Ras Shamra

Ras Shamra is a town in coastal Syria. As in the rest of the region, most of its inhabitants are Alaouites.

Ancient City of Ugarit
Ras Shamra lies over the ancient Bronze Age city of Ugarit, whose first establishment dates back to around 6000 BC - placing it alongside Ur and Eridu as a craddle of civilization. The ruins where unwillingly discovered by a local peasant in 1928, when part of the necropolis surfaced when he was plowing his field. From 1929 on the site was dug up by teams of French Archaeologists directed by Claude Shaeffer.

Ugarit came under Egyptian influence around 1900 BC afte which it begins to be namd in the records of other cities in the region. The city itself developed greatly as a cosmopolitan centre of trade between 1450 and 1200 BC, harbouring a great palace of 90 rooms, temples and libraries (including the first private libraries in the world). These libraries contained clay tablets written in four languages (Sumerian, Akkadian, Hurrite and Ugaritic) and seven scripts: Egyptian and Luwian hyeroglypic script, Cypro-Minoan, and Sumerian, Akadian, Hurrian, and Ugaritic Cuneiform. These tablets evidence the city as crossroads of trade routes between Ancient Egypt, Minoan Crete, the Hittite Kingdom in modern Turkey and Mesopotamia.

The city was destroyed by the Sea Peoples around 1190 BC and never rebuilt.

In the Indiana Jones adventures
In 1938 Indiana Jones travelled to Ras Shamra to help in the deciphering of some of the tablets. Though both the academics and the French government thanked him for the effort, he recognized that it was him who begged to work in the place since it was discovered.

In Ras Shamra Indiana Jones came into contact with Khamal, an Alaouite boy that insisted in being his assistant. Jones accepted his help when it was proved that Khamal had an almost psychic ability to find artifacts. When some of the tribesmen working in the site as diggers tried to steal some of the last artifacts found, Khamal fooled them as well changing them for stones.

After that Indy, Khamal and the French returned to Tripoli, Lebanon, which was the camp base of the archaeology team. Indy told Khamal to go with his parents but Khamal told him he was an orphan with no family and wanted to be his servant. Indy refused his help.

However, when Indiana Jones was trying to go back to Barnett College with some of the artifacts for its study, he received instructions from Marcus Brody to travel to Nepal instead. The artifacts made their way to Barnett through diplomatic courier.

Appearances
Indiana Jones: Thunder in the Orient (first installment)