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 Sakjegözu 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 appliqué 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).
