The Acropolis in the north-east sector of the site contained the two main temples of the city, dedicated to Baal and his father, Dagan, gods of vegetation. Both temples may have been founded early in the second millennium BC, even though existing remains are Late Bronze Age. Identifications for the cults come from stelai found in the area that show or name these gods. Objects found in and around the temple of Baal include a stele showing Baal striding forward, a (thunderbolt) club brandished in an upraised arm. Following the conventions of Near Eastern and Egyptian art, the god is shown with feet, legs, and face in profile, but torso frontal. Other objects include statues and stelai, sometimes dedicated by Egyptians, and sixteen stone anchors, offered, like the statues and stelai, as votives.
The plans of the temples are simple and resemble each other. Both consist of two main rooms, a pronaos (porch) and a naos (the sanctuary proper), aligned north-north-east to south-southwest. The Temple of Dagan is notable for its thick (4—5m) foundation walls. The ruins of the Temple of Baal (Figure 9.9) include portions of a wall that enclosed the precinct, a probable altar in a courtyard in front of the pronaos, monumental steps up to the higher ground level of the pronaos and naos, and another probable altar in the naos itself, accessible by separate steps. Marguerite Yon, recent director of the Ugarit excavations, has suggested that these buildings situated high in the city may also have functioned as lighthouses.
The third major building of the Acropolis was the House of the High Priest, found west of the Temple of Dagan. This large, two-storied house, well constructed for the most part, is of particular importance for the tablets found here, especially for texts of mythological poems. Some tablets show writing exercises, examples of the syllabary, and bilingual lexicons, indicating that the building was used as a center for the training of scribes. That it was also the residence of the city’s
Chief priest is suggested by its location close to the main temples and especially by four small bron2e ad2es and one hoe inscribed with dedications to the Head of the Priests. These last objects formed part of a large deposit of seventy-four bron2e weapons, tools, and one elegant tripod decorated with pendants in the shape of pomegranates discovered beneath the threshold of a doorway inside the house.
Figure 9.9 Plan, Temple of Baal, Ugarit
World History
