CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

CULTURAL DEVELOPMENTS IN

WESTERN SYRIA AND THE MIDDLE

EUPHRATES VALLEY DURING THE

THIRD MILLENNIUM BC



Lisa Cooper

INTRODUCTION

T

here is little doubt that the Sumerians of southern Mesopotamia were in contact
with the people who inhabited the areas of western Syria and the middle
Euphrates River Valley during much of the third millennium BC. This contact, which
involved cultural and economic exchanges, is documented in Syria by extant textual
records as well as archaeological remains which bear the unmistakable imprint of
Sumerian civilisation. It would be erroneous, however, to attribute all important
cultural developments in Syria to its Sumerian neighbours. The evidence indicates
that the regions of western Syria and the middle Euphrates River Valley underwent
important transformations in social–cultural complexity and advances towards
urbanism in ways that uniquely diverged from other parts of the Near East, including
southern Mesopotamia. This chapter describes what is known about western Syria and
the middle Euphrates River Valley during the third millennium BC, emphasising the
regions’ unique geographical features, and highlighting the local ideological, social and
political traditions that seem to account for much of the areas’ distinctive cultural
character and developments during this time period.

GEOGRAPHY AND SUBSISTENCE

The regions of focus here comprise several areas of varying size, environment and

topography (Figure 25. 1 ). The term ‘western Syria’ is used here to describe the

Mediterranean coastal plain, the fertile valley of the Orontes River to the east separated

from the coastal plain for a considerable length by the Jebel Ansariyeh Mountains; the

northern reaches of the Orontes River as it turns west to flow through the Amuq Plain,

eventually emptying into the Mediterranean Sea; the relatively fertile Idlib Plain to the

north of the Orontes; the areas around and above Aleppo further to the north, and

the Jabbul Plain to the east. We also include in our definition of western Syria the

Syrian steppe, a semi-arid, sparsely inhabited region which stretches to the east beyond

the modern cities of Homs and Hama. The other term, the ‘middle Euphrates River

Valley’ is used here to describe the lands on either side of the river between the