{{short description|Former city of Phoenicia}} {{Infobox ancient site | name = Sumur | native_name = | alternate_name = Sumura, Zemar, etc. | image = Towns_of_aram.jpg | alt = | caption = The location of Zimyra/Sumur (in the north) | map_type = Syria | map_alt = | map_size = 250 | location = [[Syria]] | region = [[Tartus Governorate]] | coordinates = {{coord|34.7081|N|35.9861|E|source:wikidata|display=inline,title}} | type = | part_of = | length = | width = | area = | height = | builder = | material = | built = | abandoned = | epochs = | cultures = | dependency_of = | occupants = | event = | excavations = | archaeologists = | condition = | ownership = | management = | public_access = | website = | notes = }} [[File:Monnaie - Hémidrachme, argent, Phénicie, Simyra - btv1b10322944n (2 of 2).jpg|thumb|An ancient Phoenician coin of Simyra]] '''Sumur''' ([[Biblical Hebrew]]: {{Script/Hebrew|צְמָרִי}} [collective noun denoting the city inhabitants]; [[Egyptian language|Egyptian]]: ''Smr''; [[Akkadian language|Akkadian]]: ''Sumuru''; [[Akkadian language|Assyrian]]: ''Simirra'') was a [[Phoenicia]]n city in what is now [[Syria]]. It was a major trade center. The city has also been referred to in English publications as '''Simyra''',<ref name="Sayce1903">{{cite book|author=Archibald Henry Sayce|title=The Hittites: the story of a forgotten empire|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KC8YAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA164|year=1903|publisher=The Religious Tract Society|page=164}}</ref> '''Ṣimirra''', '''Ṣumra''',<ref name="Lipschitz2005">{{cite book|author=Oded Lipschitz|title=The Fall and Rise of Jerusalem: Judah Under Babylonian Rule|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=78nRWgb-rp8C&pg=PA5|year=2005|publisher=Eisenbrauns|isbn=978-1-57506-095-8|page=5}}</ref> '''Sumura''',<ref name="Izre'elSinger1998">{{cite book|author1=Shlomo Izre'el|author2=Itamar Singer|author3=Ran Zadok|title=Past Links: Studies in the Languages and Cultures of the Ancient Near East|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fKTRZrWTHh4C&pg=PA393|year=1998|publisher=Eisenbrauns|isbn=978-1-57506-035-4|page=393}}</ref> '''Ṣimura''',<ref name="Lemche1991">{{cite book|author=Niels Peter Lemche|title=The Canaanites and Their Land: The Tradition of the Canaanites|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8jJvSOigpEcC&pg=PA78|date=1 March 1991|publisher=A&C Black|isbn=978-1-85075-310-0|page=78}}</ref> '''Zemar''',<ref name="Sayce1895">{{cite book|author=Archibald Henry Sayce|title=Patriarchal Palestine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AJQrkLxjxJwC&pg=PT24|year=1895|publisher=Library of Alexandria|isbn=978-1-4655-5042-2|page=24}}</ref> and '''Zimyra'''.<ref name="EdwardsGadd1973">{{cite book|author1=I. E. S. Edwards|author2=C. J. Gadd|author3=N. G. L. Hammond|author4=E. Sollberger|title=The Cambridge Ancient History|url=https://archive.org/details/cambridgeancient02edwa_0|url-access=registration|date=3 May 1973|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-08230-3|page=[https://archive.org/details/cambridgeancient02edwa_0/page/863 863]}}</ref>

Sumur (or "Sumura") appears in the [[Amarna letters]] (mid-14th century BCE); [[Ahribta]] is named as its ruler. It was under the guardianship of [[Rib-Addi]], king of [[Byblos]], but was conquered by [[Abdi-Ashirta]]'s expanding kingdom of [[Amurru kingdom|Amurru]]. Pro-[[Ancient Egypt|Egypt]]ian factions may have seized the city again, but Abdi-Ashirta's son, [[Aziru]], recaptured Sumur. Sumur became the capital of Amurru.<ref>{{cite book|author=Trevor Bryce|title=[[The Kingdom of the Hittites]]|page=182}}</ref>

It is likely, although not completely certain, that the "Sumur" of the Amarna letters is the same city later known as "Simirra."<ref>{{cite book|author=Trevor Bryce|title=The Routledge Handbook of the Peoples and Places of Ancient Western Asia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AwwNS0diXP4C&pg=PA654|date=10 September 2009|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-134-15907-9|page=672}}</ref> Simirra was claimed as part of the Assyrian empire by [[Tiglath-Pileser III]] in 738 BCE, but rebelled against Assyria in 721 at the beginning of the reign of [[Sargon II]].<ref name="Bryce2009">{{cite book|author=Trevor Bryce|title=The Routledge Handbook of the Peoples and Places of Ancient Western Asia: The Near East from the Early Bronze Age to the fall of the Persian Empire|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AwwNS0diXP4C&pg=PA654|date=10 September 2009|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-134-15907-9|page=654}}</ref>

It has been linked by [[Maurice Dunand]] and N. Salisby to the archaeological site of [[Tell Kazel]] in 1957.<ref name="Badre">[https://www.jstor.org/pss/25066965 Badre, Leila., Tell Kazel-Simyra: A Contribution to a Relative Chronological History in the Eastern Mediterranean during the Late Bronze Age, American University of Beirut, Lebanon, Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, 2006.]</ref>

==References== {{Reflist}}

{{AncientNearEast-stub}} {{Syria-geo-stub}}{{Phoenicia-stub}} [[Category:Phoenician cities]] [[Category:Amarna letters locations]] [[Category:Former populated places in Syria]] [[Category:Bronze Age sites in Syria]] [[Category:Archaeological sites in Tartus Governorate]]