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Short Historical Dictionary on Urban Hydrology and Drainage
UGARIT
Approximately 10 km North of the present Syrian city of Lattakia located along the
Mediterranean coast, archaeological excavations carried out on the tell of Ras Shamra
since the 1930s have revealed a human occupation between 7500 and 1200 BC.
Discovered by the French archaeologist C.F.A. Schaffer in 1929, the site was initially a
Neolithic village. During the recent Bronze period (1400 – 1180 BC), it became the
great capital of the kingdom of Ugarit, with fortifications, a Royal Palace, temples,
houses and streets (Yon, 1997; Calvet and Galliano, 2004), and has been destroyed and
fired around 1180 BC by the invading “people from the sea”. Not only famous as the
place where the first known alphabet (Figure 1) has been invented in the Ugaritic
cuneiform style (Pardee, 2004), Ugarit is also well known as one of the first urban cities
with elaborated infrastructures and devices for water: drinking water supply and
storage, wastewater and stormwater drainage (Calvet, 1981, 1989, 2001).
Figure 1 : The first alphabet discovered in Ugarit (in Pardee, 2004, p. 34).
Several of the excavated houses were equipped with latrines* usually built under the
stairs leading to the first floor. An example is given on Figure 2, which represents the
house of Rašapabou, where latrines are located at the North-East angle. They are
composed of a semi-circular vessel and a U-shape pipe discharging the effluent into an
oval draining well covered by an irregular stone flag with a hole facilitating its handling
(Calvet, 1981).
In many houses, wastewater was discharged in draining wells. “These wells, with a
depth between 1.5 and 2 meters, have walls built with dry stones, the bottom being also
built with stones. Covered with a stone flag, they are equipped with an orifice allowing
the passage of the dirty water.” (Calvet, 1981, p. 37). In other cases, a pipe is carrying
the wastewater either into the draining well or above the draining well which is then
open. In the house of Rašapabou (Figure 2), the kitchen, whose soil is paved with a
slope towards the North direction, is equipped with a square well for water supply, a
rectangular basin close to the window, and a U-shape pipe discharging the wastewater
into an oval draining well originally covered with a flag stone.
© Jean-Luc Bertrand-Krajewski - 02/2006
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Short Historical Dictionary on Urban Hydrology and Drainage
Figure 2 : Scheme of the house of Rašapabou (in Calvet, 1981, p. 39).
When houses had a paved court, the runoff was also discharged by means of pipes into
draining wells, which were dug under the house or in the street. Calvet (1981, p. 38)
notes that these wells were a potential source of pollution, as they were very close to
other wells used for water supply.
Additionally to these common draining wells, the district of the Royal Palace, which is
an exceptional example of Mesopotamian architecture, was equipped with a complete
sewer system (Schaeffer, 1938, 1939; Calvet, 1989, 1990; Yon, 1997). Wastewater was
collected by means of drainage pipes towards a main trunk sewer built with freestones
(Figure 3). This man-entry main trunk sewer, also named the “great sewer”, had a large
entrance tunnel located on the North side of the Royal Square, which was used for
maintenance and cleansing (Schaeffer, 1938, p. 318; 1939, p. 286). The great sewer
invert was covered with a water-tight clay layer, and its roof was made of rectangular
stone flags visible in Figure 4 (Calvet, 1989, p. 321) It was equipped with openings for
ventilation and with entries for cleansing (Schaeffer, 1951, p. 6). Either pipes or gutters
through the walls of buildings (Figure 5 and Figure 6) were used to discharge
wastewater into the great sewer (Schaeffer, 1938, p. 318 and fig. 43; 1939, p. 286). The
joints between pipes were really tight: Schaeffer (1951, p. 6) notes that even after
almost 3000 years, there was no infiltrated earth in the pipes, contrary to many houses
basements and graves. The great sewer was collecting runoff and wastewater from
many large houses and buildings in the Royal Palace district and was discharging all
effluents outside of the tell, in the North-East direction. However, due to strong erosion,
its outlet is not visible nowadays.
As water and rainfall were very critical elements in the Ugaritic society, a mythological
water cycle was associated to Baal*, the god of rainfall and storm (Calvet, 1989, 2001).
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Short Historical Dictionary on Urban Hydrology and Drainage
Figure 3 : View of the main trunk sewer in front of the “Queen
Mother Residence” in Ugarit (in Yon, 1997, p. 60).
Figure 4 : View of the great sewer covered with stone flags
(in Schaeffer, 1938, plate XXXIII)
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Short Historical Dictionary on Urban Hydrology and Drainage
Figure 5 : South side of the “Queen Mother Residence” : the pipes collecting wastewater
cross the walls and join the main trunk sewer (in Yon, 1997, p. 67).
Figure 6 : Drainage pipe trough a wall (in Schaeffer, 1938, figure 43, p. 315 ).
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Short Historical Dictionary on Urban Hydrology and Drainage
Habuba Kebira
Ugarit
Bouqras
El Kowm
SYRIA
Beirut
Mediterranean Sea
IRAK
Mari
Bagdad
Damascus
Jerusalem
References
Calvet Y. (1981). Installations hydrauliques d'Ugarit, in "L'homme et l'eau en Méditerranée et au
Proche-Orient", J. Métral et P. Sanlaville (dir.). Lyon (France) : GIS Maison de l'Orient Presses Universitaires de Lyon, collection "Travaux de la Maison de l'Orient", 2, 33-48.
ISBN 2-903264-31-7.
Calvet Y. (1989). La maîtrise de l'eau à Ougarit. Comptes rendus de l'Académie des Inscriptions
et Belles-Lettres, 308-326.
Calvet Y. (1990). Les bassins du palais royal d'Ougarit. Syria, 67, 31-42.
Calvet Y. (2001). Le cycle de l'eau au Levant méditerranéen au II° millénaire avant J.-C. Actes du
colloque international OH2 “Origines et Histoire de l'Hydrologie”, Dijon, France, 9-11 mai
2001, 10 p.
Calvet Y., Galliano G., (ccord.) (2004). Ougarit, aux origines de l'alphabet. Les Dossiers
d'Archéologie, hors-série n° 10, novembre 2004, 88 p. ISSN 1141-7137.
Pardee D. (2004). Aux origines de l'alphabet. Dossiers d'Archéologie, hors-série n° 10 "Ougarit,
aux origines de l'alphabet", 34-39.
Schaeffer C.F.A. (1938). Les fouilles de Ras Shamra-Ugarit, neuvième campagne (printemps
1937), rapport sommaire. Syria, 19, 313-334.
Schaeffer C.F.A. (1939). Les fouilles de Ras Shamra Ugarit, Xe et XIe campagnes (automne et
hiver 1938-39), rapport sommaire. Syria, 20, 277-292.
Schaeffer C.F.A. (1951). Reprise des recherches archéologiques à Ras Shamra Ugarit, sondages
de 1948 et 1949 et campagne de 1950. Syria, 28, 1-21.
Yon M. (1997). La cité d'Ougarit sur le tell de Ras Shamra. Paris (France) : Editions Recherche
sur les Civilisations, 190 p. ISBN 2-86538-263-X.
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