A Victory over Mari and the Fall of Ebla

Archi, Alfonso; Biga, Maria Giovanna

doi:10.2307/3515951

Cited by 38 publications

(19 citation statements)

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“…Moreover, the Syrian steppe formed an important communications route between western Syria, the Euphrates Valley, and North Mesopotamia, as witnessed by the interactions described in the Ebla texts (Archi and Biga 2003). In the case of the southern Levant, despite the growing evidence for pastoral nomadic activity in the steppe regions of Jordan during the Chalcolithic-EBA, perhaps connected to the acquisition of resources such as flint (Abu Azizeh 2011Müller-Neuhof 2006;Quintero et al 2002), there was no major political entity at the eastern side of the steppe with whom to interact, and so the value of the steppe as a network of communication between competing polities was markedly reduced.…”

Section: Early Bronze IVmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contextualizing Early Urbanization: Settlement Cores, Early States and Agro-pastoral Strategies in the Fertile Crescent During the Fourth and Third Millennia BC

et al. 2014

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This paper employs data from selected sample survey areas in the northern Fertile Crescent to demonstrate how initial urbanization developed along several pathways. The first, during the Late Chalcolithic period, was within a dense pattern of rural settlement. There followed a profound shift in settlement pattern that resulted in the formation of large walled or ramparted sites ('citadel cities') associated with a more dynamic phase of urbanization exemplified by short cycles of growth and collapse. By the later third millennium BC, the distribution of larger centres had expanded to include the drier agropastoral zone of northern and central Syria, termed here the 'zone of uncertainty'. This configuration, in turn, formed the context for Middle Bronze Age settlement, and the pattern of political rivalries and alliances that typified the second millennium BC. Evidence is marshalled from archaeological surveys and landscape analyses to examine these multiple paths to urbanization from the perspectives of (a) staple production within major 123J World Prehist (2014) 27:43-109 DOI 10.1007/s10963-014-9072-2 agricultural lowlands; (b) the shift towards higher risk animal husbandry within climatically marginal regions; (c) changes in local and inter-regional networks (connectivity); and (d) ties and rights to the land. Textile production forms the core of the proposed model, which emphasizes how the demand for wool and associated pasture lands opened up new landscapes for agro-pastoral production and settlement. The resultant landscapes of settlement are then compared with the picture in the southern Levant where a more restricted zone of uncertainty may have limited the opportunities for agro-pastoral production.

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Section: Early Bronze IVmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contextualizing Early Urbanization: Settlement Cores, Early States and Agro-pastoral Strategies in the Fertile Crescent During the Fourth and Third Millennia BC

et al. 2014

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“…Although cities reappeared in later periods, this was the most pervasive phase of urban settlement prior to the 20th century AD. The EJ III period brings northern Mesopotamia into the light of history, with the earliest cuneiform tablets found at Ebla, Tell Beydar, and Tell Brak (Archi and Biga 2003;Eidem et al 2001;Ismail et al 1996).…”

Section: Resurgence Of Urbanism and Complexity Ca 2600-2000 Bcmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…At Ebla, precious metals and fine textiles were closely monitored by the royal household and were distributed to the kings of rival powers, their families, and their representatives (Archi 1996;Archi and Biga 2003;Mazzoni 2003). The evidence from Ebla is primarily textual, but elsewhere such elements of the political economy have survived in mortuary contexts.…”

