Ricerc@Sapienza

The paper examines the building techniques and decoration of the Royal Palace G of Early Syrian Ebla (ca. 2300 BC), as well as its building phases, between 2500 and 2300 BC.

Il contributo analizza le modalità di distruzione dei monumenti di Ebla alla fine del Bronzo Medio II e propone un'ipotesi sugli autori della distruzione

The article is a thorough revision of the phases pf EB IVA at Ebla, which mainly concern the building activities in the Royal Palace G of the state archives, starting from a protopalatial phase detected on the acropolis, and dating between EB III and EB IVA. All the subphrases of EB IVA are taken into account, based on the evidence of the Royal Palace G, and extending the analysis to all the main buildings of the site - Red Temple, Temple of the Rock, and Building P4.

The paper analyses the physical and ideological use of sight in Ebla, during public ceremonies of kingship both in the third and in the second millennium BC. In the author's opinion, the use of sight, which was in part "natural" and in part ideologically created, was used in order to enhance the concept of kingship, the perception of roles in society and the feeling of appurtenance at different levels in all the participants.

The extensive excavation programme of the defensive system of Ebla (rampart, fortresses and city-gates) indeed provided one of the most complete sets of archaeological data for what concerns the architecture and use of the defensive elements of a Middle Bronze city of northern Levant.

Analysis of the iconography of the seal of king Ishqi-Mari from Mari within the context of Early Syrian seals: the note deals with the recent debate of the iconography of the seal that has been interpreted as depicting the defeat of Ebla by the king of Mari. The article questions this interpretation and suggest other possible readings.

Recent studies in the field of sensory archaeology – that encompasses the meaning and impact of senses in the past and in the comprehension of past phenomena – developed new theories and methods in the archaeological research starting from not only visible and tangible data but also envisioning no longer existing (visible, tangible and audible) information from the past.

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).

The paper reappraises the question of the Early-Middle Bronze transition in Syira taking the view from Ebla, on the basis of the discoveries of the 2004-2009 exacavations.