Janet Tamaren shares her inspiration for “Ugarit: Tales of a Lost City” in this YouTube clip.
Come visit the ancient city of Ugarit. The year is 1190 BC. Ugarit is a sophisticated city of trade on the sun-drenched shores of the eastern Mediterranean. It pulses with life, trade, and courtly intrigues.
Meet Yoninah, a gifted healer, who offers herbs and amulets to ease her neighbors’ pain. When an ex-soldier from Troy stumbles into her life, he reawakens memories she thought long-buried. Meanwhile, in the royal court, Thut-Moses is a scribe who was trained in the temples of Egypt. He loves to spend time reading the epic tales of Ugarit and the scrolls of Egypt.
Life is good in the palace: fine clothes, good meals, a soft bed to sleep on. Then word reaches the palace: foreign invaders are razing one coastal city after another. Rumors of nearby enemy ships fill the city streets. The city enters a time of profound unease. Yoninah must deal with grief as she faces a future away from the city she loves. She must find the courage to flee with her family through the city streets, towards an uncertain future. In the palace, the king is paralyzed by indecision. The omens of imminent disaster overwhelm him.
Thut-Moses must find the wisdom to help the help the king navigate the threats facing the city. Then he must find courage and cunning, as he tries to survive the chaos that ensues with the attack of the Sea Peoples. Rich with historical and archaeological detail and inspired by newly-translated cuneiform tablets unearthed from Ugarit’s ashes, UGARIT brings to life the final days of a cosmopolitan world on the brink of collapse – a sweeping tale of courage and resilience at the twilight of the Bronze Age.
At a time that we now call the “Bronze Age Collapse” — a time when scores of cities in Canaan and the ancient Near East burnt to the ground and a complex Interglobal trade network collapsed. A time before the ancient Greeks and before the books of the Hebrew Bible.
Dr. Janet Tamaren 