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Arts & Communication Constructing the image of ancient cities

city’s historical periods and stratifications, as they are the reputation in the Levant, Mesopotamia, and Asia Minor,
only withstanding elements in the urban transformation and even on an international scale. The discovered writings
process. In studying ancient cities, it is crucial to focus on the city of Ugarit in Egypt, Ebla, Mari, and Hattusa
on the political and religious systems and structures, strongly advocate this fact. 18,33,34
such as the royal palace, the temple, etc., that stirred This city accommodated all political, economic, and
the urban developments and dynamics of the city, but cultural activities of those people and was an important
without ignoring the invaluable social and ethnographic example of multicultural cities during the Late Bronze
information that the ruins of houses and small societal Age period. Thus, the city of Ugarit represents a smaller-
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buildings can convey about past people’s everyday life.
scale prototype of the whole kingdom and, consequently,
3. Understanding the image of the city of it is a good example of the so-called city-state. Political
Ugarit (Royal Palace) religious (big temples), and social (public
buildings) representations within the city wall confirm
Olivier Aurenche and Olivier Callot provide a basic the high complexity of the city during its last phase.
architectural definition of the city in their book This, consequently, conveys the very significant role that
“Dictionnaire illustré multilingue de l’architecture du Proche- Ugarit had within the international sphere (Figure 5).
Orient ancien.” The two scholars adopt specific criteria The discovered architecture, objects, and texts in the
to differentiate between the city and the village of the city confirm this fact; the written sources show that the
ancient world in terms of social, urban, and architectural relationships between the kingdom and surrounding
hierarchies. Archeological evidence of these hierarchies, powers during the Late Bronze Age were established
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the city walls, and the pattern of the street network must mainly through the capital city of Ugarit and its dominated
be primarily investigated to analyze the city’s structure, harbors. Hence, the city of Ugarit is an object which holds
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associations, and urban concepts. intrinsic physical and cultural values as a unique urban
The city of Ugarit was built on a Tell (hill), whose top agglomeration on a regional and international scale, and
point is 20 m above the surrounding plain fields. This therefore reading and analyzing the urban characteristics
location facilitated easy visual communication between of the city will help identify its outstanding urban values,
the city and its dominating harbors, Minet El Beida and structure, and image.
Ras Ibn Hani. The regional relationships between the
city and the two bays of the harbors sufficiently express 3.1. The city of Ugarit: Urban reading and analysis
its well-planned location and how the topography of the The site of the city is flanked by two riverbeds (Nahr
area was used to choose a proper site for their dominant Chbayyeb and Nahr ed-Delbeh), which formed its natural
urban agglomeration (the capital city) to supervise all border. However, it is believed that the city was also
surrounding lands (Figure 3A). 30,pp.37-47 equipped with fortifications, although only the western
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It is well known that the site of the city of Ugarit part has been discovered so far. The building materials
started during the Neolithic period as a small village, 31,32 and techniques of the discovered fortification, large ashlar
but its strategic location and people’s persistent efforts to stones built in traditional as well as vaulted geometries,
develop their city contributed to its complex structure and explicitly show that the city had been strongly secured
excellent reputation during the Late Bronze Age period. using monumental structures in addition to the natural
Considering the original height of the buildings in the city, ones, the rivers (Figure 6). Based on Naroll’s formula which
especially in the Acropolis area, the city is a well-recognized uses a ratio of persons per total floor area to calculate the
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urban element within the surrounding landscape. The population of ancient cities and taking into account cross-
morphological characteristics and the direct link with the cultural parallels, the city’s population is estimated to be
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main harbor of Minet El Beida had conferred an important 7,635. Considering this high density, it is very important
role of the city, and its two key royal and the acropolis to highlight the daily urban traffic of those people within
areas, as a landmark for people from the seaside and the the city as well as between the city and the surrounding
land (Figures 3B and 4). region.
It is obvious that the city had a physical and cultural Starting with the city access, the only access discovered
significance, not only for its inhabitants but also for the so far is the western gate which directly leads to the New
surrounding sites of the kingdom. The topographic survey, Royal Plaza, around which the new royal structures
carried out by the French-Syrian mission in 2001, clearly (Royal Palace, Royal Sanctuary, and Pillared building)
shows the city’s overall morphology and its topographic are located. For political, religious, and practical reasons,
settings (Figure 4). 30,pp.27-36 Ugarit gained a very good it is obvious that this gate did not function as access for

Volume 3 Issue 2 (2025) 6 doi: 10.36922/ac.4239