Amrit
34.83888888888935.908194444444Koordinaten: 34 ° 50 ' 20 " N, 35 ° 54' 29" O
Amrit or Amrith (Arabic عمریت, DMG ʿ Amrit, Phoenician mrt, krtmrt ancient Egyptian, ancient Greek Μάραθος Marathos ) was an ancient city on the Levantine Mediterranean coast in what is now Syria. It lay between the two estuaries of the Nahr al - Amrit ( ancient Greek Μαραθίας MARATHIAS ) in the north and Nahr al - Qubli in the south and belonged mostly to the mainland territory of about four kilometers north-west island city Aradus (also Aruad, ancient Greek Arados ). From Amrit evidence remains of buildings which were spread out in a about 7.5 km ² of grounds have about six kilometers south of the center of the city Tartus get on the coast of the homonymous governorate of Tartus.
History
First traces of settlement are at the end of the 3rd millennium BC dates, the Middle Bronze Age. They found themselves at the modern Tell Amrit east of the ruins of the Phoenician temple sanctuary (Arabic Maabed ). As regards the finds are fragments of pottery and grave goods from the period 2100-1750 BC
The sea is remote town in the area of Tell Amrit was founded around 1600 BC by Amurritern from Aradus. West of the city, in the dunes area, a sacred precinct was. In Egyptian records about the wars of Thutmose III. (around 1486-1425 BC) a place in Nordphönizien called krtmrt in the conquered northern peoples is mentioned, the now mostly equated with Amrit, City Mrt ', a Semitic for the Egyptian foreign name that was input on the debate in the hieroglyphic typeface and possibly " Palm city " meant.
Since the time of Alexander the Great of Macedon ( 356-323 BC) Amrit was known by the Greek name Marathos. The conquest of Phoenicia by Alexander in his campaign against the Achaemenid Persian Great King Darius III. was 333/332 BC, where Darius III. Alexander during his four- day stay in Marathos end 333 BC offered an alliance, which opposed this. Marathos was at this point in the continental possessions of the king of Gerostratos Arados ( Aradus ). At the beginning of the seven -month siege of Tyre in January 332 BC the northern Phoenician cities Arados, Tripoli, Byblos and Sidon had the Macedon king already connected without a fight.
From 314 BC under the control of the Diadochi Antigonus I Monophthalmos Marathos came after the battle of Ipsos 301 BC the Seleucid Empire, one of the successor states of Alexander's empire. It seems that the city tried to BC to solve in the 3rd century of the reign of the island city Arados. After the lapse of Stadtkönigtums of Arados, probably 259 BC, were minted in Marathos by 230 BC its own coins until 219 BC both cities were safely separated. In the Fourth Syrian War for control of Coelesyria the city was a stop on the Seleucid Antiochus III. , From where he 218 BC further south to behind Berytos against the forces of Ptolemy IV pushed forward. According to Polybius Historiai (Book 5, Chap. 68) a delegation of Arados offered the Seleucid ruler in Marathos an alliance. Antiochus III. accepted the offer and arbitrated at the same time the internal disputes of the Aradier of the island with those on the mainland.
Diodorus (1st century BC ) reported in its historiké Libraries (Book 33, Chap. 5) from a trial of Aradier to extradite them Marathos to destroy it. But they offered Ammonius, the Chancellor of the usurper Alexander I. Balas, 150-145 BC, ruler of the Seleucid Empire, 300 talents. In return Ammonios sent troops under the leadership of the officer Isidore after Marathos to surrender the city to Aradiern. This must be done before 147 BC, since Ammonius died in that year. The residents of Marathos managed to repel the common approach of Isidore with the Aradiern. However, the feud between the Phoenician cities went on, it was symptomatic of the decline of central authority in the Seleucid Empire.
