Ras Shamrah Tablets
Archaeological discoveries dating at least 2000Â B.C. from the Ras Shamrah community anciently called Ugarit, on the north Syrian coast 50Â miles southwest of Antioch. The tablets reveal the low morality of the peoples surrounding Israel, and supply the reason why the Hebrew prophets protested so loudly against the popular Baal and fertility cults. Texts from Ras Shamrah show that a complex and ritualistic religion was flourishing at least in the second millennium B.C. among the non-Israelite peoples.