Who are the…
Zemarites

This is the designation of one of the Phoenician tribes (Genesis 10:18) who inhabited the city of Sumur (aka Sumra / Hebrew: צְמָרִי‎ ), at the western base of the Lebanon mountain range.

Zemarites were descendants of Canaan, according to Genesis 10:18 and 1 Chronicles 1:16.

Zemar, ancient city in modern Syria

also known as: Sumur, Sumuru (Akkadian), Simirra (Assyrian), Simyra, Ṣimirra, Ṣumra, Sumura, Ṣimura, and Zimyra

Hebrew: צְמָרִי‎

In the Amarna tablets (1400 BC) Zemar (or Zumur), was one of the most important of the Phoenician cities and a major trade center, but it afterwards almost disappears from history. The tablets say that Ahribta was its ruler.

Archaeologists Maurice Dunand and Nassib Saliby identified this archaeological site as Tel Kazel (Tell Kazel) in 1957. It is located in the Safita district of the Tartus Governorate in modern Syria in the north of the Akkar plain on the north of the al-Abrash River approximately 11 miles (18 km) south of the port city of Tartus, Syria. In 1985, new excavations began in partnership between the Archaeological Museum of the American University of Beirut and the Directorate-General of Antiquities and Museums in Syria under the directorship of Leila Badre. Excavations continued for 18 seasons until 2001.1

Tel Kazel, Syria, site of ancient Zemar—satellite view

Nearby modern places in Syria

  1. Leila Badre, “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).

    Leila Badre, “Beirut and Tell Kazel: Two New Late Bronze Age Temples,” Proceedings of the First International Congress of Near Eastern Archaeology (2001).

    Leila Badre, “Handmade Burnished Ware and Contemporary Imported Pottery from Tell Kazel,” in N. Ch. Stampolidis and V. Karageorghis (editors), “Sea Routes… Interconnections in the Mediterranean 16th-6th Centuries BC,” Proceedings of the International Symposium held at Rethymnon, Crete (Athens: 2003), pp. 83–99.

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Article Version: October 10, 2025