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{{short description|Ancient trading post on the Mediterranean coast of Syria}}
{{about|the ancient trading post on the Mediterranean coast of Syria|the ancient site in Lebanon|Tyre, Lebanon}}
'''Al-Mina''' ([[Arabic]]: "the port") is the modern name given by [[Leonard Woolley]] to an ancient trading post on the [[Mediterranean Sea|Mediterranean coast]] of northern [[Syria (region)|Syria]], at the mouth of the [[Orontes River]]. It is now located in Hatay province in Turkey, in the urban area of [[Samandağ]]. Because of the changes in the coastline, it is now about 4 km away from the coast.
==Archaeology==
The site, located in the large archaeological area of the [[Amuq plain]], was excavated in 1936 by [[Leonard Woolley]], who considered it to be an early [[Colonies in antiquity|Greek trading colony]], founded a little before 800 BC, in direct competition with the [[Phoenicia]]ns to the south. He argued that substantial amounts of [[Greek pottery]] at the site established its early [[Euboea]]n connections, while the Syrian and Phoenician cooking pottery reflected a cultural mix typical of an [[Marketplace|emporium]]. Disappointed in not finding a [[Bronze-Age]] port, Woolley soon moved his interests to the earlier, more [[:wikt:urbane|urbane]] site of [[Alalakh]].
Woolley's critics point out that he discarded coarse undecorated utilitarian wares, and that the relative numbers of Greek, Syrian and Phoenician populations have not been established.<ref name="Lehmann2005">Lehmann (2005)</ref> The controversy whether Al Mina is to be regarded as a native Syrian site, with Syrian architecture and cooking pots and a Greek presence, or as an [[Iron Age]] Greek trading post, has not been resolved.<ref>R. Kearsley, "Greeks Overseas in the 8th Century B.C.: Euboeans, Al Mina and Assyrian Imperialism,"; J. Boardman, "The Excavated History of Al Mina," in ''Ancient Greeks West and East'', ed. G. Tsetskhladze (Leiden, Boston, 1999); Waldbaum (1997)</ref>
Al-Mina has been largely overlooked in popular surveys.<ref>Such as Eric M. Meyers (ed.), ''The Oxford Encyclopaedia of Archaeology in the Near East'' 1997, which barely makes passing reference</ref> Later work considered Al-Mina as key to understanding the role of early Greeks in the east at the outset of the [[Orientalizing period]] of Greek cultural history.
Woolley identified Al-Mina with [[Herodotus]]' [[Amphilochus (brother of Alcmaeon)|Posideion]], but more recent scholarship places Posideion at [[Ras al-Bassit]].<ref>Waldbaum (1997), Lane Fox (2008) remarks on the frequency of ''Posideion'' as a Greek placename along coastlines.</ref> [[Robin Lane Fox]]<ref>Lane Fox, ''Travelling Heroes in the Epic Age of Homer'' 2008:97ff</ref> has made a case for the Greek name of the site to have been the '''Potamoi Karon''' that is mentioned in [[Diodorus Siculus]]'<ref>Diodorus Siculus, 19.79.6</ref> account of [[Ptolemy I Soter]]'s ravaging of the coastline in 312 BC; he notes its unusual word order and suggestively links it to ''karu'', "trading post", in the inscription text of [[Tiglath-Pileser III]]'s conquests, which would give "River(s) of the Trading Posts".<ref>Lane Fox gives as a parallel the Greek ''Koile Syria'', which A. Schalit (1954) and M. Sartre (1988) correctly identified as a Greek transcription of Aramaic ''kul'', "whole, entire" (Lane Fox 2008: notes to ch. 7, p 378f).</ref>  Woolley, on separate grounds, dated the final extinction of the Al-Mina settlement to the late fourth century BC, perhaps damaged during construction of the port of [[Seleucia Pieria]] just to the north. Lane Fox suggests instead this same voyage of coastal destruction was undertaken by Ptolemy in 312 BC.
