definition, because S. did not constitute an independent political territory throughout the historical period of the Ancient Near East. Polycentricity and incorporation in other systems of rule only came to an end in 1941, when the Republic of S. (since 1961: Syrian Arab Republic) was founded. This foundation included regions to the east of the …

[German version] This item can be found on the following maps: Ḫattusa | Asia Minor | Mesopotamia | Aegean Koine City in North Syria (Arabic: Ḥalab), already referred to as Ḫalab in the cuneiform texts of  Ebla (middle of the 3rd millennium BC), already the cult location of the weather god at that time. For the early 2nd millennium BC, cuneiform texts (Mari,  Alalaḫ) provide evidence of A. as the residence of an  Amorite Dynasty that ruled the state of Jamḫad from there. Then in the 17th-16th cent., this state was …

[German version] Country or kingdom mentioned in Hittite cuneiform documents from the 15th-13th cents. BC that researchers often equate with the Greek Achaea. The theory that A. and Achaea are the same remains disputed, as well as whether A. was Greek, or a part of Asia Minor, or whether it was located on the Aegean Islands and/or on the Greek mainland. The Hittites expanded their influence into south-west Asia Minor around 1400 BC, but their Madduwatta was driven out of Aḫḫija (probably Achaea) b…

[German version] Location at the mouth of the Orontes river where, in the 2nd millennium BC, the port of the city  Alalach was located. The town continued to exist for several centuries even after the demise of the port (around 1200 BC). Once  Seleucia (Pieria) was established as the port of  Antioch [1], Al-Mīnā was no longer significant. Excavations show that it was a Phoenician-Aramaic settlement that had contact with  Cyprus and the Aegean world. Klengel, Horst (Berlin) Bibliography A. Nunn, RLA 8, 1994, 208 f.