Natural Resources, Technology and Manufacture Processes at Ebla : A Preliminary Assessment

A wide multidisciplinary project of archaeometric analyses on material assemblages (pottery and clay objects, base and precious metals, stone and bone items) and bio-archaeological samples dating from the Early Bronze Age IVA (c. 2400–2300 B.C.) has been planned as a part of the Ebla Chora Project, in order to investigate primary production, manufacture processes, technological degree of specialization and intersections between crafts and exchange systems at local and interregional levels. In particular, the relationships between the urban town and its environment and the strategies of procurement, exploitation and consumption of natural resources and raw material in the region of Ebla is primarily the focus of the pottery and architectural components analyses and the bio-archaeological researches, whereas precious and base metals have been studied in order to recognize alloys, metalworking technique and operational processes, which can be usefully compared with information coming from the cuneiform texts of the Royal Palace G. The identification and mineralogical characterization of common stones (limestone and basalt stones) and stones not locally available (steatite, chlorite, lapis lazuli, carnelian, iron oxides, jasper, etc.) used to manufacture objects, is intend to arrange thematic geo-archaeological maps in order to distinguish local vs. foreign resources. Finally the characterization of pottery and architectural components aims to a definition of the building technology and pottery manufacture processes and to develop provenance studies in order to reconstruct the exploitation of clay and common stones in the surroundings of the town.