When exactly Marathos was destroyed, is not known. As Strabo ( about 63 BC to 23 AD ) visited the place, he found " an ancient city of the Phoenicians, who is torn down " and " spread the Aradier to settlers " had their country, as well as in neighboring Ximyra described in Geographika (Book 16, Chap. 2.12, section 753 ). Ernest Renan closed at the first excavations in 1860 from the absence of Greek and Roman inscriptions, that the Phoenician city was not rebuilt after its destruction in the later Roman period again. In contrast, it was found during excavations in 2011, three grave chambers of the Roman era of sandstone, including one with 28 grave niches. In addition Marathos was of Roman authors to at least the time of the Emperor Hadrian ( 76-138 AD) - such as Pliny ( Naturalis historia 5, 78, 12, 124) and Ptolemy ( Geography 5, 15, 16) - repeated as consisting mentioned. In the classification of the coins found there is disagreement, which is why they appear as to the chronology of the history of the city as not recyclable.
Before Renan already visited in 1697, the English chaplain Henry Maundrell, described in A Journey from Aleppo to Jerusalem at Easter AD 1697 and 1743, the English anthropologist Richard Pococke the ruins of Amrit. In his travelogue A Description of the East and Some Other Countries ( Volume 2, Part 1 ), published in 1745, Pocock reports on individual building remains of the ancient city, such as the carved into the rock temple and the stadium. Ernest Renan published his excavations in 1860 in the book Mission de Phénicie ( Chapter 3: Amrit, pp. 59 ff.) He explored the level of Amrit two months and listed in the area of the ancient city and its necropolis eleven more important monuments, of which Max van Berchem later the most significant photographic held (published 1915).
In the 20th century there were further excavation campaigns by Maurice Dunand in the years 1926, 1935, 1938 and 1951, and together with Nassib Saliby 1954, 1955, 1956 (? ), 1960, 1961, 1965 and 1968. Finally was still 1992 excavation in Amrit headed by Muhammad Haykal Raeef. Finds from Amrit located primarily in the Louvre in France, in Lebanon in the Archaeological Museum of the American University of Beirut and in the National Museum Beirut and Syria in the National Museum in Damascus and Tartous Museum.
Temple
Coordinates: 34 ° 50 ' 20 " N, 35 ° 54' 25 " O34.83888888888935.906944444444
About 60 meters west of Tell Amrit are the ruins of the 2200 m² large main sanctuary of the ancient city, probably BC emerged in the second half of the 5th century. The 56.33 meters long and 48.55 meters wide system, Arabic as Maabed (DMG Ma ʿ abed, temple ') is called, beaten to the south of the rock. A 3.70 meter wide portico with internally circulating in the west, south and east, formerly of up to three meters high pillars leads to a 46.70 meters x 38.50 meters large pool of water, grows in the high grass today. The pool has a depth of 3 to 3.50 meters. It was supplied from a source on the east side of the temple with water flowing through two channels on the east and the south wall into the basin. Was on the northwest corner to regulate the water level a drain hole.
In the middle of the basin is located on a 5.50 meter high, formerly clad plates base with a side length of about 5 meters and a crenellated Fries as an open upper end to the north naiskos. The base and the lower part of naiskos are carved out of an existing rock. In two rectangular rows and a monolithic roof with concave and Zinnenbekrönung were placed. The interior of the naiskos, the cella is provided with a Kalkmörtelschicht and has a shallow vaulted ceiling. Overall, the building is 12 meters high and stood about 9 feet from the water out of the basin. In the cella of the naiskos probably was a cult image of Melkarth, the city god of Tyre and patron god of navigation and colonization. Discovered inscriptions provide information that, in addition Melkarth also the god of healing Eshmun, city god of the Sidonians, was worshiped in the temple of Amrit. Partly a dedication of the temple for the god of healing Schadrapa is assumed instead Eshmun.
The temple was open to the north, the north side of the basin freely accessible. At the entrances to the surrounding south portico to the northeast and the northwest corner stood after the adoption of the excavator Maurice Dunand and Nassib Saliby flanking corner towers. The height of the pillar transition to the basin to have amounted to about 6 feet. It was on the 3 -meter high pillars architrave who wore the ceiling of the portico. This was formed by 4.60 meters long stone beams, some of which can found in the excavation of the temple in the former pools. About an attached dentil crowned in the opinion of archaeologists over the entire colonnade running battlements frieze with lion heads as water spouts the portico. Pelvic Dunand and Saliby found two feet of a Cypriot Statue, " Canaanite " lamps, schwarzgefirniste Attic ceramics with palmettes, fragments of amphorae and Hellenistic ceramics at the excavation.
