Tell Mardikh is one of the three most prestigious
archeological discoveries in Syria in the last fifty years.
It is also the latest (1964) after Ras Shamra (Ugarit) and Tel Hariri (Mari). The site, covering 56 hectares, forms
a huge oval tumulus raised in its center by the acropolis of a city, Ebla, which was the capital of a kingdom at
two different times in history. In ancient times, Ebla is mentioned among the cities conquered about 2250 B.C.
by Naram Sin, an Akkadian sovereign ruling Mesopotamia. Excavations of this city which started to prosper from
the 3rd millenary B.C. are far from being completed. They have revealed very interesting architectural remains
of the archaic period, some rare sculptures they still have not unearthed the temple of that time, most of all
a large quantity of tablets (more than fifteen thousand) in Sumerian cuneiform characters transcribing a Semitic
language related to Canaanean that was called the Eblaite.
These tablets give mainly administrative and economic information and data, and more rarely, treat diplomatic religious
and lexicological matters. Thanks to what has already been deciphered, we know that Ebla was (between 2500 to 2250
B.C.), the capital of a state spreading its influence, if necessary by armed coercion, as far as the maritime principalities
of the East Mediterranean and to the small kingdoms of the Middle Euphrates. Among the diplomatic documents, a
number of treaties mention cities, such as Abrasal which have still not been found.
Ebla survived the destructions inflicted by Naram Sin. It regained its status of capital of a kingdom in the early
2nd millenary B.C. under the impulse of newcomers, the Amorites, Semites who overthrew the empire of Ur, in Sumerian
country. This new state could never reach the power of the Archaic kingdom. The Italian archeologists who have
been excavating under the direction of Professor Matthae have unearthed many remains from that 2nd period: a wall
strengthened by an important glacis, 50 meters thick in some places, the remains of two palaces one of which, at
the foot of the acropolis, covered three underground royal tombs built between 1825 and 1650 B.C., and the main
temple dedicated to goddess Ishtar. However, this second royal capital has not yet yielded many documents. |
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