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28-689: Hatra was a strongly fortified caravan city and capital of the small Arab Kingdom of Hatra , located between the Roman and Parthian / Sasanian Empires . Hatra flourished in the 2nd century, and was destroyed and deserted in the 3rd century. Its ruins were discovered in the 19th century. Hatra is known as al-Ḥaḍr ( الحضر ) in Arabic . It is recorded as 𐣧𐣨𐣣𐣠 ( ḥṭrʾ , vocalized as: Ḥaṭrāʾ ) in Hatran Aramaic inscriptions, probably meaning "enclosure, hedge, fence". In Syriac , it

56-408: A curse is laid against King Baal if he breaks the treaty, reading in part: "May Baal-sameme, Baal-malage, and Baal-saphon raise an evil wind against your ships, to undo their moorings, tear out their mooring pole, may a strong wave sink them in the sea, a violent tide [. . .] against you." The god Baal-malage is otherwise unexplained. Baal-saphon here and elsewhere seems to be Ba'al Hadad, whose home

84-521: Is a city located on and deriving its prosperity from its location on a major trans-desert trade route . The term is believed to have been coined by the scholar of antiquity, Michael Rostovtzeff , for his work O Blijnem Vostoke , published in English as Caravan Cities in 1932. The English translation of the work dealt principally with Petra , Jerash , Palmyra and Dura in the " near east ", after Rhodes, Cyprus and Mycenaean Greece were removed from

112-466: Is in a treaty of the 14th century BC between Suppiluliumas I , King of the Hittites , and Niqmaddu II , King of Ugarit . Although this could be a reference to Baal Hadad, and again when the name appears in a Phoenician inscription by King Yeḥimilk of Byblos , other texts make a distinction between the two. In the treaty of 677 BC between King Esarhaddon of Assyria and King Ba‘al I of Tyre ,

140-652: Is on Mount Ṣaphon in the Ugaritic texts. But interpreters disagree as to whether these are here three separate gods or three aspects of the same god, a god who causes stormy weather on the sea. In any case, inscriptions show that the cult of Ba'al Šamem continued in Tyre from Esarhaddon's day until towards the end of the 1st millennium BC. Baalshamen is mentioned as an idol among other Aramean gods in Mesopotamia by Jacob of Serugh : In Sanchuniathon 's main mythology

168-525: Is regularly equated with Zeus Helios , that is Zeus as a sun-god. Sanchuniathon supports this: "... and that when droughts occurred, they stretched out their hands to heaven towards the sun; for him alone (he says) they regarded as god the lord of heaven, calling him Beelsamen, which is in the Phoenician language 'lord of heaven', and in Greek 'Zeus'." Unfortunately, it is not clear whether Baalshamin

196-533: Is usually recorded in the plural form Ḥaṭrē . In Roman works, it is recorded as Greek Átra and Latin Hatra and Hatris . The temple of Shamash , was officially called Beit ʾElāhāʾ 𐣡𐣩𐣵 𐣠𐣫𐣤𐣠 ‎ "House of God", in Hatran Aramaic inscriptions The city was recorded as "Enclosure of Shamash " ( ḥtrʾ d-šmš 𐣧𐣨𐣣𐣠 𐣣𐣴𐣬𐣴 ‎) on a coin. There is no archeological information on

224-597: The Art of the Kushans as well, due either to direct cultural exchanges between the area of Mesopotamia and the Kushan Empire at that time, or from a common Parthian artistic background leading to similar types of representation. Hatra was used as the setting for the opening scene in the 1973 film The Exorcist , and since 1985 has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site . The site was first surveyed by Walter Andrae of

252-584: The Aramaean Ba'al Shamayn , and the female deity known as Ashurbel , which was perhaps the assimilation of the two deities the Assyrian god Ashur and the Babylonian Bel —despite their being individually masculine. In inscriptions found at Hatra, several rulers are mentioned. Other rulers are sporadically mentioned by classical authors. The earlier rulers are titled mrjʾ ( māryā , "lord") and

