Department Of Syrio-Oriental Antiquities
Introduction :
Among the countries of the ancient Arab Orient , Syria is
the one that is the richest in historical and archaeological wealth .
It is rightly said that each stone of her soil narrates
history of a bygone civilization and that each of her numerous ancient
hillocks harbours in its bowels a story from the past and throws tight on
the ancient civilizations that existed long in this region
As Syria was on the crossroads of the ancient world ,
many civilizations sprouted and flourished here and enlightened the far and
near countries. It absorbed something from the civilizations of the
neighbouring countries and generously gave a lot from her own traditions .
From here we perceive that the Syrian classical antiquities have a peculiar
character of their own . They vividly represent the history of the Near East
as a whole due to their worth and richness of variety . No wonder , most of
the historians and archaeologists are attracted to this part of the world .
It is noteworthy that the archaeological missions
have begun to pour into Syria since the dawn of the 20th century
to excavate and clarify the ambiguity that shrouded some periods of history
and to unveil the obscurities concerning the ancient civilizations .
Many were the archaeological missions which operated all
over Syria particularly after the first world war . Each one of these
missions took up a certain site . Prominent among the excavations conducted
in our Syrian Arab Region are :
-
The excavations of Ras Shamra (Ugarit), of Amrit
(Marathus ) , of Tell Kazel ( Simyra ) , with the
purpose of clarifying the history of all the
peoples Inhabited the Syrian coast particularly the Canaanites and the
Phoenicians .
-
The excavations of Tell Hariri ( Mari), on the right
bank of the Middle Euphrates , which was the crossroads of the
civilization of Mesopotamia and those of Syria , Anatolia and Tell al-Khoueira
-
The excavations of northern Syria :Tell Ahmar , Arsian
Tach , Ain-Dara and those in Tell Refat which were interested in the
history of the Assyrian and Hittite states and the near-by Aramaean states
. Today , excavations are underway at a new site named Tell Mardikh which
have a great significance with regard to the history of the region in the
second millennium B. C.
The above-noted excavations have flooded the Syrian
museums with Important antiquities , a matter that prompted the Syrian
Government to adopt a new system to its museums where each Governorate has
now a museum of its own to house the antiquities of the area . The National
Museum of Damascus remained the main centre of the important Syrian
Antiquities . The Museum has now a very rich collection dating back to all
ages and representing successive civilizations .
The Department of Syrio-Oriental Antiquities in the
National Museum of Damascus preserves the earliest antiquities of different
periods despite the fact that it has recently set up in the Damascus
National Museum . It came into existence in 1952 . It was originally an
exhibition devoted almost entirely to the important artifacts which came to
the Museum from the excavated sites . It has been recently renovated and
expanded for housing further collections , until It has become a significant
branch of the museum .
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