BI’RU
The seventh
name of a town in the list of the Assyrian king Esarhaddon (676 BC) about the kingdom of Sidon is Bi-‘-ru-u. Most of the
researchers think it is modern Beirut .
Just a few scholars think, that it is a place in the vicinity of Sidon , like Krahmalkov
does in his Phoenician and Punic Dictionary (OLA 90, St.Phoen.XV, Leuven 2000,
p.96).
However,
despite the spelling Bi-‘-ru-u, which does not mark the final –t, this city
must be identified with Beirut, the city of the “wells”, because Esarhaddon
marches from the south to the north and Beirut is after Qartimme the following
town: Bi‘ru.
It is
doubtful whether Beirut
appears as B-i-r-t under Nos. 19 and 109 of the great topographical list of
Tuthmosis III. Instead, the city is certainly attested in the epoch of the
Amarna letters and of the Ugarit
archives, both syllabic and alphabetic. We even have the name of a king or
prince at that time: Ammunira. It is also mentioned at that time in Papyrus
Anastasi I.20.8, which dates from the late Nineteenth Dynasty, i.e. from the
end of the 13th century BC.
Roger
Saidah explored from that time the so-called Kharji tombs in caves in the
vicinity of what was the Byblos building in Beirut (Berytus XLI, AUB
1993/4: Beirut in the bronze Age).
We know the
exact location and size of the walled city in the Bronze and Iron Ages. The
city had the shape of an arc facing the sea and its total intramural area
surmounted only two hectares, but it was protected by an impressive and well preserved
defence system with walls 7 metres high.
In the time
of Esarhaddon Beirut was a small unimportant town, where there was water and
food, but it had massive defensive walls. The city had obviously lost its
former importance after several destructions between the 10th and
the mid 8th century BC. Archaeologists even date a level of apparent
abandonment to 750-700 BC, but an almost complete storehouse and a casemate
wall could be dated to c. the mid-7th century BC.
We are not
blessed with many findings out of this period, but there are two main exceptions.
First: it was a major storehouse with many Phoenician storage jars and local
red-slip as well as imported Cyprot and Attic amphorae. Second: there is an
inscription on an ostracon (TDB 91001) at the excavation site BEY 003, nr
95.120 (Badr). It says: lšmn = for oil. The writing is in a cursive way, which
we see also appear in Ires Dagi, Motya and Dona Blanca. Exactly in this 7th
century BC this way of writing is becoming popular. See: Palaeographic observations
on a Phoenician inscribed ostracon from Beirut ,
Ph.C.Schmitz (RSF XXX, 2. 2002).
In the
Persian period (with growing Greek influence) the city was called: Laodike of
Phoenicia. There was even a cemetery for dogs.
In the 4th
century BC, Ps.Scylax mentions its harbour ‘open to the north’, thus indicating
the site of the ancient city, which was not located on the Ras Bayrut, at the
western extremity of the triangular promontory, but to the south of the modern
harbour. The site was excavated in 1993-1996 and it was possible to establish
the exact location and size of the walled city (240 by 120 metres) in the
Bronze and the Iron Ages. In the area immediately adjacent to the north-west, a
large quantity of murex shells and a basin complex were uncovered, offering
possible evidence of local purple-dye production.
In the
Hellenistic period a habitation area with well-preserved dwellings of
pier-and-rubble construction laid out in an orthogonal plan was developed west
of the old Tell. In this time the city got the name: Laodike, mother of Canaan
/ metropolis in Canaan on coins and seals.
The
glass-industry is getting ever more exploited in Beirut
and traders from Beirut
go overseas to the Greek Delos.
In Roman
times the cult of the sun becomes more important. There is an altar for
Kronos-Helios.
Literature:
- Syria 1971.
Antiquités Syriennes. H.Seyrig.
- Regards
sur Beyrouth. R.Mouterde.
- La
Mediterranée des Phéniciens. Institut du monde Arabe. 2007-2008.
-
Archeology in the Beirut Central District. C.G.Cumberpatch, Berytus XLII
1995-96. AUB.
-
Städtewesen 2009. Beirut
and Tell al-Burak. H. Sadr.
- Berytos
XLVIII-XLIX 2004-2005. Archaeology of the Beirout Souks.
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