Ricerc@Sapienza

The Early Bronze IVB (EB IVB, c. 2300-2000 BC) pottery horizon of Western Inland Syria has been object of intense study for decades, and it is well known, being attested at a large number of sites spanning east-west from the Orontes Valley to the Jabbul. However, until less than a decade ago, internal periodization of this period was possible only by referring to Hama, the only site that had provided a long EB IVB stratigraphic and ceramic sequences excavated in the 1930s.

From 2007–2010, a team from Sapienza University of Rome, working at Tell Mardikh, ancient Ebla, excavated one of the longest and better-preserved Early Bronze IVB (c. 2300–2000 BC) stratigraphic and architectural sequences known, thus far, in Western Inland Syria. This provided a unique chance to revise ceramic chronology and phasing of Early Bronze IVB at the site, and to elaborate a four-phase relative periodization (EB IVB1–4).