:Amrit

File:Monnaie - Bronze, Marathos, Phénicie - btv1b10332238p (2 of 2).jpg

The city lies on the Mediterranean coast around {{convert|6|km|mi|sp=us|abbr=on}} 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, and was considered one of the "daughters of Arwad" on the coastline.{{Cite book |last=Renan |first=Ernest |title=Mission de Phénicie |publisher=Imprimerie Impériale |year=1864 |location=Paris |author-link=Ernest Renan}} p. [https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k5529563s/f24.item 20]Strabo, Geographica, 16.2.12 ([https://el.wikisource.org/wiki/%CE%93%CE%B5%CF%89%CE%B3%CF%81%CE%B1%CF%86%CE%B9%CE%BA%CE%AC/%CE%99%CE%A3%CE%A4 Greek source] and [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Strabo/16B*.html English translation]) Marathus served as Arwad's continental base,{{cite book |title=The Routledge Handbook of the People and Places of Ancient Western Asia: The Near East from the Early Bronze Age to the Fall of the Persians Empire |last=Bryce |first=Trevor |year=2009 |publisher= Routledge |isbn= 978-1-134-15908-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E1aF0hq1GR8C&q=Amrit+syria }} although the port of Arwad in the mainland was Carne.{{Cite book |last=Hill |first=George Francis |title=Catalogue of the Greek Coins of Phoenicia |publisher=Arnaldo Forni - Editore |year=1965 |pages=xxxviii |author-link=George Francis Hill}}{{Cite book |last=Renan |first=Ernest |title=Mission de Phénicie |publisher=Imprimerie Impériale |year=1864 |location=Paris |author-link=Ernest Renan}} p. [https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k5529563s/f59.item 55], [https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k5529563s/f101.item 97] 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.{{cite book |title=The Persian Empire: A Corpus of Sources from the Achaemenid Period |last=Kuhrt |first=Amelie |year=2007 |publisher= Routledge|isbn= 978-1-134-07634-5 |page=439 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=S6BevAUWSGAC&q=Marathus+syria }} During Seleucid times the town, known as Marathus, was probably larger and more prosperous than Arwad.{{cite book |title=A brief history of Iraq |last1= Fattah|first1=Hala Mundhir|last2=Caso|first2=Frank |year=2009 |publisher= Infobase Publishing|isbn= 978-0-8160-5767-2 |page= 42|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q_-hrXU-mWYC&q=Marathos+syria }} In 219 BC Marathus gained independence from Arwad, and was later sacked by forces from the latter city in 148 BC.{{cite book |title=Palestine and Syria, handbook for travellers |last=Baedeker |first=Karl |year=1876 |page=536 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qoIDAAAAQAAJ }} Strabo described Marathus as ruins at his time.

Excavations of the site principally began in 1860 by Ernest Renan. Excavations were again carried out in 1954 by French archaeologist Maurice Dunand. 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 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 {{convert|230|m|ft|sp=us|abbr=on}} in length.

One of the most important excavations at Amrit was the Phoenician temple, commonly referred to the "ma'abed," dedicated to the god Melqart of Tyre and Eshmun. The colonnaded temple, excavated between 1955 and 1957, consists of a large court cut out of rock measuring {{convert|47|xx|49|m|ft|sp=us|abbr=on}} and over {{convert|3|m|ft|sp=us|abbr=on}} 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, the temple is the "best-preserved monumental structure from the Phoenician homeland."{{cite book |title=The archaeology of Syria: from complex hunter-gatherers to early urban societies (c. 16,000-300 BC)|last1=Akkermans |first1=Peter |last2=Schwartz |first2=Glenn |year=2003 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn= 978-0-521-79666-8 |page= 391|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_4oqvpAHDEoC&q=Amrit+syria }}

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.

File:Stadio Amrit 1-2.jpg

About {{convert|200|m|ft|sp=us|abbr=on}} northeast of the main temples of ancient Marathos and {{convert|180|m|ft|sp=us|abbr=on}} north of the Amrit Tell are the remains of a rock-carved Phoenician stadium. 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').Ernst Honigmann: Marathos (2). In: Wilhelm Kroll (Publisher): Paulys Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft. 14.2, Metzler, Stuttgart, S. 1434, p. 65, 1930. 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.{{cite web|url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0064:entry=marathus-geo|title=Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), MARATHUS}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wY4qAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA569 |title=A General Collection of the Best and Most Interesting Voyages and Travels in All Parts of the World: Many of which are Now First Translated Into English; Digested on a New Plan|first=John|last=Pinkerton|date=1 January 1811|publisher=Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme ... and Cadell and Davies|via=Google Books}} 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.{{cite book|url=http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k5529563s|title=Mission de Phénicie. TEXTE / dirigée par M. Ernest Renan,...|via=gallica.bnf.fr}} The stadium is about 225 to 230 meters long and 30 to 40 meters wide,{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ro7KDAhBC10C&q=Amrit+Stadium+230&pg=PA183|title=Herod and Augustus: Papers Presented at the IJS Conference, 21st-23rd June 2005|first1=David M.|last1=Jacobson|first2=Nikos|last2=Kokkinos|date=1 January 2009|publisher=BRILL|via=Google Books|isbn=978-9004165465}} it has similar dimensions to the stadium of Olympia in Greece (213 × 31/32 meters). Seven rows of seats have been partially preserved.{{cite book|author1=Frank Rainer Scheck|author2=Johannes Odenthal|title=Syrien: Hochkulturen zwischen Mittelmeer und Arabischer Wüste|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=x-nZG9l2Z64C&pg=PA226|access-date=22 August 2012|year=1998|publisher=DuMont Reiseverlag|isbn=978-3-7701-3978-1|pages=226–}} 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 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".[http://www.la84foundation.org/OlympicInformationCenter/OlympicReview/1977/ore112/ore112q.pdf Dr. Boutros Labib., "The Phoenician stadium of Amrit", The Olympic Review, No. 112, February 1977]

