Damascus-SANA
The book The History of Ancient Syria, its Archeology and Civilization by Dr. Eid Marei examines the ancient natural history of Syria from pre-writing times, i.e. before the year 3400 BC until the Seleucid era 312 BC, based on antiquities and ancient writings discovered within Syrian geography and in the neighboring areas.
The book provides information on various aspects of the life of the inhabitants of ancient Syria, who excelled in achieving remarkable civilizational achievements, such as discovering agriculture, making pottery, building the first cities and inventing the alphabet.
The book also discusses the various sciences known to the ancient Syrians, which enabled them to develop perceptions of how the universe emerged, discover distant regions, and learn about the various arts of carving, drawing and decoration.
The book indicates that the Syrian civilized superiority was clearly manifested in the monuments of cities and ancient archaeological sites, the most famous of which are Abla, Mari, Ugarit, Qatana, Jericho, Jbeil, Sidon, Tyre and Palmyra, speaking of the extension of the Syrian civilization far to Carthage in Tunisia, where they transferred their development to it.
The book is divided into six chapters. The first chapter begins with an explanation of the name of Syria, its location, its natural borders, and archaeological excavations. In the second chapter, it moves to the prehistoric, medieval, modern, and Chalcolithic eras.
Then the book introduces the first Syrian settlements and cities to move in the third chapter to Syria in the third millennium BC, talking about the site of Ebla and the story of its discovery and civilization that reached us through the royal archives, its political and economic life, its language and culture, and the beliefs of the ancient Abloites.
As for the fourth chapter, it was devoted to the Amorite era, where it talked about the kingdom of Mari, its history, the civilizations of the Canaanites, the Phoenicians, the Arameans and their kingdoms, and the kingdoms of Yamhad, Adob, Moab, and Ammon.
Then the book moves to Syria in the Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian era and the Achaemenid and Macedonian occupations.
It is noteworthy that the book was issued by the Syrian General Book Organization and is 775 pages in large pieces.
As for Dr. Eid Marei, he is a professor in the history, languages and civilization of the ancient East in the Department of History at the Faculty of Arts at the University of Damascus and an expert in the Encyclopedia of Syrian Archeology. He holds a PhD from the University of Würzburg in Germany. He has participated in many international conferences and symposia on the history of Syria and has written many books and university and non-university studies. .
Mays Al Ani