==Significance==
Al-Mina served as an outpost for cultural influences that accompanied trade with [[Urartu]] and the shortest caravan route to [[Assyria]]n cities of upper [[Mesopotamia]].<ref>The impact of north Syrian techniques and objects on Greek craftsmen of the 8th and 7th centuries in Aegean islands and the mainland had already been established, for example, in F. Poulsen, ''Der Orient und der frügriechischen Kunst'' 1912, as noted by Lane Fox 2008:99 note 5.</ref> Through Al-Mina and Greek traders in [[Cyprus]]<ref>Greek traders are also present at [[Tarsus (city)|Tarsos]] and somewhat later at [[Tell Sukas]], see Burkert (1992), p. 11.</ref> the [[Phoenician alphabet]] and other technology were transmitted to [[Euboea]] and mainland Greece in the eighth century BC.<ref name="Burkert1992">Burkert (1992)</ref> Al-Mina was destroyed about 700 BC, perhaps by [[Sennacherib]], who repressed a rebellion at [[Tarsus (city)|Tarsos]] in 696 BC, but it was immediately rebuilt. Pottery recovered from later levels of the site shows that a Greek presence remained at Al-Mina through to the fourth century BC, with pottery imported from [[Miletus]] and deftly imitated locally, apparently by Greek potters.
==See also==
*[[Cities of the ancient Near East]]
*[[Short chronology timeline]]
==Notes==
{{Reflist|2}}
==References==
*{{cite book|title=The Greeks Overseas: Their Early Colonies and Trade|last=Boardman|first=John|authorlink=John Boardman (art historian)|year=1980|publisher=Thames and Hudson|location=London|isbn=0-500-25069-3|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/greeksoverseas00boar}}
*——— (1990). "Al-Mina and history" ''Oxford Journal of Archaeology'' '''9''' pp 169–90. {{doi|10.1111/j.1468-0092.1990.tb00221.x}}
*Braun, T.F.R.G. (1982). "The Greeks in the Near East" in ''Cambridge Ancient History'' III.3 (Cambridge University Press)
*{{cite book|title=The Orientalizing Revolution: Near Eastern Influences on Greek Culture in the Early Archaic Age|last=Burkert|first=Walter|authorlink=Walter Burkert|year=1992|publisher=Harvard University Press|location=Cambridge, MA|isbn=0-674-64363-1}}
*Coldstream, J.N. (1982). "Greeks and Phoenicians in the Aegean" and P.J. Riis "Griechen in Phönizien" in H.G. Niemeyer, ''Phönizier im Westen.'' Mainz, pp 261–72 and 237-55. {{ISBN|3-8053-0486-2}}
*Lane Fox, Robin (2008) ''Travelling Heroes in the Epic Age of Homer'' (New York:Knopf) In the UK ''Travelling Heroes: Greeks and Their Myths in the Epic Age of Homer''(London: Allen Lane, Penguin Books), 2008
*Lehmann, G. (2005). “Al-Mina and the East: A Report on Research in Progress,” in Alexandra Villing (ed.), ''The Greeks in the East.'' London: British Museum Research Publication vol. 157, pp.&nbsp;61–92. {{ISBN|0-86159-157-7}}
*{{cite book|title=Ports of Trade: Al Mina and Geometric Greek Pottery in the Levant|last=Luke|first=Joanna|year=2003|publisher=Archaeopress|location=Oxford|isbn=1-84171-478-X}}
*{{cite journal|last=Waldbaum|first=Jane C.|year=1997|title=Greeks ''in'' the East or Greeks ''and'' the East?: Problems in the Definition and Recognition of Presence|journal=Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research|volume=305|issue=305 |pages=1–17 : https://www.jstor.org/stable/1357743|doi=10.2307/1357743|jstor=1357743 |s2cid=164205841 }}
*{{cite journal|last=Woolley|first=Leonard |authorlink=Leonard Woolley|year=1948|title=The Date of Al-Mina|journal=[[Journal of Hellenic Studies]]|volume=68|pages=148|doi=10.2307/626304|jstor=626304 |s2cid=164043912 }}
*——— (1953). ''A Forgotten Kingdom'' (Harmondsworth: Penguin)
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[[Category:Populated places established in the 9th century BC]]
[[Category:Iron Age Greek colonies]]
[[Category:Euboean colonies]]
[[Category:Former populated places in Turkey]]
[[Category:Archaeological sites in Hatay Province]]