Ebla

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Map of Syria in the second millennium BC

Ebla is not to be confused with Elba.

Ebla (Arabic: عبيل، إيبلا, modern Tell Mardikh, Syria) was an ancient city about 55 km southwest of Aleppo. It was an important city-state in two periods, first in the late third millennium BC, then again between 1800 and 1650 BC.

The site is most famous for the archive of about 15,000 cuneiform tablets found there,, dated from around 2250 BC, written in the Sumerian language and in Eblaite — a previously unknown Semitic language.

Discovery and excavation

In 1964, Italian archaeologists from the University of Rome La Sapienza under the direction of Paolo Matthiae began excavating at Tell Mardikh. In 1968 they recovered a statue dedicated to the goddess Ishtar bearing the name of Ibbit-Lim, a king of Ebla. That identified the city, long known from Egyptian and Akkadian inscriptions. In the next decade the team discovered a palace dating ca. 2500 – 2000 BC. About 15,000 well-preserved cuneiform tablets were discovered in the ruins. About 80% of the tablets are written in Sumerian, the others in a previously unknown Semitic language which was called called Eblaite. Vocabulary lists were found with the tablets, allowing them to be translated. Giovanni Pettinato and Dahood believe the Eblaite language is West Semitic, however I. J. Gelb and others believe it is an East Semitic dialect, closer to the Akkadian language.

Ebla's close link to southern Mesopotamia, where the script had developed, further highlights the links between the Sumerians and Semitic cultures at that time.

It now appears that the building housing the tablets was not the palace library, which may yet be uncovered, but an archive of provisions and tribute, law cases and diplomatic and trade contacts, and a scriptorium where apprentices copied texts. The larger tablets had originally been stored on shelves, but had fallen onto the floor when the palace was destroyed. The location where tablets were discovered where they had fallen allowed the excavators to reconstruct their original position on the shelves: it soon appeared that they were originally shelved according to subject.

Ebla in the third millennium BC

The name "Ebla" means "White Rock", and refers to the limestone outcrop on which the city was built. Although the site shows signs of continuous occupation from before 3000 BC, its power grew and reached its apogee in the second half of the following millennium. Ebla's first apogee was between ca. 2400 and 2240 BC; its name is mentioned in texts from Akkad from ca. 2300 BC.

Most of the Ebla palace tablets, which date from that period, are about economic matters; they provide a good look into the everyday life of the inhabitants, as well as many important insights into the cultural, economic, and political life in northern Mesopotamia around the middle of the third millennium B.C. The texts are accounts of the state revenues, but they also include royal letters, Sumerian-Eblaite dictionaries, school texts and diplomatic documents, like treaties between Ebla and other towns of the region.

Ebla's most powerful king was listed as Ebrium, or Ibrium, who concluded the so-called "Treaty with Ashur", which offered the Assyrian king Tudia the use of a trading post officially controlled by Ebla.

The fifth and last king of Ebla during this period was Ebrium's son, Ibbi-Sipish, the first to succeed in a dynastic line, thus breaking with the established Eblaite custom of electing its ruler for a fixed term of office, lasting seven years. This absolutism may have contributed to the unrest that was ultimately instrumental in the city's decline. Meantime, however, the reign of Ibbi-Sipish was considered a time of inordinate prosperity, in part because the king was given to frequent travel abroad. It was recorded both in Ebla and Aleppo that he concluded specific treaties with neighboring Armi, as Aleppo was called at the time.

Economy

At that time, Ebla was a major commercial center. Its major commercial rival was Mari, and Ebla is suspected in having a hand in Mari's first destruction. The tablets reveal that the city's inhabitants owned about 200,000 head of mixed cattle (sheep, goats, and cows). The city's main articles of trade were probably timber from the nearby mountains (and perhaps from Lebanon), and textiles (mentioned in Sumerian texts from the city-state of Lagash). Most of its trade seems to have been directed towards Mesopotamia (chiefly Kish), and contacts with Egypt are attested by pottery fragments with the names of pharaohs Khafra and Pepi I. Handicrafts may also have been a major export: exquisite artifacts have been recovered from the ruins, including wood furniture inlaid with mother-of-pearl and composite statues created from different colored stones. The artistic style at Ebla may have influenced the quality work of the Akkadian empire.

Government

The form of government is not well known, but the city appears to have been ruled by a merchant aristocracy who elected a king and entrusted the city's defense to paid soldiers. Ibrium and his son Ibbi-Sipish broke with tradition and introduced an absolute monarchy.