280-664: The German excavation team working in Assur from 1906 to 1911. But systematic excavations have been undertaken only from 1951 by Iraqi archeologists. From the 1980s, the Italian Archaeological Expedition, directed by R. Ricciardi Venco ( University of Turin ), made major discoveries at Hatra. The excavations were focused on an important house ("Building A"), located close to the Temenos, and on deep soundings in

308-520: The Temenos central area. Now the Expedition is active in different projects regarding the preservation and development of the archaeological site. In 1990, a Polish expedition of the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology University of Warsaw recorded and studied the city's defense walls. In 2004, The Daily Telegraph stated "Hatra's finely preserved columns and statues make it one of

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336-548: The ascendant Sassanid Persians in 238 at the battle of Shahrazoor , but fell shortly after in 241 to the army of Sassanid king Shapur I and was destroyed. The traditional stories of the fall of Hatra tell of al-Nadirah , daughter of the King of Araba, who betrayed the city into the hands of Shapur as she fell in love with him. The story tells of how Shapur killed the king and married al-Nadirah, but later had her killed also after realizing her ingratitude towards her father. Hatra

364-517: The buildings were intact and the destruction didn't compare with that of other archaeological sites of Iraq. A PMF commander also stated that the damage was relatively minor. Hatra has a hot semi-arid climate ( Köppen climate classification BSh ). Most rain falls in the winter. The average annual temperature in Hatra is 20.7 °C (69.3 °F). About 257 mm (10.12 in) of precipitation falls annually. Caravan city A caravan city

392-576: The city before the Parthian period but settlement in the area likely dates back to at least the Seleucid period. Hatra flourished under the Parthians , during the 1st and 2nd centuries AD, as a religious and trading center. Later on, the city became the capital of possibly the first Arab Kingdom in the chain of Arab cities running from Hatra, in the northeast, via Palmyra , Baalbek and Petra , in

420-517: The eagle and the lightning bolt, and he perhaps formed a triad with the lunar god Aglibol and the sun god Malakbel . The title was also applied to Zeus . The earliest known Phoenician reference to Baalshamin is in the Yehimilk inscription , dated to the 10th century BCE. This name was originally a title of Baal Hadad , in the 2nd millennium BC, but came to designate a distinct god circa 1000 BC. The earliest known mention of this god or title

448-555: The forces of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant , which occupied the area in mid-2014, were a major threat to Hatra. In early 2015 they announced their intention to destroy many artifacts, claiming that such "graven images" were un-Islamic, encouraged shirk (or polytheism), and could not be permitted to exist, despite the preservation of the site for 1,400 years by various Islamic regimes. ISIL militants pledged to destroy

476-557: The god he calls in Greek ' Uranus '/'Sky' has been thought by some to stand for Ba'al Šamem. Sky is here the actual father of Baal Hadad (although Baal Hadad is born after his mother's marriage to Dagon ). As in Greek mythology and Hittite mythology , Sky is castrated by his son, who is in turn destined to be opposed by the thunder god. In Sanchuniathon's story, Sky also battles Sea; Sky finds himself unable to prevail, so he allies himself with Hadad. In Nabatean texts in Greek, Baal Shamin

504-540: The later ones mlkʾ d-ʿrb ("king of the Arabs"; malkā , "king"). According to John M. Rosenfield , the statuary of Hatra belong to the Parthian cultural sphere , with numerous similarities in terms of clothing, decorative elements or posture, which tend to be massive and frontal, with feet often splayed. The architecture of Hatra itself is generally seen as an example of Parthian architecture. Similarities can be seen with

532-578: The most impressive of Iraq's archaeological sites" Saddam Hussein saw the site's Mesopotamian history as reflecting glory on himself, and sought to restore the site, and others in Ninevah , Nimrud , Ashur and Babylon , as a symbol of Arab achievement, spending more than US$ 80 million in the first phase of restoration of Babylon. Saddam Hussein demanded that new bricks in the restoration use his name (in imitation of Nebuchadnezzar ) and parts of one restored Hatra temple have Saddam's name. Actions by

