Two distinct peoples dominated the north-eastern Mediterranean coastline during the heyday of the Hittite Empire, that is, in the time interval from Suppiluliumas I to Suppiluliumas II.   The northern and central coastal regions, those which lay east of the Orontes and the Lebanon range and ran roughly from Beirut to Simyra, were part of the state of Amurru, well known from the Amarna letters when it was dominated by a troublesome tyrant named Aziru.   Further north, extending to the Anatolian coastline, thus bordering the Hittite kingdom itself, lay the state controlled by the port city of Ugarit.

        Our interest in Ugarit later in this chapter is restricted to its final days in the middle of the 8th century.   Momentarily however, our attention remains focussed a century earlier. 

        In the last chapter, when we discussed at some length the infamous march by Shalmanezer III (858-824 B.C.) across the Hatti lands of north Syria to the Mediterranean coast, whence he "washed his weapons in the sea",  we omitted any reference to a potential problem for our thesis.  In our revised history the incident took place in Shalmanezer's initial year as king (858 B.C.) and was followed up by a second whirlwind tour of conquest, which again extended to the Mediterranean, in his 4th year (855 B.C.)    In our revised history these dates correspond to the initial years of the reign of Mursilis.   The city of Ugarit must have been a thriving metropolis at the time,  yet Shalmanezer makes no mention of its existence.   The critic will surely ask why.

       A closer look at the annals of Shalmanezer provides the answer.   In his initial tour of conquest Shalmanezer's advance to the sea took him  considerably to the south of Ugarit, where he apparently had no interest in engaging the peoples of the area in battle.    The Assyrian king expressly states in his annals that the cities of the coast offered no resistance.   Consequently they were left to themselves and are not named in his records. 

       As the annals continue it is apparent that the Assyrian army at the time moved southward, away from Ugarit.

       The situation was different in Shalmanezer's fourth year.  This time several coastal cities resisted the advance of the Assyrian army and were brutalized in response.  Again Ugarit is not mentioned by name, but this time its presence is confirmed, albeit obliquely.  Explaning precisely how requires us to first produce, in summary form, a listing of the city's kings during the final century of its existence.  

Kings of Ugarit         

        A listing of the known kings of Ugarit during the 9th/8th centuries will serve to support the accuracy of our revised chronology in two respects.  On the one hand it will allow us to argue our claim that the city continued to thrive at least as late as the 4th year of Shalmanezer III, thus through the middle decades of the 9th century B.C.   This fact, if it can be established, contrasts markedly with the view of the traditional history in which Ugarit was destroyed by a combination of marauders and natural disaster sometime late in the 13th century B.C.   The king list will establish with some degree of certainty that the dates we have provided for Mursilis are accurate within a few years.

        On the other hand our analysis of the king list will serve to validate a proposal we made earlier to considerably reduce the reign lengths of the Hittite kings Mursilis and Muwatallis, what some might have considered at the time to be an arbitrary and self-serving adjustment to the historical record.

        We begin with the latter issue.     

       
        Reduced Reign Lengths.  Following the accidental discovery of the site of Ugarit (Ras Shamra) early in the 20th century, multiple excavations provided a treasure trove of inscriptional material, much of it dating to the last century of the city's existence, the majority related to the final traumatic days before the city fell to the combined onslaught of invading "sea peoples" and catastophic earthquake(s).   Synchronisms between Hittite and Ugaritic kings provided by these materials allow scholars to establish the order and a rough chronology of the terminal Ugaritic kings, from the days of Suppiluliumas I to the fall of Hatti in the time of Suppiluliumas II.  
       
        According to several documents retrieved from the "rubble" of the city, the destruction of Ugarit and the fall of Hattusas must have occurred within months, if not days, of each other, an event we date to the middle of the 8th century, and discuss at length later in this chapter.   Our attention here is focussed on the middle of the ninth century, the time of a Ugaritic king named Niqmaddu and his sons Arhalbu and Niqmepa, who are clearly identified in the archives of Ugarit as contemporaries of Suppiluliumas I and his immediate descendants.

        Since the traditional history dates Suppiluliumas I and his immediate offspring to the 14th century B.C., it is compelled to date Niqmaddu and his sons to that same time frame.   We have previously listed the traditional dates for the Hittite kings.    The table below adds the approximate dates assigned by the traditional history to the kings of Ugarit for the same time period.   Comment follows.