Ras Ibn Hani ( ar, رأس ابن هاني) is a small cape located north of

Latakia , coordinates = , elevation_footnotes = , elevation_m = 11 , elevation_ft = , postal_code_type = , postal_code = , area_code = Country code: 963 City code: 41 , geocode ...

, Syria on the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ...

. It is an important archaeological site as it was occupied almost continuously from the late

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...

until

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantin ...

times.Cohen, 2006, p. 124 The site now is in a major resort area called the Cote d'Azur of Syria.

History

This coastal site lies a two-hour walk from the site of Bronze Age

Ugarit ) , image =Ugarit Corbel.jpg , image_size=300 , alt = , caption = Entrance to the Royal Palace of Ugarit , map_type = Near East#Syria , map_alt = , map_size = 300 , relief=yes , location = Latakia Governorate, Syria , region = ...

. During the middle of the 14th-century BC, a golden age began for Ugarit after stable borders had been achieved through treaties with the Egyptians. During this phase of expansion, a second residence for the king, for example as a summer palace (south palace), and a residence for queen Ahatmilku were built. There were probably fewer than the 6,000 to 8,000 inhabitants who, according to estimates, lived there in the 13th century BC. However, it survived in modest fashion Ugarit's collapse at the end of the Bronze Age: "Ugarit's inhabitants dispersed, but no crisis could neutralize their invaluable asset, the coast's best natural harbour on the promontory of Ras ibn Hani; it became known from its low white cliff as the 'White Harbour' in later Greek coastal guidebooks, a name which persists in modern Arabic as Minet el-Beida", observes Robin Lane Fox,Fox, ''Travelling Heroes in the Epic Age of Homer'', 2008:91. who identified Ras Ibn Hani as the site later Greeks knew as ''Betyllion'',Fox gives his source as

John Malalas John Malalas ( el, , ''Iōánnēs Malálas''; – 578) was a Byzantine chronicler from Antioch (now Antakya, Turkey). Life Malalas was of Syrian descent, and he was a native speaker of Syriac who learned how to write in Greek later ...

,'s ''Chronicon'' (11.3) written in the 6th century, which has the form ''Bytyllion'', which is also the form reported in ''Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World'' (Princeton) 2000. possibly a Hellenized version, he suggests, of the Semitic ''bait-El'' or "house of El, a name which, if that is the derivation, "confirms that

Canaan Canaan (; Phoenician: 𐤊𐤍𐤏𐤍 – ; he, כְּנַעַן – , in pausa – ; grc-bib, Χανααν – ;The current scholarly edition of the Greek Old Testament spells the word without any accents, cf. Septuaginta : id est Vetus T ...

ite-

Phoenicia Phoenicia () was an ancient thalassocratic civilization originating in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily located in modern Lebanon. The territory of the Phoenician city-states extended and shrank throughout their his ...

n culture never entirely died at the site". Ras Ibn Hani had a Ptolemaic base, since the Third Syrian War (246–241 BC). The Seleucid King Antiochus IX BC had a small fortification built in the southeast corner. Robin Lane Fox notes that the Roman emperor

Trajan Trajan ( ; la, Caesar Nerva Traianus; 18 September 539/11 August 117) was Roman emperor from 98 to 117. Officially declared ''optimus princeps'' ("best ruler") by the senate, Trajan is remembered as a successful soldier-emperor who presid ...

landed at this spot to join his troops in Syria for the fateful Mesopotamian campaigns of 114–117. During the first three centuries AD, the city was practically uninhabited, there were probably some buildings on the western tip of the peninsula, the location of which can no longer be explored, as the area has been built over in the meantime. Building remains, pot fragments and coin finds indicate settlement in the early

period from the 4th to the 6th century.

References

Bibliography

* * {{Authority control Former populated places in Syria Headlands of Syria Ugarit Bronze Age sites in Syria Archaeological sites in Latakia Governorate

History

See also

References

Bibliography