Amrit ( ar, عمريت), the classical Marathus ( grc-gre, Μάραθος, ''Marathos''), was a Phoenician port located near present-day Tartus in

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

. Founded in the third millenniumBC, Marat ( phn, 𐤌𐤓𐤕, ) was the northernmost important city of ancient Phoenicia and a rival of nearby

Arwad Arwad, the classical Aradus ( ar, أرواد), is a town in Syria on an eponymous island in the Mediterranean Sea. It is the administrative center of the Arwad Subdistrict (''nahiyah''), of which it is the only locality.

History

The city lies on the Mediterranean coast around south of modern-day Tartus. Two rivers cross the city: Nahr Amrit, near the main temple, and Nahr al-Kuble near the secondary temple, a fact that might be linked to the importance of water in the religious traditions in Amrit. The city was probably founded by the

Arvadites This list contains tribes or other groups of people named in the Bible of minor notability, about whom either nothing or very little is known, aside from any family connections. A Accaba, descendants of For the descendants of "Accaba" (1 Esd ...

, and served as their continental base. It grew to be one of the wealthiest towns in the dominion of Arwad. The city surrendered, along with Arwad, to Alexander the Great in 333 BC. During Seleucid times the town, known as Marathus, was probably larger and more prosperous than Arwad. In 219 BC Amrit gained independence from Arwad, and was later sacked by forces from the latter city in 148 BC.

Excavation

Excavations of the site principally began in 1860 by

Ernest Renan Joseph Ernest Renan (; 27 February 18232 October 1892) was a French Orientalist and Semitic scholar, expert of Semitic languages and civilizations, historian of religion, philologist, philosopher, biblical scholar, and critic. He wrote influe ...

. Excavations were again carried out in 1954 by French archaeologist

Maurice Dunand Maurice Dunand (4 March 1898 – 23 March 1987) was a prominent French archaeologist specializing in the ancient Near East, who served as director of the Mission Archéologique Française in Lebanon. Dunand excavated Byblos from 1924 to 1975, and ...

. Ceramic ware finds at Amrit indicated the site had been inhabited as early as the third millennium BC. Middle and Late Bronze Age " silo tombs" were also excavated, with contents ranging from weapons to original human remains. Excavations at the

necropolis A necropolis (plural necropolises, necropoles, necropoleis, necropoli) is a large, designed cemetery with elaborate tomb monuments. The name stems from the Ancient Greek ''nekropolis'', literally meaning "city of the dead". The term usually im ...

south of the town yielded several tomb structures. The funeral art found in some tombs with pyramidal-or cube-shaped towers, is considered some of "the most notable grave-monuments of the Phoenician world." Excavations also uncovered the town's ancient harbor, and a U-shaped stadium that dates back to the 4th and 3rd centuries BC and measures around in length.

Temples

One of the most important excavations at Amrit was the Phoenician temple, commonly referred to the "''ma'abed''," dedicated to the god

Melqart Melqart (also Melkarth or Melicarthus) was the tutelary god of the Phoenician city-state of Tyre and a major deity in the Phoenician and Punic pantheons. Often titled the "Lord of Tyre" (''Ba‘al Ṣūr''), he was also known as the Son of ...

of Tyre and Eshmun. The colonnaded temple, excavated between 1955 and 1957, consists of a large court cut out of rock measuring and over deep, surrounded by a covered portico. In the center of the court a well-preserved cube-shaped '' cella'' stands. The open-air courtyard was filled with the waters of a local, traditionally sacred spring, a unique feature of this site. The temple—which was dated to the late 4th century BC, a period following the Persian expansion into Syria—shows major Achaemenid influence in its layout and decoration. According to Dutch archaeologist,

Peter Akkermans Peter M. M. G. Akkermans (born Hulsberg, 14 November 1957) is a Dutch archaeologist and Professor of Ancient Near Eastern archaeology at Leiden University.

, the temple is the "best-preserved monumental structure from the Phoenician homeland." A second temple, described by visitors to the site in 1743 and 1860 and thought to have disappeared, was later discovered by the Syrian archaeological mission near the Nahr al-Kuble spring.

Stadium

About northeast of the main temples of ancient Marathos and north of the Amrit Tell are the remains of a rock-carved Phoenician

stadium A stadium ( : stadiums or stadia) is a place or venue for (mostly) outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage either partly or completely surrounded by a tiered structure designed to allow spectators to stand o ...

