Ebla

Ebla was a city state headed by an En¹ that arose to greatness in the 23rd century BCE. In 2250 BCE it was the third largest city in the world with an estimated 30 thousand residents.². It was destroyed around 2240 BCE, but presumably survived somewhat since it was an independent state during the time of Shulgi of Ur. It recovered by 1850 BCE only to be again destroyed in the late 17th century BCE. Again it presumably survived somewhat since remains were found dating from the eighth to sixth centuries BCE, the Persian period and the Hellenistic period. It diminished much thereafter with only a Christian hermitage making it through to the seventh century CE, after which it was abandoned.⁴ Its ruins, discovered in the 20th century, are called Tel Mardikh.

External References

Ruins of Ebla

Historical maps

Footnotes

1. See pg. 352 to L. Viganó, 'Mari and Ebla: Of Time and Rulers' in Liber Annuus XLIV (Studium Biblicum Franciscanum, 1994)
2. Tables of the World's Largest Cities, "2250 B.C." table, in Tertius Chandler, Four Thousand Years of Urban Growth, 2nd ed. (The Edwin Mellen Press, 1987).
3. Georges Roux, Ancient Iraq (Penguin Books, 3rd ed., 1992). The head of government in nearby Mari was now called shakkanakkum, not en; perhaps Ebla followed suit. See pg. 170 (independent status) and 188 (title in Mari).
4. www.syriagate.com/Syria/about/cities/Idlib/ebla-cm.htm, accessed 9/11/2010.