Popular Iconographies in a Courtly Environment : Clay Figurines from Royal Palace G and the Coroplastic of Inner Syria during EB IVA

Terracotta figurines dated to the Early Bronze Age IVA-B (ca. 2500/2400–2000 B.C.) from inner Syria show common typological features that identify a different regional production from those attested in the Euphrates and Khabur valleys, coastal Syria and Lebanon, and southeastern Anatolia The precise geographical area of this coroplastic “province” is however still difficult to define, since only Ebla and Hama have given a consistent number of specimens from primary contexts, whereas in most of the sites only few figurines have been published or noticed. That Ebla was the main manufacturing regional centre seems to be demonstrated by the main types and classes of anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figurines attested, which show homogenous iconographic and technological traits that appeared fully developed immediately after the mid-third millennium B.C. and exhibited a strong continuity during more than four centuries, as revealed by the stratified materials at the site.