CENTRAL AND NORTH SYRIA
[See the diagrams of flint implements, Illustration II; of pottery
and weapons, &c., VIII & IX; of alphabets, X & XI.]
The following notes are to be accepted as only a rough and imperfect
guide, since no part of Syria, north of Palestine, has been widely or
minutely explored, and the archaeology of the earliest period, in
Central Syria, for example, is almost unknown.
The periods into which the archaeological history of Syria should be
divided are roughly, as follows:
I. Neolithic and Chalcolithic Age, to about 2000 B.C.
II. Bronze Age or Early Hittite, to about 1100 B.C.
III. Iron Age or Late Hittite, to about 550 B.C.
IV. Persian Period, to about 330 B.C.
V. Hellenistic Period, to about 100 B.C.
VI. Roman Period.
VII. Byzantine Period.
I. Neolithic.
No purely Neolithic sites yet known, but lowest strata of remains at
Sakjegozu and Sinjerli, on the Carchemish citadel, and in certain
kilns at Yunus near by, and also pot-burials among house remains are
of this Age. (But see Chapter VIII, Mesopotamia, whose Neolithic
period is similar.)
Stone implements:
as in Greece, including obsidian of very clear texture, probably of
inner Asiatic, not Aegean production. Bone needles and other
implements.
Pottery.
Four varieties have been observed: (1) buff ground with simple linear
decoration applied direct on the gritty body-clay in lustreless
pigments, black, chocolate-brown, or red, according to the firing;
(2) greenish-buff face, hand-polished, with polychrome varnish
decoration of vandykes and other geometric motives; (3) monochrome,
black to grey, not burnished, but sometimes decorated with incised
linear patterns; (4) plain red or buff (e.g. large urns in which
Neolithic burials were found on the Carchemish citadel). All pottery
hand-made.
Figurines:
rude clay and stone figurines are likely to occur, but have as yet
been found very rarely in Neolithic strata.
Copper implements:
traces observed at Carchemish: to be looked for.
II. Bronze Age (Early Hittite).
(a) Early period to about 1500 B.C.
Cist-graves made of rough stone slabs, near crude brick houses.
Conjunction of such slabs with bricks would be an indication of an
early Bronze Age site. Rare pot-burials survive.
Implements.
Spear-heads of long tapering form rounded sharply at the base which
has long tang (IX, Fig. 5): poker-like butts (IX, Fig. 2): knives
with curved tangs: 'toggle' pins: all bronze (but a silver toggle-pin
has been found) (IX, Figs. 1,8).
Pottery.
All wheel-made but rough: light red or buff faced of reddish clay:
decoration rare and only in simple zigzags or waves in reddish-brown
pigment: long-stemmed vases of 'champagne-glass' form are common (VIII,
Fig. 4): rarely a creamy slip is applied to the red clay.
(b) Later period.
Cist-graves apart from houses, in cemeteries.
Implements.
Long narrow celts often riveted: spear-heads, leaf-shaped or
triangular (IX, Figs. 3, 6, 10): axe-heads with socket, swelling
blade and curved cutting edge: pins both 'toggle' and unpierced,
straight and bent over.
Pottery.
Wheel-made, well potted, and commonly _ring-burnished_, the process
beginning at the base of a vase and climbing spirally: little painted
decoration: face usually dusky brown over pinkish body clay, but red
and yellow-white faced wares also found: shapes, mostly bowls, open
and half closed: ring feet, but no handles to vases: only
occasionally lug-ears (IX, Figs. 1,2,3,5,6). Rims well turned over
belong to the latest period, in which elaborate ring-burnishing is
common.
Beads, &c.
Diamond-shaped, with incised decoration, in clay or stone, common.
Pendants, &c., of shell, lapis lazuli, cornelian, crystal. Cylinders,
of rude design like Babylonian First Dynasty, in stone and bone.
Spindle-whorls in steatite and clay.
[ILLUSTRATION VIII: SYRIAN POTTERY]
III. Iron Age (Late Hittite).
To this belong the mass of 'Hittite' remains in Syria. Graves are
unlined pits, with urn burials, the corpse having been cremated.
Cylinders, &c., showing traces of fire, will belong to this Age.
Implements and weapons.
Arrow-heads of bronze: spear-heads of bronze and iron: axes, knives,
and picks of iron (miniature models occur in graves): daggers of
iron. _Fibulae_, of bronze, semicircular and triangular (as in Asia
Minor) (IX, Figs. 4, 9, 11): plain armlets of bronze: pins, spatulae,
&c., of bronze: thin applique ornaments. Bronze bowls (gilt) with
gadroon or lotus ornament (moulded) in later period. Steatite
censers, in form of a cup held by a human hand, are not uncommon (IX,
Fig. 7).
