Political and economical situations of Ugarit, and its relationships with other countries observed in Ugaritic Texts

Abstract

The excavations at Ugarit have produced a host of prose and list texts in Ugaritic and Akkadian ranging from royal letters to economical or administrative lists. Most of the Akkadian texts deal with the royal circle and international affairs. In fact, the Akkadian texts published by Jean Nougayrol in PRU III and IV inform us that Ugarit is one of the best known city-states of antiquity with respect to both of the internal and external political life.
This study, however, is to observe the political and economical situations of Ugarit in the ancient Near East World, principally by the use of Ugaritic texts—administrative, political and economical—newly published. The admimistrative documents give us a good picture of the society and its relation to, and regulation by, the government. Aside from the peasants and herdsmen, the people tended to be grouped according to hereditary guilds. Among them there are many groups of, foreign people possibly of craftsmen and merchants. In PRU V, 59 the King of Tyre reports to the King of Ugarit that the Ugaritic ships bound for Egypt sank in a storm off Tyre. PRU V 60 is a letter from the Hittite Emperor to King Ammurapi of Ugarit, alluding to food shortages in Ugarit and to the presence of an enemy. These show us that the political situation of Ugarit was greatly influenced by the political conditions between Hittite and Egypt, and that, nevertheless, Ugarit used to be highly esteemed as an important transit port or city-state all over the ancient world through 1400-1200 B. C. and that she, therefore, enjoyed a free trade with the areas covering Egypt, Hittite, Mesopotamia and even the Aegean.