Endnote 8 – Assessing Ebla

In 1966, before Ebla was identified, U. Bahadir Alkim made the following remark:

We see the Gaziantep and Islahiye areas as having been the scene of an uninterrupted settlement in the Third Millennium B.C., and representing an important regional culture. As has become apparent, this regional culture belonged to the people of a country (Ebla-Ursum? Hashshum?) who were masters in the use of metal and who had close relations with Southern Mesopotamia. [Italics in original] [U. Bahadir Alkim, “Excavations at Gedikli (Karahuyuk), First Preliminary Report”, Turk Tarih Kurumu Belleten, Vol. XXX, no. 117 Oct. 1966, p. 53].

The area Alkim was discussing (Islahiye) is located now in modern Turkey ancient eastern Anatolia, whose general area is now known from the Ebla archives to have been under Eblaite influence. So prophetic were those words that nothing need be changed including the italics. The discovery of the first 42 tablets revealed that Ebla’s industries involved not only textiles, ceramics, and wood carving (remarkably well preserved despite the fire which destroyed Royal Palace G), but also metal working. [Pettinato, “Testi Cuneiformi del 3 Millennio in Paleo-Cananeo Rinvenuti nella Campagna 1974 a Tell Mardikh-Ebla”, Orientalia, Vol. 44, fasc. 3, p. 365, (1975)].