Kings of Ebla

Ruler	Dates	Notes
Igrish-Halam	ca. 2300 BC
Irkab-Damu		Contemporary of Iblul-Il of Mari
Ar-Ennum or Reshi-Ennum
Ibrium or Ebrium		Contemporary of Tudiya of Assyria (treaty)
Ibbi-Sipish or Ibbi-Zikir		Son of Ibrium
Dubuhu-Ada		Ebla destroyed by Naram-Sin or Sargon of Akkad

Religion

Some well-known Semitic deities appear at Ebla (Dagan, Ishtar, Resheph, Kanish, Hadad), and some otherwise unknown ones (Kura, Nidakul), plus a few Sumerian gods (Enki and Ninki) and Hurrian gods (Ashtapi, Hebat, Ishara).

Among Pettinato's controversial claims, he has also suggested that there was a change in the theophoric names shown in many of the tablets found in the archive from *El to *Yah, indicated in the example of the transition from Mika’el to Mikaya. This is considered by some to evidence an early use of the divine name Yah, a god who they believe later emerged as Yahweh (YHWH). Bottero, for example, has suggested that this shift may indicate the popular acceptance of the Akkadian God Ea, introduced from the Sargonid Empire which may have been transliterated into Eblaite as YH. This theory has not gained universal acceptance, however, and other scholars have insisted the sign in question is correctly transliterated IA.

Many Old Testament Genesis names that have not been found in other Near Eastern languages do have similar forms in Eblaite (a-da-mu / Adam, h’à-wa / Eve, Jabal, Abarama/Abraham, Bilhah, Ishma-el, Isûra-el, Esau, Mika-el, Mikaya, Saul, David, etc.). Also found are many Biblical locations: for example Ashtaroth, Sinai, Jerusalem (Ye-ru-sa-lu-um), Hazor, Lachish, Gezer, Dor, Megiddo, Joppa, etc. Giovanni Pettinato has also claimed to find references to Sodom and Gomorrah.

Three versions of the Eblaite creation hymn have been found. They state

Lord of heaven and earth:

the earth was not, you created it,

the light of day was not, you created it,

the morning light you had not [yet] made exist.

The destruction of Ebla

Sargon of Akkad and his grandson Naram-sin, the conquerors of much of Mesopotamia, each claim to have destroyed Ebla; the exact date of destruction is the subject of continuing debate, but 2240 BC is a probable candidate. During the next three centuries, Ebla was able to regain some economic importance in the region, but never reached its former glory. It is possible the city had economic ties with the nearby city of Urshu, as is documented by economic texts from Drehem (a suburb of Nippur), and from findings in Kanesh.

Ebla in the second millennium BC

Several centuries after its destruction by the Akkadians, Ebla managed to recover some of its importance, and had a second apogee lasting from ca. 1850 to 1600 BC. Its people were then known as Amorites; Ibbit-Lim was the first king.

Ebla is mentioned in texts from Alalakh from ca. 1750 BC. The city was destroyed again in the turbulent period of 1650 – 1600 BC, by a Hittite king (Mursili I or Hattusili I). This is attested to only by the fragmentary Hurro-Hittite Song of Release.

Ebla never recovered from its second destruction. The city continued as a small village until the 7th century AD, then was deserted and forgotten until its archaeological rediscovery.

References

• Matthiae, Paolo The Royal Archives of Ebla (Skira, 2008)
• Gordon, Cyrus and Rendsburg, Gary eds. Eblaitica: Essays on the Ebla Archives and Eblaite Language (Publications of the Center for Ebla Research at New York University / Eisenbrauns, in 4 vols. 1987, 1990, 1992, 2002)
• Beld, Scott G., Hallo, William W., and Michalowski, Piotr The Tablets of Ebla: Concordance and Bibliography (Eisenbrauns, 1984)
• Pettinato, Giovanni The Archives of Ebla: An Empire Inscribed in Clay (Doubleday, 1981)

See also

• Biblical archaeology
• Ugarit

External links

• Capsule history.
• Carol Miller, capsule history of Ebla.
• Ebla - Tell Mardikh with photos and plans of the digs Template:It icon
• Ebla Template:Fr icon
• Two Weights from Temple N at Tell Mardikh-Ebla, by E. Ascalone and L. Peyronel (pdf
• The Urban Landscape of Old Syrian Ebla. F. Pinnock (pdf)