In a after 450 BC applied Favissa, a pit with a horizontal opening, Dunand discovered in 1926 a hundred meters to the west of the temple ägyptisierende components and screened Tempelgut. In it he found after 1873 already 60 statue heads were recovered, 456 additional fragments of statues, terracottas and vessels. A further 200 parts could be exposed to 1950. The statues have a Cypriot style. Most are probably of Cypriot origin, but apparently some come from local production. Besides the main temple of the city, there are the south-west in a little over 500 meters two smaller Naïskoi in Egyptian style near the Ain al - Hayyat (DMG ʿ Ayn al- Hayyat, source of the snakes '), the open sides are aligned. You are just ten meters apart, with the western naiskos only the base is preserved. As a dating of the emergence of the Achaemenid is likely the early Hellenistic period, however, not excluded.
Stadium
Coordinates: 34 ° 50 ' 27 " N, 35 ° 54 ' 30" O34.84083333333335.908333333333
About 200 meters northeast of the main temples of ancient Marathos and 180 meters north of Tell Amrit, the remains of a cut in the rock stadium have received. It is separated from the other two archaeological sites by the Nahr al - Amrit and was developed by the locals al - Meqla '(' the quarry ') called. The stadium Amrit was first described in 1745 by Richard Pococke in Part 2 of his book, A Description of the East, and Some Other Countries, who thought it was a circus. Ernest Renan examined it in 1860, and came into his writing Mission de Phénicie to the conclusion that the plant with its parts is not Roman but undoubtedly Phoenician.
The general perception about the stadium in the early Hellenistic period and the 4th century BC to date. The stadium is about 225 to 230 meters long and 30 to 40 meters wide, making it similar dimensions as the stadium of Olympia in Greece (213 × 31/32 meters). Seven rows of seats have been partly preserved. The stadium was open to the west and had two entrances on the east side between the rows of seats. Furthermore, there was a tunnel to the interior. To the main temple of Amrit, the Maabed, the stadium is located approximately at right angles. The open sides of both buildings, the temple in the north and in the west of the stadium, have a common intersection. It is believed that in the stadium of Amrit held sacred competitions.
Grave towers and necropolis
Coordinates: 34 ° 49 ' 57 "N, 35 ° 54' 47" O34.832535.913055555556
Before the necropolis of Amrit are already by far the most grave towers al Maghazil ( which spindles ') to see. This is to successively set of worked boulders towers on square pedestals above cut into the underground grave chambers. These have southern, leading within a dromos below the surface stair access. The grave towers must be incurred before the 4th century BC, there were in the tombs of the Maghazile finds from the period between the 5th and 1st century BC.
The highest of the grave monuments measures about 7.50 meters above the ground. On the base is a square block of stone, above a slightly tapering upward cylindrical block having a base diameter of 3.70 meters, on which rises a pyramid as top seal that is severely damaged. The approximately 12 meters southeast stationary second grave tower is not quite 7 feet tall. At its base are three cylindrical components, decreasing diameter upwards and end dome- as statements. At the lower cylinder to decorate the corners of the square base plate four lion protome the building, which may not have been completed. The middle and upper cylinders are provided at their upper edges with battlements Friesen and including befindlichem dentils.
East of the Maghazile is the necropolis of Amrit to the nine hypogea with the dromos, grave chambers and loculi, cassette -like side by side and superimposed sliding graves belong. They contained simple sarcophagus of limestone and clay, whose age could not be determined. One of hypogea, also referred to as " Pyramidalgrab " corresponds to the structure of a Maghazil, two square monolithic blocks at two levels probably carried a pyramid. Other tombs are located south of the Nahr al - Qubli, the Burǧ al - Bazzāq (, worm tower ' ), a supernatural, originally 19.50 -meter high structure, and the Hypogeum Ḥaǧar al - Ḥublā with three grave chambers, which in Roman times was used.