Ebla

Ebla, ancient city 33 miles (53 km) southwest of Aleppo in northwestern Syria. During the height of its power (c. 2600–2240 bce), Ebla dominated northern Syria, Lebanon, and parts of northern Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) and enjoyed trade and diplomatic relations with states as far away as Egypt, Iran, and Sumer.

Excavation of the tell (mound) now known to be the site of Ebla started in 1964 with a team of archaeologists from the University of Rome led by Paolo Matthiae. In 1975 Matthiae’s team found Ebla’s archives, dating to the 3rd millennium bce. Discovered virtually intact in the order in which they had once been stored on their now-collapsed shelves were more than 17,000 clay cuneiform tablets and fragments, offering a rich source of information about Ebla.

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Part of Ebla’s prosperity stemmed from its agricultural hinterland, in the rich plain of northern Syria, where barley, wheat, olives, figs, grapes, pomegranates, and flax were grown and cattle, sheep, goats, and pigs were raised. Beyond, Ebla controlled a group of 17 city-states, probably in what is now Lebanon and southeastern Turkey, areas rich in silver and timber. The city proper was a manufacturing and distribution centre. Linen and wool, including damask cloth, were the main products. Metalworking, including the smelting and alloying of gold, silver, copper, tin, and lead, was the second most important activity. Woodworking and the production of olive oil, wine, and beer also were important.

Trade was the third support of Ebla’s economy. Cloth, manufactured goods, and olive oil were its main exports; imports included gold, silver, copper, tin, precious stones, and sheep. Because of its geographic location, Ebla grew wealthy on transit trade. Materials from Iran, Anatolia, and Cyprus were transshipped to states as distant as Sumer and Egypt. The Egyptian trade passed through Byblos.

Diplomacy and limited warfare supported Ebla’s commercial activities. Emar, a city strategically located at the confluence of the Euphrates and Galikh rivers, was tied to Ebla by dynastic marriage. Khammazi was Ebla’s commercial and diplomatic ally in Iran. Commercial treaties were drawn up with other cities. Mari, on the Euphrates River to the southeast, was Ebla’s great commercial rival. Twice, an Eblaite army marched against it, and for a time Ebla ruled Mari through a military governor.

Nonhereditary kings governed Ebla for limited terms, and a council of elders shared in decision making. The manufacture of cloth was under the queen’s charge. Fourteen governors appointed by the king ruled Ebla’s departments, two of them in the city proper.

The religion of Ebla was polytheistic and primarily Canaanite. Dabir was the city’s patron god, but Dagon, Sipish, Hadad, Balatu, and Astarte were also worshiped. The language of Ebla was a hitherto unknown Canaanite dialect, most closely akin to the Northwest Semitic languages. The script of the tablets, however, is Sumerian cuneiform, with closest similarity to tablets from Adab and Abū Salābīkh (now in Iraq). Texts reveal that Sumerian teachers came to Ebla, and the presence of a “Canal of Ebla” near Adab attests that Eblaites went to Sumer as well. Vocabularies, syllabaries, gazetteers, and student exercises that have been recovered show that Ebla was a major educational centre. The completeness of Ebla’s texts, which at points duplicate fragmentary texts from Sumer, greatly enhances the modern study of Sumerian.

The prosperity of Ebla caught the attention of the Akkadian dynasty (c. 2334–2154 bce). Although Sargon of Akkad’s claim to have conquered Ebla was cast in doubt by the discoveries in the excavations, the fire that destroyed the city was probably the result of an attack by Sargon’s grandson Naram-Sin (c. 2240 bce). There followed a 250-year period of impoverishment, after which an Amorite group sacked Ebla and established its own dynasty. The Amorites rebuilt the palace and a temple, and a statue representing one of their kings was excavated in the ruins. Only limited prosperity returned to the city, and a decorated bone sceptre of the Egyptian king Ḥtp-ib-Re (reigned c. 1750 bce) indicates renewed relations with Egypt. Ebla’s final destruction occurred in the great upheavals that engulfed the Middle East about 1650–1600 bce, but many crafts and traditions that originated in the city lived on in Syrian culture.