1,199 research outputs found
erica-scarpa/the-city-of-ebla-primer: v.0.1.1
No full text<p>Patch before publication</p>
<p><strong>Full Changelog</strong>: https://github.com/erica-scarpa/the-city-of-ebla-primer/compare/v.0.1.0...v.0.1.1</p>
The City of Ebla. A Complete Bibliography of Its Archaeological and Textual Remains
No full textThis book lists more than 2,600 bibliographical entries referring to books, articles, and digital resources concerned with the ancient city of Ebla (modern Tell Mardikh, Syria, XXIV century BCE). The volume provides a comprehensive collection of philological, archaeological, and historical studies on Ebla from 1965 to present day: the Introduction describes structure, usage, and indexing principles of the bibliography, along with a detailed description of previous bibliographical repertoires on Ebla. A subject index is also provided to help the reader find entries related to specific subjects. The bibliography is arranged in alphabetical order by author and chronologically by year: the individual entries are marked by a progressive number for quick reference
Family Matters. For an Interoperable Approach to the Study of Eblaite Society
No full textThe administrative tablets from Ebla's Great Archive L.2769 primarily document the activities of the royal family, emphasizing their central role in palace administration. While these records focus on the ruling elite, they also mention numerous other individuals, often from distant regions, whose precise administrative relationships remain ambiguous. Eblaite scribes typically identified people by name and patronymic, occasionally substituting the latter with geographical origins. A limited set of primary kinship terms was used, with formal identification being unnecessary for familiar individuals. Notably, the prevalent use of Sumerian for accounting purposes has limited the presence of kinship terminology, offering minimal cultural information. To advance the study of Ebla sources, an integrated and interoperable ecosystem is essential. This approach requires a seamless connection between textual/epigraphic and prosopographical datasets, enhancing our understanding of socio-historical information. Interoperability, facilitated by semantic annotation and supported by a structured ontology, is crucial for enabling effective communication and information sharing between these datasets
Kings’ ladies at Ebla’s court
No full textThe label ‘dam en list’ is used to refer to sections of several administrative tablets mentioning the female members of the Ebla royal family. These women appear in the documents along with other members of the court as the recipients of garments and/or precious objects. Three new, complete lists of dam en have been published since the last comprehensive study on the topic by Tonietti (1989), and several fragmentary lists appeared in Lahlou and Catagnoti (2006). In this note I shall offer an updated index of the dam en lists, providing a few general remarks which might facilitate access to this material to a non-specialist public
The Digitization Process of the Spatial Data on the Epigraphic Discoveries from the Central Archive L.2769 (Palace G, Ebla): A Comprehensive Overview
No full textBetween September 30 and October 8, 1975, the Italian Archaeological Expedition to Syria (MAIS) unearthed the oldest known cuneiform archive found in situ. In order to keep track of the whereabouts of all 15,000 inscribed objects within the Great Archive L.2769, archaeologists created a findspot registration system. Between 1975 and 1978, the team registered each item’s location using this system, and inventoried all the epigraphic material. This paper offers an overview of the digitization process of the spatial data referring to epigraphic findings from L.2769 collected thus far as well as a comprehensive assessment of the findspot registration system
Addenda et corrigenda to “Studies in Eblaite Prosopography:” the dumu-nita en
No full textIn this note I intend to revise and update the data published in Archi, Biga, and Milano (1988, 222-232) concerning the dumu-nita en
Visibility Threshold: Some Considerations on Data Mining Applied to the Study of Eblaite Society
No full textAccounting is a routine activity. Through repetition, the scribes of the Ebla Archives (Syria, 24th cent. BCE) have been able to record thousands of transactions. They organized and stored accounting data referred to more than thirty years of the Palace G activities. The recurring textual patterns characterizing the administrative corpus are a byproduct of this routine-based approach. The ability to see recurring patterns in the textual record is fundamental when dealing with an administrative corpus: however, this ability fails when the patterns are buried in data. In this paper, I argue that theoretical aspects of data mining are not far from theoretical and methodological tenets of the historical approach. Data mining is a useful technique for the identification of document clusters and relevant information which would otherwise remain hidden. Furthermore, textual pattern recognition is critical to address topics such as the study of society: belonging to a category of complex problems, any socio-historical investigation requires dealing with multiple interconnected variables. However, not all research topics require such an approach. I define the line beyond which digital approaches are extremely useful (if not indispensable) as 'visibility threshold’. The position of this interface is relative and subjective
All the Kings’ Sons: The Role and Tasks of the dumu-nita en at Ebla (Syria, 24th cent. BCE)
No full textIn this paper I demonstrate that the dumu-nita en lists attested in the documents of the Ebla Archives are an accounting representation of reality: they do not offer a full picture of the royal sons as a social group nor of its evolution over time. Evidence suggests that some among the royal sons were involved in diplomatic activities, while others had cultic obligations: the administrative record reflects this separation of duties, which appears to be related to their position within the royal family
The Business of Mr. Ninurta-zākir-šumi: Activities of an Official Within the Kassite Administration
No full textThis paper explores the life and role of Ninurta-zākir-šumi during the Middle Kassite period, focusing on his position as an official in the Nippur countryside. Identified in sources from Nippur published between 1904 and 1922, his name has gained prominence with the recent publication of the ex-Rosen tablets. While previous studies have touched on his story briefly, the ex-Rosen documents offer a more detailed and nuanced perspective on his activities in the administration of Dūr-Enlilē and neighboring towns. The paper conducts a comprehensive reconstruction of his family lineage, establishing connections to the House of Enlil-kidinnī, šandabakku of Nippur. Through this exploration, the aim is to contribute to a more nuanced understanding of Ninurta-zākir-šumi's life and his role in the managements of resources in the Nippur countryside
Fashionable Outfits: Assessing the Socio-historical Value of Textile Sets at Ebla through Textual Pattern Recognition
No full textIn this paper, I would like to offer some preliminary considerations on the sets of garments and/or cloths appearing in the administrative record of Great Archive L.2769. Pattern recognition applied to the formulaic language adopted by the scribes provides reliable quantitative and qualitative data on the composition, frequency, and distribution of such deliveries. N-grams (i.e. sequences of n elements, which can be either words or characters) are extremely helpful to identify accounting models: these, in turn, are plentiful in the administrative record due to a highly standardized use of language
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