An excavation team said it had uncovered artifacts which indicate that an ancient Bronze-Age kingdom in northern Syria had strong international trade relations with Nile river dynasties. Peter Pfalzner, head of a joint German-Syrian archeology team, said that gifts (including a gold and lapis bracelet, a sheet of gold with a depiction of a palm tree, a small crystal jar, and a stone statue of a hippopotamus of Egyptian origin) originating from the Nile Valley and Mesopotamia were discovered in burial chambers at the ruins of a once royal city near what is now the Syrian city of Aleppo.

The archaeological excavations at the royal palace in the ancient city of Qatna, north east of the Syrian city of Homs, have once again unfolded a remarkable archaeological discovery. The summer excavations located a rock tomb-cellar underneath the palace containing hundreds of artefacts as well as human bones from the period 1600-1400 BC. Numerous vessels of ceramic and granite have been found. The latter are Egyptian imports whose production in the Old Egyptian Kingdom dates to a period 1000 years prior to the existence of the tomb.

"The antiquities department has discovered a hieroglyph on the outskirts of Damascus, 25 kilometres (15 miles) east (of the capital), engraved into a basalt stone slab (measuring) 70 by 50 cm (28 by 20 inches)," SANA said. "This type of slab was quite widespread during the era of the Pharaohs, who used it to mark a special occasion," department head Mahmud Hammud said, adding text on the stone dated back to the reign of Pharaoh Rameses II, between 1,290 and 1,224 years BC. The slab shows the leg of the king and behind it, the foot of the Egyptian god Amon.