Ricerc@Sapienza

The project deals with the enhancement of the archaeological heritage of the ancient city of Ebla, modern Tell Mardikh, in Syria. Ebla has been continuously excavated by Sapienza University of Roma since 1964 until 2010 (for a total number of 47 seasons of excavation): the site has always received the funding provided by Sapienza and only in the last recent years, due to the political crisis of the Country, the archaeological activity in the field has been temporarily interrupted. Up to now, the Italian Archaeological Expedition to Syria has published 10 volumes of the archaeological final reports (Materiali e Studi Archeologici di Ebla) and 17 volumes of edition of the cuneiform texts dated to the 25th century BC (Archivi Reali di Ebla. Testi). Sapienza and the Italian Archaeological Expedition to Syria owns the archives of photos, field reports, pottery cards, object cards and samples and they have the right, thanks to the agreement with the Directorate General of Antiquities and Museums of Syria (DGAM), of publishing and studying the materials. In the very recent years, the Italian Archaeological Expedition to Syria started a systematic digitization of the original documents to safeguard the historical value of the archives: in particular, the problematic situation of the region in northern Syria where the site of Ebla and the Archaeological Museum of Idlib (that keeps the vast majority, nearly 90%, of the findings from Ebla) are located urged a prompt response: for this reason, the Italian Archaeological Expedition to Syria shared parts of the archives (namely the data and pictures of the cuneiform texts uncovered in 1975) with both the DGAM and the Interpol, in agreement with UNESCO, as to prepare a document for the control of missing materials and the rescue of sacked archaeological findings from the Syrian museums.