TELL SŪKĀS
(Tall Sūkās) Syria.
An ancient
town mound on the coast between two natural harbors
37 km S of Latakia, identified as Bronze Age Shuksu
on the S frontier of the kingdom of Ugarit. The modern
village lies 600 m E of the mound.
Excavation has shown that the first occupation of the
site was in the Neolithic period (7th millennium B.C.),
that in the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age the
town was touched by Mycenaean trade, and that in the
NE quarter there were remains of a sanctuary. At the
end of the Early Iron Age Greek pottery of the 8th c.
B.C. appeared, a sign of the settling of Greek traders.
The following period saw the establishing of a Greek
sanctuary, together with a renewal of the old cult place.
Apparently the town was destroyed at the beginning of
the 5th c. B.C. (perhaps in 498) and lay in ruins until
ca. 380, when it was refounded as a Neo-Phoenician
town. The earthquake of 69 B.C. probably put an end
to it; the few Roman finds date from the 3d and 4th c.
A.D.
The town mound became a fortress, constructed by
the Byzantines, enlarged by the Crusaders, occupied by
the Muslims, and deserted in the 14th c. Ancient cemeteries have been identified N and S of the harbors; at
the S harbor there was also a Neo-Phoenician sanctuary.
Most of the finds are in the National Museum, Damascus.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
E. Forrer, “Eine unbekannte griechische
Kolonie des sechsten Jahrhunderts v. Chr. in Phönikien,”
Bericht über den 6. internationalen Kongress fur Archäologie (1939); A.M.H. Ehrich,
Early Pottery of the
Jebeleh Region (1939); P. J. Riis, “L'activité de la Mission archéologique danoise sur la côte phénicienne,”
Annales archéologiques de Syrie 8-9 (1958-59); 13 (1963);
15, 2 (1965)
MPI; id.,
Sūkās I (1970)
MPI; G. Ploug,
Sūkās II (1972); P. J. Riis & H. Thrane,
Sūkās III (1974)
MPI.
P. J. RIIS