560-456: The next month showed the destruction of the monuments. UNESCO and ISESCO issued a joint statement saying "With this latest act of barbarism against Hatra, (the IS group) shows the contempt in which it holds the history and heritage of Arab people." The pro-Iraqi government Popular Mobilization Forces captured the city on 26 April 2017. A spokeswoman for the militias stated that ISIL had destroyed

588-408: The remaining artifacts. Shortly thereafter, they released a video showing the destruction of some artifacts from Hatra. After the bulldozing of Nimrud on March 5, 2015, "Hatra of course will be next" said Abdulamir Hamdani , an Iraqi archaeologist from Stony Brook University . On March 7, Iraqi official sources reported ISIS had begun the demolishing the ruins of Hatra. A video released by ISIL during

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616-587: The sculptures and engraved images of the site, but its walls and towers were still standing though contained holes and scratches received from ISIL bullets. PMF units also stated that the group had mined the site's eastern gates, thus temporarily preventing any assessment of damage by archaeologists. It was reported on 1 May that the site had suffered less damage than feared earlier. A journalist of EFE had earlier reported finding many destroyed statues, burnt buildings as well as signs of looting. Layla Salih , head of antiquities for Nineveh Governorate, stated that most of

644-733: The southwest. The region controlled from Hatra was the Kingdom of Hatra , a semi-autonomous buffer kingdom on the western limits of the Parthian Empire, governed by Arabian princes. Hatra became an important fortified frontier city and played an important role in the Second Parthian War , withstanding repeated attacks by the Roman Empire . During the 2nd century CE the city repulsed sieges by both Trajan (116/117) and Septimius Severus (198/199). Hatra's forces defeated

672-783: The translation as not being caravan cities. Dura, too, has been later considered to be more than a caravan city. Other caravan cities include Aroer in Jordan, Hatra in Iraq, Oualata in Mauritania, Damascus in Syria, and Samarkand in Uzbekistan. The caravan cities of the Near East declined as the small trade states between the Roman and Persian empires were gradually absorbed by

700-667: The two, and the "wall mentality" became dominant, that is, construction of defensive systems (Roman limes and Persian defense lines ) and implementation of trade through a single point, the city of Nisibis . This article about transport is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Ba%60al Sham%C3%AEm Baalshamin ( Imperial Aramaic : ܒܥܠ ܫܡܝܢ , romanized:  Baʿal Šāmīn or Bʿel Šmīn , lit.   'Lord of Heaven[s]'), also called Baal Shamem ( Phoenician : 𐤁𐤏𐤋 𐤔𐤌𐤌 , romanized:  Baʿl Šāmēm ) and Baal Shamaim ( Hebrew : בַּעַל שָׁמַיִם , romanized :  Baʿal Šāmayīm ),

728-487: Was a Northwest Semitic god and a title applied to different gods at different places or times in ancient Middle Eastern inscriptions, especially in Canaan / Phoenicia and Syria . The title was most often applied to Hadad , who is also often titled just Ba‘al . Baalshamin was one of the two supreme gods and the sky god of pre-Islamic Palmyra in ancient Syria ( Bel being the other supreme god). There his attributes were

756-538: Was famed for its fusion of Greek , Mesopotamian , Canaanite , Aramean and Arabian pantheons , known in Aramaic as Beiṯ Ĕlāhā ("House of God"). The city had temples to Nergal ( Assyrian - Babylonian and Akkadian ), Hermes ( Greek ), Atargatis ( Syro-Aramaean ), Allat , Shamiyyah ( Arabian ), and Shamash (the Mesopotamian sun god). Other deities mentioned in the Hatran Aramaic inscriptions were

784-548: Was the best preserved and most informative example of ancient Arabian architecture. Its plan was circular, and was encircled by inner and outer walls nearly 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) in diameter and supported by more than 160 towers. A temenos (τέμενος) surrounded the principal sacred buildings in the city's centre. The temples covered some 1.2 hectares and were dominated by the Great Temple, an enormous structure with vaults and columns that once rose to 30 metres. The city

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