Organized under the aegis of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres (AIBL) and the Collège de France by the Mission archéologique syro-française de Ras Shamra-Ougarit, UMR 7192 Proclac CNRS-Collège de France and Sorbonne University, Faculté des Lettres.
The international colloquium Ougarit, 90 ans après is organized, under the aegis of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres and the Collège de France, by UMR 7192 Proclac (CNRS - Collège de France), Sorbonne University (Faculté des Lettres) and the Syro-French archaeological mission of Ras Shamra-Ougarit. It will run from Wednesday November 13 to Saturday November 16, at the Collège de France, the Palais de l'Institut de France and the Institut national d'histoire de l'art.
2019 marks the 90th anniversary of the start of exploration at Ugarit. On Tuesday April 2, 1929, excavations began at the Minet el-Beida site, followed a month later by the Ras Shamra tell. These were the beginnings of one of the major archaeological discoveries of the 20th century. Excavations at these two sites on the Syrian coast, a few kilometers north of the city of Latakia, revealed the remains of two flourishing Late Bronze Age settlements: Ugarit, the capital of a Levantine kingdom, a cosmopolitan city where people and cultures mingled, and Mahadu, its main port, a major trading center in the eastern Mediterranean. Part of the Syrian tradition that began in the 3rd millennium BC, documented by the discoveries of Ebla and Mari, 2nd millennium Ugarit occupies a key position between Mesopotamia and the Aegean, Anatolia and Egypt.
Over the past nine decades, the long tradition of study has far from dried up research. The sheer volume of finds and excavations has given rise to a wealth of research based on multi-disciplinary studies and approaches, with a growing emphasis on excavation archives. The aim of this scientific meeting is to present the results and prospects of research in the main fields of study developed within the framework of the mission, and also to give the floor to specialists from the Eastern Mediterranean and the Near East, who will provide a complementary perspective. Archaeologists, historians, epigraphists, geographers, etc., will cross their views and compare their ideas, to bring this civilization of the Northern Levant back to life, while inviting historiographic reflection.