480 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1937 



general picture of that culture, the first to yield ancient Canaanite 

 literature. The spectacular character of some of its finds have 

 attracted wide notice, but its importance for our understanding of the 

 history and linguistics of that area is greater even than the interest it 

 has evoked in the scholarly world. 



DISCOVERY 



The excavations at Ras Shamra began simply. Early in 1928 an 

 Alouite peasant, worldng on Ids land on the shore of the Mediterranean 

 struck a stone slab which, upon removal, disclosed a stairway leading 

 to an underground passage. It was an old vaulted tomb, and the 

 peasant recovered from it some objects of gold. News of this reached 

 M. Virolleaud, director of antiquities in the French Mandatory Gov- 

 ernment over Syria, and in the following winter a French archcological 

 expedition was sent there under MM. C. F. A. SchaefTer and G. 

 Chenet. They excavated at the first spot, a bay called Minet el- 

 Beida, and found additional tombs; toward the end of the season they 

 worked on the mound nearby, and unearthed not only many weapons, 

 statuettes, and other objects, but also a store of clay tablets, some 

 written in Aldvadian cuneiform, others in a new and unknown cunei- 

 form alphabet. Tliis last discovery justly received unequaled 

 attention, and the contmuation of the excavation was assured. The 

 work has been carried through with unimpeachable method, a fact 

 deserving of note in \dew of the many dangers of commission and 

 omission in archcological work and the importance of methodical and 

 technical operation. M. SchaefTer has published the annual reports 

 in the French journal Syria, where M. Virolleaud gives unusually 

 clear and exact copies of the wealth of important inscriptions wliich 

 have come to light. 



THE PLACE 



Minet el-Beida (White Port) is a small bay in the northermost part 

 of the eastern (Syrian) coast of the Mediterranean Sea, about 15 

 kilometers north of Latakia. It is the spot on the Syrian coast 

 opposite the eastern tip of Cyprus, which can be seen from the high- 

 lands behind the bay. About 1 mile inland stands the large teU 

 (mound covering ancient ruins) of Ras esh-Shamra (Fennel Head), 

 20 meters high and almost 1 kilometer in diagonal. There are other 

 tells along the coast, hiding ruins of other cities, while just to the north 

 rises the promontory of Mons Casius, 1,7G0 meters liigh. What with 

 its prominent position opposite Cyprus, and its overland passes across 

 the mountains to the Syrian hinterland, this spot was a natural loca- 

 tion for the development of one of the great cities of the ancient 

 Near East. 



