From Monument to Urban Complex: The City of Ebla as Symbol of Royal Ideology

The Ebla tell structure can be considered as an unicum compared to other Near Eastern sites: its topographic construction actually points out the location of the decisional centre, the Acropolis, and the defensive perimeter of the wall delimit the Lower City in a striking and monumental way. As a strong continuity is attested by the same settlement position in both main phases (EB IV A–B and MB I–II), and that continuity seems not to have been de- termined just by functional aims, this contribution will detect some ideological and cultural elements that influenced the spatial organisation. In other words, the hypothesis is that the unconscious reaction to the contrast between the ordered urban territory—immediately known in its spatial limits—and everything out- side it—unlimited and unknown—caused some of the peculiar classification forms, archeo- logically understandable through the administrative expressions of the royal power.