Ebla

A site on the River Orontes in northern Syria (now Tell Mardikh) which was the seat of a powerful state in the mid 3rd millennium BC, though occupied from the 4th millennium onward. It fell to Akkad c 2250 but continued to flourish. The remains and a large archive of 15,000+ cuneiform texts and fragments within a palace complex showed a high level of wealth and culture. The archive yielded evidence of the previously unknown language, a Semitic tongue now labeled Eblaite, and history of a powerful state of the 3rd millennium BC. The tablets also record many Semitic names which are used in the Old Testament of the Bible, suggesting that Eblites and Israelites interacted. Ebla was important under a dynasty of Amorites in the 2nd millennium, before being destroyed c 1600 BC by the Hittites. The city was clearly an important commercial center, exporting woolen cloth, wood, and furniture to Assur in Mesopotamia and Kanesh in Anatolia. The culture was contemporary with the late Early Dynastic city-states and early Akkadian rulers of southern Mesopotamia.

Ancient city excavated at the site of Tell Mardikh on the River Orontes in Syria. Recent excavations have yielded evidence of the previously unknown language and history of a powerful state of the 3rd millennium bc. Although the site was occupied from the 4th millennium bc onwards, the period of its greatest wealth and power was in the mid-3rd millennium; a large royal palace of this period has yielded an archive of more than 15,000 clay tablets inscribed in the cuneiform script in two languages, Sumerian and the local language, a Semitic tongue now labelled Eblaite. Work is still continuing on the tablets, but they have already revealed a wealth of information about the economy, political organization and religion of Ebla. The city was clearly an important commercial centre, exporting woollen cloth, wood and furniture to areas as far flung as Assur in Mesopotamia and Kanesh in Anatolia. The settlement of this period was destroyed, probably by the Akkadian ruler Naram-Sin, but the city was rebuilt and a great palace complex and some wealthy burials of the early 2nd millennium bc have been excavated. The Ebla texts include many Semitic names which recall those of the Old Testament, but extravagant claims of a cult of Yahweh at Ebla and of texts mentioning the biblical patriarchs, the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the Flood story are without foundation.