Alfonso Archi Volgorde van de boeken

The Central Archive of Ebla, dating back to the 24th century BC, contains annual documents that detail the incomes of metals and garments to the Central Administration, alongside expenditures on various metal objects like weapons and jewels over approximately forty-six years. This unique documentary sequence is unmatched in cuneiform literature, covering the eleven-year reign of Irkab-damu and the thirty-five years of his son Iš‛ar-damu, with ministers Ibrium and Ibbi-zikir. The volume presents 110 texts, including annual income documents and partial accounts. Notably, it records silver and gold amounts from previous kings, with metals stored in bars and standard-weight vessels. Most goods were collected yearly by the minister, while additional silver and garments came from various lords and village overseers. City-states under Ebla’s influence provided small tributes as well. Over Ibrium’s eighteen years, silver collected exceeded 3,571 kg, while Ibbi-zikir contributed 2,640 kg of silver and 206 kg of low-quality gold. The significant increase in incomes indicates an evolving state administration. Ebla's kingdom stretched from the Syrian-Turkish border to Ḥama, suggesting that northern Syria developed regional state structures ahead of Mesopotamia by several decades. Images are available for download from the publisher's website, with copyright held by Missione Archeologica Italiana in Siria - Sapienza Università di Roma.

Among several administrative sectors, the Archives of Ebla (Syria, ca. 2380–2330 B. C.) document month after month, over forty years, the expenditures of textile production (the first manufacture of the time) giving substance to an archaic society, also in relation with the neighboring states. An entire new province – northern Syria of the third millennium B. C. – is returned to the Ancient Near East studies, and, a unique case, on the basis of the complete documentation kept by a central administration. This volume includes 1 yearly text and 24 monthly documents selected because they present sections concerning groups of men ordered according to crafts, women employed in menial works, and men passed in review in relation with military expeditions. A concluding essay is the first attempt to give a reconstruction of the palace organization of Ebla and the forces of the recruited army. One text lists the gifts to the members of the court (fixing their rank in this way) on the occasion of the marriage of the only daughter of the royal couple with a prince of Kiš, the major power of the time; in another one the funerary gifts to a princess are registered. Detailed indices complete the volume.