Ras Ibn Hani (), Ugaritic Raʾšu, is a small cape located north of

Latakia Latakia (; ; Syrian Arabic, Syrian pronunciation: ) is the principal port city of Syria and capital city of the Latakia Governorate located on the Mediterranean coast. Historically, it has also been known as Laodicea in Syria or Laodicea ad Mar ...

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

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 east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern Eur ...

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

Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

until

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

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

History

Late Bronze

In the Late Bronze, Raʾšu was a port and resort on the northern coast in the Petty Kingdom of Ugarit. It was about two-hour walk from the capital

Ugarit Ugarit (; , ''ủgrt'' /ʾUgarītu/) was an ancient port city in northern Syria about 10 kilometers north of modern Latakia. At its height it ruled an area roughly equivalent to the modern Latakia Governorate. It was discovered by accident in 19 ...

. 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 Egyptians (, ; , ; ) are an ethnic group native to the Nile, Nile Valley in Egypt. Egyptian identity is closely tied to Geography of Egypt, geography. The population is concentrated in the Nile Valley, a small strip of cultivable land stretchi ...

. 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. In the 13th century BC, the site had an estimated 6,000 to 8,000 inhabitants.

Iron Age

The site survived in modest fashion Ugarit's collapse at the end of the Bronze Age, as the capital Ugarit fell around 1192 BCE. In inscriptions of Tiglath-pileser III (r. 745-727 BCE), it appear as Re'si-suri meaning "Cape of Tyre". The inscriptions refer to Tyrians (Phoenician) ports from Gubla in the south to Re'si-suri in the north, controlled by the petty king Sibittibi'ili of Gubla (Byblos) who pays tribute to Assyria. "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 (; ; – 578) was a Byzantine chronicler from Antioch in Asia Minor. Life Of Syrian descent, Malalas was a native speaker of Syriac who learned how to write in Greek later in his life. The name ''Malalas'' probably derive ...

,'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 CanaanThe current scholarly edition of the Septuagint, Greek Old Testament spells the word without any accents, cf. Septuaginta : id est Vetus Testamentum graece iuxta LXX interprets. 2. ed. / recogn. et emendavit Robert Hanhart. Stuttgart : D ...

ite-

Phoenicia Phoenicians were an Ancient Semitic-speaking peoples, ancient Semitic group of people who lived in the Phoenician city-states along a coastal strip in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily modern Lebanon and the Syria, Syrian ...

n culture never entirely died at the site".

Hellenistic Period

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.

Roman Period

Robin Lane Fox notes that the Roman emperor

Trajan Trajan ( ; born Marcus Ulpius Traianus, 18 September 53) was a Roman emperor from AD 98 to 117, remembered as the second of the Five Good Emperors of the Nerva–Antonine dynasty. He was a philanthropic ruler and a successful soldier ...

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 Reʾši-ṣuri