Ebla and the South. Reconsidering inter-regional connections during Early Bronze IV

Scholarly tradition has connected the second half of the third millennium BC with the question of contacts between the northern and southern Levant suggested by the spread in the south of given elements of material culture inspired by northern prototypes. Current explanations of connectivity across the Levant during Early Bronze IV, framed within the context of formation, crisis and regeneration of early urbanism, centre on the role of nascent states in Inland Western Syria – Ebla in particular – in structuring regional agro-pastoral strategies and triggering cultural transfer to the south. This article reviews the available chronological, archaeological and textual records in order to achieve a greater definition of the chronological resolution and geographic scale of possible patterns of interactions among the northern and southern Levant during the second half of the third millennium BC that have not been considered thus far. The article will discuss whether current explanations of connectivity between the northern and southern Levant during Early Bronze IV fit the data available and will explore possible alternative scenarios.