Please join us for the Badaro Talks, presented by assyriologist Carole Roche-Hawley. The talk explores the final days of Ugarit, the prosperous Syrian coastal kingdom.

When: Thursday 5th of March at 7pm.

Where: The FIME premises at 30 Badaro Street, Chaoui Building, 5th floor meeting room.

We kindly request you to RSVP through this link or by sending an email to institute@fime.fi at the latest on Wednesday 4th of March.

You can also attend online by registering for the event.

Abstract

“May my lord know that the enemy’s forces are now stationed at Raʾšu and that their avant-guard forces have been sent to Ugarit”.

This message, sent from Ras Ibn Hani (the site of ancient Raʾšu), is one of the last known textual witnesses to the final days of the kingdom of Ugarit. This prosperous kingdom, located on the Syrian coast, is known from written sources since the beginning of the 2^nd millennium, but would definitively disappear at the end of the Late Bronze Age, in the early 12^th century BC.

The speaker will present a synthesized portrait of the last 30 years of this kingdom’s existence, as recounted in texts unearthed in the ancient city: its economic exchanges, as well as its intellectual and religious life, while highlighting the gradual deterioration of the geo-political situation owing to earthquakes, famine, migrations, and wars.

Bio

Carole Roche-Hawley is an assyriologist, specializing in Levantine scribal cultures of the Late Bronze age. She has published texts found in Syria, notably from the sites of Ras Ibn Hani, Tell Meskene (ancient Emar), and Tell Munbaqa, but also and especially from Ras Shamra (ancient Ugarit), where she is responsible for editing the unpublished Akkadian texts excavated by the Syro-French archeological mission. She is “director of research” at the French CNRS, currently (2022-2026) attached to the French ministry of foreign affairs at Ifpo, where she is scientific director, and responsible for the department of archeology and ancient history