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Ebla — The image shows part of the excavated city of Ebla. Most of the ruins have been given a top layer of new bricks. Some stones used to grind…

MegalithFringe site

Ebla

Also known asTell Mardikh

Syria

Datedc. 3500–1380 BCE*

Where it standsSources

Photo Inge at en.wikipedia · Public domainSource file on Wikimedia Commons

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About this site

What the sources say

Ebla (Sumerian: 𒌈𒆷 eb₂-la, Arabic: إبلا, modern: تل مرديخ, Tell Mardikh) was one of the earliest kingdoms in Syria. Its remains constitute a tell located about 55 km (34 mi) southwest of Aleppo near the village of Mardikh. Ebla was an important center throughout the 3rd millennium BC and in the first half of the 2nd millennium BC. Its discovery proved the Levant was a center of ancient, centralized civilization equal to Egypt and Mesopotamia and ruled out the view that the latter two were the only important centers in the Near East during the Early Bronze Age.

Starting as a small settlement in the Early Bronze Age (c. 3500 BC), Ebla developed into a trading empire and later into an expansionist power that imposed its hegemony over much of northern and eastern Syria. Ebla was destroyed during the 23rd century BC. It was then rebuilt and was mentioned in the records of the Third Dynasty of Ur. The second Ebla was a continuation of the first, ruled by a new royal dynasty. It was destroyed at the end of the 3rd millennium BC, which paved the way for the Amorite tribes to settle in the city, forming the third Ebla. The third kingdom also flourished as a trade center; it became a subject and an ally of Yamhad (modern-day Aleppo) until its final destruction by the Hittite king Mursili I in c. 1600 BC.

Ebla maintained its prosperity through a vast trading network. Artifacts from Sumer, Cyprus, Egypt and as far as Afghanistan were recovered from the city's palaces. The kingdom had its own language, Eblaite, and the political organization of Ebla had features different from the Sumerian model. Women enjoyed a special status, and the queen had major influence in the state and religious affairs. The pantheon of gods was mainly north Semitic and included deities exclusive to Ebla. The city was excavated from 1964 and became famous for the Ebla tablets, an archive of about 20,000 cuneiform tablets found there, dated to 2500 BC–2350 BC. Written in both Sumerian and Eblaite with cuneiform script, the archive has allowed a better understanding of the Sumerian language as well as Levantine political organization and social customs of the mid-3rd millennium BC.

Based on remote sensing as of 2022, the site has been and continued to be heavily damaged by military activity and associated looting. Especially important, "The central high mound was badly damaged in February 2017 by military trenching and looting, which became even more severe by October 2022".

Read on Wikipedia32 min readCC BY-SA 4.0

Age sources

Sources disagree on the age of this site

Sources do not agree on how old this site is. Each claim is listed with where it comes from; the mainstream reading is marked.

Range across all claimsc. 3500–1380 BCE*

Measured

A physical measurement of this site: a radiocarbon date, a tree-ring count, a luminescence date, or a record that can itself be dated.

  • 1955–1380 BCERadiocarbon dating22 radiocarbon dates in the p3k14c database (Bird et al. 2022, Scientific Data 9:27 (p3k14c radiocarbon database)) between 3208 and 4020 BP; the range shown isMainstreamExcavationSource: p3k14c.org
  • 3500 BCEWikipedia: Ebla (infobox)MainstreamWikipediaSource: en.wikipedia.org
  • 3000 BCEWikidata inceptionMainstreamWikidataSource: wikidata.org

Where it sits in time

The site's dated range, placed against world reference points.

The scale is logarithmic: each step to the left is about ten times older than the last.

  1. Göbekli Tepe9600 BCE
  2. First farming9500 BCE
  3. Avebury2600 BCE
  4. Great Pyramid of Giza2560 BCE
  5. Stonehenge2500 BCE
  6. Bronze Age collapse1200 BCE
  7. Rome founded753 BCE
  8. Parthenon447 BCE
  9. Hadrian's Wall122 CE
  10. Machu Picchu built1450 CE
12,000 BCE8,000 BCE4,000 BCE1 CE1,500 CE
This site

1955–1380 BCEHow this date was established: Radiocarbon datingMeasured

A physical measurement of this site: a radiocarbon date, a tree-ring count, a luminescence date, or a record that can itself be dated.
Source for this date

The full article

Ebla: the whole story

32 min read6,965 wordsRead on Wikipedia

In brief

Sources for this section

Ebla was one of the earliest kingdoms in Syria. Its remains constitute a tell located about 55 km (34 mi) southwest of Aleppo near the village of Mardikh. Ebla was an important center throughout the 3rd millennium BC and in the first half of the 2nd millennium BC. Its discovery proved the Levant was a center of ancient, centralized civilization equal to Egypt and Mesopotamia. The word Ebla may derive from a Semitic word meaning 'white rock', possibly referring to the limestone outcrop on which the city was built.

Ebla was first settled around 3500 BC, and its growth was supported by many satellite agricultural settlements. It benefited from its role as an entrepôt of growing international trade, which probably began with an increased demand for wool in Sumer. It developed into a trading empire and later into an expansionist power that imposed its hegemony over much of northern and eastern Syria. Ebla was destroyed during the 23rd century BC, rebuilt, and destroyed again at the end of the 3rd millennium BC, which paved the way for Amorite tribes to settle in the city, forming the third Ebla.

The third kingdom also flourished as a trade center and became a subject and ally of Yamhad, modern-day Aleppo, until its final destruction by the Hittite king Mursili I in c. 1600 BC. Artifacts from Sumer, Cyprus, Egypt and as far as Afghanistan were recovered from the city's palaces. The kingdom had its own language, Eblaite, and women enjoyed a special status, with the queen having major influence in state and religious affairs.

The city was excavated from 1964 and became famous for the Ebla tablets, an archive of about 20,000 cuneiform tablets dated to 2500 BC–2350 BC. Written in both Sumerian and Eblaite, the archive has allowed a better understanding of the Sumerian language as well as Levantine political organization and social customs of the mid-3rd millennium BC. Most of the tablets are about economic matters but also include royal letters and diplomatic documents.

A royal palace, building G2, was apparently built c. 2700 BC. Toward the end of the early period a hundred years' war with Mari started, and in the mid-25th century BC king Kun-Damu defeated Mari. Based on remote sensing as of 2022, the site has been and continued to be heavily damaged by military activity and associated looting.

Etymology

Sources for this section

The word "Ebla" may derive from a Semitic word meaning "white rock", possibly referring to the limestone outcrop on which the city was built. It has been reported that local people still often use the toponym Tell Abyad (Arabic: تل أبيض, tal ˈabyaḍ), literally "White Hill".