Section: The Impact Of Akkadian Imperialism In Northern Mesopotamiamentioning

confidence: 99%

Cycles of Civilization in Northern Mesopotamia, 4400–2000 BC

2010

J Archaeol Res

198

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Abstract:The intensification of fieldwork in northern Mesopotamia, the upper region of the TigrisEuphrates basin, has revealed two cycles of expansion and reduction in social complexity between 4400-2000 BC. These cycles include developments in social inequality, political centralization, craft production and economic specialization, agropastoral land use, and urbanization. Contrary to earlier assessments, many of these developments proceeded independently from the polities in southern Mesopotamia, although not in isolation. This review considers recent data from excavations and surveys in northern Iraq, northeastern Syria, and southeastern Turkey with particular attention to how they are used to construct models of early urban polities.Key words: Mesopotamia, complex society, urbanism, collapse 1 IntroductionOver a span of more than two millennia, northern Mesopotamia witnessed the emergence of urban complex society, its collapse and rebirth, and a further episode of collapse. This time span (ca. 4400-2000 BC) has been intensively studied by archaeologists over the last two decades, largely because of twin push (the closure of Iraq to foreign archaeology) and pull (salvage campaigns in advance of dam projects) forces. As a result, what was once considered to be the periphery of early urbanism and state formation in southern Mesopotamia (modern southern Iraq) has emerged as a region of interest in its own right. In many ways we now have a superior understanding of major social developments in the north (e.g., urbanism, craft production, agricultural and pastoral organization, the development of the landscape) than we do for the south, and improvements in chronology have revealed that many aspects of social complexity that were once assumed to have been imported from southern Mesopotamia have earlier and entirely indigenous origins.This review describes the development of social complexity from 4400 BC to the collapse of urban society at the end of the 3rd millennium BC in northern (or upper) Mesopotamia, defined here as the Tigris and Euphrates River valleys and the plains and steppe between them that fall today in northern Iraq, northern Syria, and southeastern Turkey (Fig. 1).Much archaeological research in the region, and in the Near East in general, adopts a culture historical approach that emphasizes typology and the development of sequences of material culture; here the emphasis is on anthropologically oriented research published since 1990.Geographically, the focus is on the river valleys and alluvial plains of Syria, and particularly the Upper Khabur basin of Hassake province. Occasionally I refer to sites beyond northern Mesopotamia proper when they are relevant to the discussion, particularly the western Syrian 2 cities of Ebla and Umm al-Marra; the important Syrian city of Mari, on the Euphrates near the Iraqi border, is largely southern Mesopotamian in orientation and will be not be discussed (although see Margueron 2004).In Mesopotamian archaeology generally, social complexity is described throug...

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“…The first appearance of goblet forms only towards the very end of Phase I may suggest that Phase I begins somewhat earlier than Palace G at Ebla (where goblets are already ubiquitous), and that it spans a longer period of time. The Palace G complex, and particularly its associated archives and ceramic assemblage, likely represent only a comparatively short period of time dating to the later part of the EBIVA, in the period immediately preceding its destruction (Akkermans and Schwartz 2003: 243;Archi and Biga 2003;Mazzoni 2002: 76). The earlier part of the EBIVA period, corresponding to early Phase I, is poorly represented by excavations in western Syria, but is likely to be equated with the three floors excavated immediately below Palace G (Mazzoni 1991), Hama J8-J7 (Fugmann 1958: 50-56), and Tombs 5, 6, and 8 at Umm el-Marra (Schwartz et al 2006: 606-9;2012: 160-61).…”

Section: Comparative Discussion: the Amuq In Its Broader Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Revisiting the Amuq sequence: a preliminary investigation of the EBIVB ceramic assemblage from Tell Tayinat

Welton

2014

Levant

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The chronology of the Early Bronze Age in the Northern Levant has been constructed around a small group of key sequences and excavations, including the Amuq Sequence. Information about this sequence has predominantly been taken from excavations conducted in the 1930s. The final Early Bronze Age phase in the Amuq (Phase J, EBIVB) was, however, based on a comparatively small sample of ceramics originating only from the site of Tell Tayinat. Excavations of EBIVB levels by the Tayinat Archaeological Project have provided a larger sample of Amuq Phase J ceramics, which are described here, quantified and evaluated in comparison to the original Braidwood collection and to the larger Northern Levantine region.

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A Victory over Mari and the Fall of Ebla

Cited by 38 publications

References 2 publications

Contextualizing Early Urbanization: Settlement Cores, Early States and Agro-pastoral Strategies in the Fertile Crescent During the Fourth and Third Millennia BC

Contextualizing Early Urbanization: Settlement Cores, Early States and Agro-pastoral Strategies in the Fertile Crescent During the Fourth and Third Millennia BC

Cycles of Civilization in Northern Mesopotamia, 4400–2000 BC

Revisiting the Amuq sequence: a preliminary investigation of the EBIVB ceramic assemblage from Tell Tayinat

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