The Early Bronze IVB pottery of Ebla. Stratigraphy, chronology, typology and style

The Early Bronze IVB (EB IVB, c. 2300-2000 BC) pottery horizon of Western Inland Syria has been object of intense study for decades, and it is well known, being attested at a large number of sites spanning east-west from the Orontes Valley to the Jabbul. However, until less than a decade ago, internal periodization of this period was possible only by referring to Hama, the only site that had provided a long EB IVB stratigraphic and ceramic sequences excavated in the 1930s. Recently, two long EB IVB sequences from Ebla and Tell Qarqur were added to the dataset, and allow for a review of the internal periodization of the EB IVB in Western Inland Syria based on developments of pottery types and styles by phase. Until the early 2000s, EB IVB materials had been excavated at Ebla only in secondary contexts (e.g., the massive ash layers of the Middle Bronze Age Rampart), or in single-phase contexts investigated in limited soundings (e.g., Areas D, E, N, P, T). In 2004-2007 a long architectural sequence spanning from Early Bronze IVA to Middle Bronze I (c. 2450-1600 BC) was excavated in Area H, in the Lower City south-east, providing, for the first time in the research at the site, a stratigraphic control for local EB IVB and lynchpins for relative chronology of the period’s ceramic sequence. The present paper presents a review of data made possible by the new discoveries at Ebla, and addresses some issues in the dataset emerging from the analysis of the EB IVB stratified assemblages from the site. Preliminary results of petrographic and technological data are also presented and discussed in order to provide some insights into pottery production at Ebla during the last quarter of the 3rd millennium BC, also in relation to similar studies recently appeared from contemporary sites in Western Inland Syria. Finally, some issues in inter-regional synchronization are briefly addressed moving from the viewpoint of Ebla’s EB IVB dataset. Thus, even though these remarks are provisional, due to the very initial stage of the research, attempts to frame Ebla’s EB IVB dataset into a macro-local picture by comparison with other sites in the region and by referring to the recent proposals of a regional periodization for EB IVB, such as those ensuing from the ARCANE Project, are made.