. It is separated from the other two archaeological sites by the ''Nahr al-Amrit'' and a site called by the locals'' al-Meqla'' '(the quarry'). The Stadium of Amrit was first described in 1745 by Richard Pococke in Part 2 of his book,'' A Description of the East, and Some Other Countries'', as the site where an ancient Circus was held. Ernest Renan examined it in 1860 and discussed it in his book ''Mission de Phénicie'', making the conclusion that the complex was not Roman in its entirety and that the stadium was undoubtedly Phoenician. The stadium is about 225 to 230 meters long and 30 to 40 meters wide, it has similar dimensions to the stadium of

Olympia The name Olympia may refer to: Arts and entertainment Film * ''Olympia'' (1938 film), by Leni Riefenstahl, documenting the Berlin-hosted Olympic Games * ''Olympia'' (1998 film), about a Mexican soap opera star who pursues a career as an athlet ...

in Greece (213 × 31/32 meters). Seven rows of seats have been partially preserved. The stadium was open to the west and had two entrances on the east side between seats. In addition, there was a tunnel to the interior. The stadium is located approximately at a right angle to the main temple of Amrit, the ''Maabed''. The temples to the north and west have open sides or which the stadium forms a common intersection. It is believed that the Amrit stadium was the location for sacred competitions where anointing and funeral games took place. Labib Boutros, former director of athletics at the

American University of Beirut The American University of Beirut (AUB) ( ar, الجامعة الأميركية في بيروت) is a private, non-sectarian, and independent university chartered in New York with its campus in Beirut, Lebanon. AUB is governed by a private, aut ...

has conducted recent studies of the stadium and suggested that its construction may date back as far as 1500 BC, saying that the Amrit stadium was ''"devoted to sports in Phoenicia several centuries before the Olympic Games"''.

Necropolis

The Necropolis in the south of Amrit consists of underground burial chambers and two distinguishing burial towers called by the locals ''"al Maghazil"'' or The Spindles that stand up to high. The larger tower is composed of a square stone base with a slightly upward tapering cylindrical block with a base diameter of , rising to a pyramid as a top termination, which is badly damaged. The second is approximately 12 meters southeast and is not quite tall. At its base are three cylindrical parts whose diameters decrease and terminate in a dome. At the lower cylinder, to the corners of the square base plates, four

lion The lion (''Panthera leo'') is a large Felidae, cat of the genus ''Panthera'' native to Africa and India. It has a muscular, broad-chested body; short, rounded head; round ears; and a hairy tuft at the end of its tail. It is sexually dimorphi ...

s decorate the building, which may not have been completed. Excavations of the burial chambers east of the towers has uncovered finds dated back as far as the 5th century BC. Plain limestone and clay

sarcophagus A sarcophagus (plural sarcophagi or sarcophaguses) is a box-like funeral receptacle for a corpse, most commonly carved in stone, and usually displayed above ground, though it may also be buried. The word ''sarcophagus'' comes from the Greek ...

were found arranged in cassette-like formation within the chambers. Other tombs are located south of the Nahr al-Qubli, the ''"al-Burǧ Bazzāq"'' or Worm tower, a phenomenal structure that was originally 19.50 meters high and the Hypogeum ''"Ḥaǧar al-Ḥublā"'' with three burial chambers, which were still used in Roman times.

Conservation

Amrit was included on the

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

and

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

World Monuments Fund watch lists of endangered archaeological sites. The Fund called attention to the site's rapid deterioration due to vandalism and encroaching development. In 2006 a three-day workshop was organized with participation from the UNESCO, Directorate-General of Antiquities and Museums of Syria and local administrators responsible for the sites of Amrit, Tartus and Arwad.

Gallery

File:Amrit Sepolcro - GAR - 1-01.jpg, Meghazil tomb, Amrit in 2006 File:Ma'abed-Temple d'Amrith Abbildung-1 Tafel-15 .jpg, Ma'abed-Temple d'Amrith File:Amrit Santuario Fenicio - GAR - 2-01.jpg, Phoenician Temple (Ma'abed), cella at the center of the court, Amrit in 2006 File:Amrit Stadio Ellenistico - GAR - 2-01.jpg, Phoenician Stadium, Amrit in 2006 File:Ma'abed-Temple d'Amrith Abbildung-1 Tafel-15 .jpg, Ma'abed-Temple d'AmrithPeter Wagner, Der ägyptische Einfluss auf die phönizische Architektur, Tafel-15, Rudolf Habelt Verlag, Bonn 1980,

References

Citations

Bibliography

* .

External links and references

The ancient city of Amrit
(Arabic)
Pictures of the temple and stadiumPhotos of Amrit
at the

American Center of Research The American Center of Research (ACOR) is a private, not-for-profit scholarly and educational organization. Based in Alexandria, Virginia, with a facility in Amman, Jordan, ACOR promotes knowledge of Jordan and the interconnected region, past and ...

{{Authority control Phoenician cities Aramean cities Former populated places in Syria Phoenician temples Bronze Age sites in Syria Archaeological sites in Tartus Governorate Phoenician funerary practices