Pottery.
Tall narrow-mouthed urns, bath-shaped vessels, and bell-kraters
common (VIII, Fig. 10): trefoil-mouth _oenochoae_ and _hydriae_; also
_amphorae_ (VIII, Fig. 7).
In earlier period, white or drab slipped surface with geometric
patterns (rarely rude birds) in black. In later period, pinkish glaze
with geometric patterns in black-brown, concentric circles being a
common motive. Tripod bowls in unslipped 'kitchen' ware (VIII, Fig.
8). Blue or greenish glazed albarelli, with white, brown, or yellow
bands, occur (as in Rhodes).
Figurines.
Drab clay, painted with red or black bands and details. Two types:
(a) Horsemen; (b) Goddesses of columnar shape, often with flower
headdresses, and sometimes carrying a child.
Seals, &c.
Scarabs with designs of Egyptian appearance: cylinders, steatite or
(more commonly) glazed paste, lightly and often scratchily engraved:
hard stone seals finely engraved: flattened spheroids in steatite
with Hittite symbols on both faces, inscriptions being often garbled.
Inscriptions.
Most of those in Hittite script, both relieved and incised, found in
Syria, are of this Age, but chiefly of the earlier part of it (cf.
Illustration VI). Those in Semitic characters begin in this Age; and
to its later part (8th-7th cents.) belong important Aramaic
inscriptions, e.g. the Bar-Rekub monuments of Sinjerli (Shamal). See
tables of letter-forms appended to Palestine section, Illustrations X
& XI.
IV. Persian Period.
Imported Egyptian and Egypto-Phoenician objects (bronze bowls as in
Age III: scarabs: figure-amulets), Rhodian (pottery), Attic (coins,
small black-figure vases, &c.).
Weapons and implements.
Iron. Long swords: spearheads, socketed, often with square or diamond
mid-rib: short double-edged daggers with round pommels: chapes
(bronze) with moulded or beaten relief-work: knives, small and
slightly curved: arrow-heads (usually bronze and triangular): horse-
bits (usually bronze) with heavy knobbed side-bars: ear-rings, wire
armlets and pins (generally plain) of bronze: _fibulae_ as in Age
III: circular mirrors, plain, of bronze: anklets of heavy bronze:
kohl-pots, bronze, of hollow cylindrical form, with plain sticks.
Pottery.
As in Age II, plain, polished, rarely ring-burnished, but of less
careful workmanship (VIII, Fig. 9.) Glazed albarelli, 'pilgrim-
bottles', aryballi, &c., (as in Age III) common. White-yellow slipped
ware with bands of black survives rarely from Age III.
Stone vessels.
Bowls on inverted cup-shaped feet not uncommon (VIII, Fig. 11).
Beads and seals.
Eye-beads in mosaic glass, and other glass beads (hard stone and
bronze more rarely): conoid seals in hard crystalline stones, usually
engraved with figure praying to the Moon-god: also soft stone, glass
and paste conoids. Scarabs and scaraboids in paste. Cylinders become
scarce.
V. Hellenistic. VI. Roman. VII. Byzantine.
Most of the characteristic Syrian products of all these Periods do
not differ materially from those found in other East Mediterranean
lands, e.g. Greece and Asia Minor. The change to Persian (Sassanian)
types comes in the late seventh century A.D.
Two classes of objects, examples of the first of which are mostly of
Age III, but may be Persian, Hellenistic, or even Roman, are very
commonly met with in Syria:
1. Figurines,
single or in pairs or threes, of bronze or terra-cotta, representing
cult-types. Most common is a standing god with peaked cap, short
tunic, and arm raised in act of smiting: a seated goddess also
common: figures of animals, especially a bull; and phallic objects
(these mainly Roman).
2. Glass
plain (iridescent from decay), ribbed, or moulded, in great variety
of forms-bowls, jugs, cups, &c. Mostly late Hellenistic, Roman, and
Byzantine, and especially common and of fine quality in the Orontes
valley.
Parti-coloured glass (with white or yellow bands and threads) is
earlier (Persian Period). Painted and enamelled glass with gilt or
polychrome designs is later (ninth to fifteenth century, Arab).
[ILLUSTRATION IX: SYRIAN WEAPONS, ETC.]