File:Meghazil 2.jpg

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 {{convert|7.5|m|ft|sp=us|abbr=on}} high. The larger tower is composed of a square stone base with a slightly upward tapering cylindrical block with a base diameter of {{convert|3.7|m|ft|sp=us|abbr=on}}, rising to a pyramid as a top termination, which is badly damaged. The second is approximately 12 meters southeast and is not quite {{convert|7|m|ft|sp=us|abbr=on}} 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 lions decorate the building, which may not have been completed.{{cite book|author1=Frank Rainer Scheck|author2=Johannes Odenthal|title=Syrien: Hochkulturen zwischen Mittelmeer und Arabischer Wüste|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4vxoQeB-MiEC&pg=PA228|access-date=22 August 2012|year=1998|publisher=DuMont Reiseverlag|isbn=978-3-7701-3978-1|pages=228–}} Excavations of the burial chambers east of the towers has uncovered finds dated back as far as the 5th century BC.Michael Sommer: Die Phönizier. Geschichte und Kultur (= Beck’sche Reihe. Nr. 2444). C. H. Beck, München 2008, {{ISBN|978-3-406-56244-0}}, II. Die Levante, p. 23. Plain limestone and clay sarcophagus were found arranged in cassette-like formation within the chambers.{{cite book|author=Fernando Prados Martínez|title=Arquitectura Púnica: Los Monumentos Funerarios|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O7_UGnx7XccC&pg=PA105|access-date=22 August 2012|year=2008|publisher=CSIC-Dpto. de Publicaciones|isbn=978-84-00-08619-0|pages=105–}} 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.Astrid Nunn: Der figürliche Motivschatz Phöniziens, Syriens und Transjordanienes vom 6. bis zum 4. Jahrhundert v. Chr (= Orbis biblicus et orientalis: Series archaeologica; 18). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, {{ISBN|3-525-53899-5}}, Amrit und Umgebung – B4 (Gräber), p. 204, Göttingen, 2000.

Amrit was included on the 2004 and 2006 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.{{cite web |url=http://www.wmf.org/project/amrit-archaeological-site |title=AMRIT ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE |publisher=World Monuments Fund|access-date=20 January 2012}}

File:Amrit Sepolcro - GAR - 1-01.jpg|Meghazil tomb, Amrit in 2006

File:Ma'abed-Temple d'Amrith Abbildung-1 Tafel-15 {{ISBN|3-7749-1772-8}}.jpg|Ma'abed-Temple d'Amrith Peter Wagner: Der ägyptische Einfluss auf die phönizische Architektur, Rudolf Habelt Verlag, Bonn 1980, {{ISBN|3-7749-1772-8}}, Tafel 15, Seite 154

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 {{ISBN|3-7749-1772-8}}.jpg|Ma'abed-Temple d'AmrithPeter Wagner, Der ägyptische Einfluss auf die phönizische Architektur, Tafel-15, Rudolf Habelt Verlag, Bonn 1980, {{ISBN|3-7749-1772-8}}

{{Reflist|2}}

• {{citation |last=Head |first=Barclay |editor=Ed Snible |author2=G.F. Hill |author3=George MacDonald |author4=W. Wroth |display-authors=1 |display-editors=0 |url=http://snible.org/coins/hn/index.html |title=Historia Numorum |contribution=Phoenicia |contribution-url=http://snible.org/coins/hn/syria.html |pages=788–801 |date=1911 |edition=2nd |location=Oxford |publisher=Clarendon Press |ref={{harvid|Head & al.|1911}} }}.

{{Commons category|Amrit}}

• [http://www.amrit-syria.com/ The ancient city of Amrit] (Arabic)
• [http://www.pbase.com/dosseman_syria/amrit Pictures of the temple and stadium]
• [https://acor.digitalrelab.com/index.php?s=filter=place_name:Amrit%20(Syria) Photos of Amrit] at the American Center of Research

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Category:Populated places established in the 3rd millennium BC

Category:Populated places disestablished in the 2nd century BC

Category:1860 archaeological discoveries

Category:Phoenician cities

Category:Aramean cities

Category:Former populated places in Syria

Category:Phoenician temples

Category:Bronze Age sites in Syria

Category:Archaeological sites in Tartus Governorate

Category:Phoenician funerary practices

Category:Melqart