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.
There are several alternative schemes for phasing within the Early Bronze IV (EB IV) period in the southern Levant, traditionally dated to ca. 2300‒2000 B.C. Early research distinguished phases based on appreciable stylistic differences between sub-regional assemblages; later studies concentrated on sequences at individual sites rather than on a regional evaluation. The practice of dating a site’s assemblages and phases to the entire 300-year time span has also come into use, concealing diachronic changes and processes within the period.
In the historical-archaeological sequence of Ebla, Early Bronze IVB (ca. 2300-2000 BC) corresponds
to the late Early Syrian period, i.e., the time-span between the destruction of the Early
Bronze IVA (ca. 2450-2300 BC) settlement and societal regeneration in the period of the Amorite
dynasties of the Middle Bronze Age (ca. 2000-1600 BC).
While the site’s name is mentioned in texts from southern Mesopotamia, dating from the last
century of the 3rd millennium BC, which attest to Ebla’s role in inter-regional trade and exchange
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