What is the significance of the Ebla tablets?

Content and significance The tablets provide a wealth of information on Syria and Canaan in the Early Bronze Age, and include the first known references to the “Canaanites”, “Ugarit”, and “Lebanon”. The contents of the tablets reveal that Ebla was a major trade center.

How old are the Ebla tablets?

The Ebla tablets cover about 150 years, estimated at 2500 to 2360 b.c.e. by one archaeologist, and 2400 to 2250 b.c.e., by another. We know that Ebla was first destroyed around 2200 b.c.e., so it seems the latter dating of Ebla’s tablets is probably correct.

Who discovered Ebla?

Matthiae
The city of Ebla, long known from Egyptian and Akkadian inscriptions, had been discovered by Matthiae in 1968. Collectively, the tablets discovered at Ebla have come to be known as the Ebla tablets.

What are the Mari tablets?

Mari tablets Over 25,000 tablets were found in the burnt library of Zimri-Lim written in Akkadian from a period of 50 years between circa 1800 – 1750 BC. They give information about the kingdom, its customs, and the names of people who lived during that time.

Where was the ancient city of Ebla located?

Ebla, modern Tall Mardīkh, also spelled Tell Mardikh, ancient city 33 miles (53 km) southwest of Aleppo in northwestern Syria. During the height of its power ( c. 2600–2240 bc ), Ebla dominated northern Syria, Lebanon, and parts of northern Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) and enjoyed trade and diplomatic relations with states as far away as…

What are the names of the districts in Ebla?

Ebla was divided into four districts—each with its own gate in the outer wall. The acropolis included the king’s palace “G”, and one of two temples in city dedicated to Kura (called the “Red Temple”). The lower city included the second temple of Kura in the southeast called “Temple of the Rock”.

Where did the Tablets of Ebla come from?

The Ebla tablets are a collection of as many as 1,800 complete clay tablets, 4,700 fragments, and many thousands of minor chips found in the palace archives of the ancient city of Ebla, Syria. The tablets were discovered by Italian archaeologist Paolo Matthiae and his team in 1974–75 during their excavations at the ancient city at Tell Mardikh.

What did the people of Ebla do for a living?

Vocabularies, syllabaries, gazetteers, and student exercises that have been recovered show that Ebla was a major educational centre. The completeness of Ebla’s texts, which at points duplicate fragmentary texts from Sumer, greatly enhances the modern study of Sumerian.