Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
October 2002
In 1964, Italian archaeologists began to excavate a mound in northwestern Syria known as Tell Mardikh. From 1975, work concentrated on an area they called “G.” Here was discovered a palace dating to the second half of the third millennium B.C. Thousands of well-preserved cuneiform tablets were found in palace G demonstrating Ebla’s close links to southern Mesopotamia, where the script had developed. In one of the palace rooms, over 14,000 tablets were excavated. The larger tablets had originally been stored on shelves but had fallen onto the floor when the palace was destroyed. The find spots of the tablets allowed the excavators to reconstruct their original position: they were stored by subject. The Ebla tablets record the cultural, economic, and political life of northern Syria. The majority of the tablets are inscribed in the local Semitic language, known today as Eblaite. Other artifacts provide evidence of Ebla’s close relationship with the Mediterranean world and Egypt. Exquisite sculpture in the round was recovered. Composite statues had been created from different colored stones. Much of the artistic style preempts, and possibly influences, the quality work of the following Akkadian empire (ca. 2350–2150 B.C.). The sculpture and the royal archive were preserved by chance when Ebla was attacked and the palace contents were buried under the building’s rubble. Sargon and Naram-Sin of Akkad, the conquerors of much of Mesopotamia, each claim to have destroyed Ebla, but the exact date of destruction is the subject of continuing debate.
Citation
Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art. “Ebla in the Third Millennium B.C.” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/ebla/hd_ebla.htm (October 2002)
Further Reading
Matthiae, Paolo "Ebla and the Early Urbanization of Syria." In Art of the First Cities: The Third Millennium B.C. from the Mediterranean to the Indus, edited by Joan Aruz with Ronald Wallenfels, pp. 165–68.. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003.
Weiss, Harvey, ed. Ebla to Damascus: Art and Archaeology of Ancient Syria. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service, 1985.
Additional Essays by Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art
- Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art. “The Hittites.” (October 2002)
- Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art. “The Halaf Period (6500–5500 B.C.).” (October 2003)
- Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art. “The Ubaid Period (5500–4000 B.C.).” (October 2003)
- Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art. “Ur: The Royal Graves.” (October 2003)
- Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art. “Ur: The Ziggurat.” (October 2002)
- Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art. “Uruk: The First City.” (October 2003)
- Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art. “Ugarit.” (October 2004)
- Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art. “Animals in Ancient Near Eastern Art.” (February 2014)
- Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art. “Urartu.” (October 2004)
- Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art. “Trade between the Romans and the Empires of Asia.” (October 2000)
- Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art. “The Parthian Empire (247 B.C.–224 A.D.).” (originally published October 2000, last updated November 2016)
- Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art. “Nabataean Kingdom and Petra.” (October 2000)
- Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art. “Palmyra.” (October 2000)
- Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art. “Art of the First Cities in the Third Millennium B.C..” (October 2004)
- Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art. “The Sasanian Empire (224–651 A.D.).” (originally published October 2003, last updated April 2016)
- Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art. “Colossal Temples of the Roman Near East.” (October 2003)
- Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art. “Assyria, 1365–609 B.C..” (originally published October 2004, last revised April 2010)
- Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art. “Lydia and Phrygia.” (October 2004)
- Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art. “The Achaemenid Persian Empire (550–330 B.C.).” (October 2004)
- Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art. “The Akkadian Period (ca. 2350–2150 B.C.).” (October 2004)
- Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art. “The Year One.” (October 2004)
- Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art. “Early Dynastic Sculpture, 2900–2350 B.C..” (October 2004)
- Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art. “Early Excavations in Assyria.” (October 2004; updated August 2021)
- Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art. “Trade Routes between Europe and Asia during Antiquity.” (October 2000)
- Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art. “Phrygia, Gordion, and King Midas in the Late Eighth Century B.C..” (October 2004)
- Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art. “Trade between Arabia and the Empires of Rome and Asia.” (October 2000)
- Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art. “The Nahal Mishmar Treasure.” (October 2004)
- Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art. “The Phoenicians (1500–300 B.C.).” (October 2004)
- Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art. “The Seleucid Empire (323–64 B.C.).” (October 2004)