This study is focused on the clay figurines from the archaeological site of Tell Mardikh, ancient Ebla (Syria), dating back between 2400 and 2000 BC. Optical microscopy, X-ray powder diffraction and ...scanning electron microscopy analysis have been used. Petrographic observations indicated the occurrence of three different fabrics. Quantitative phase analysis by the Rietveld method revealed that four main mineralogical assemblages are present, suggesting a firing temperature in the 800-1050°C thermal range. Only three samples were fired at temperature lower than 800°C as suggested by the presence of very abundant primary calcite and clay minerals. Concerning the redox state of atmosphere, the artefacts were fired in oxidizing conditions. Both BSE images and X-ray maps provided information on microtextural relationship between primary and neoformed phases. These results showed an evolutionary trend of manufacturing technique during the second half of the 3rd millennium BC (Early Bronze Age IV).
Thanks to systematic excavations conducted at Tell Mardikh/Ebla (Syria) during more than 40 years, we collected eleven groups of Bronze Age ceramic fragments defining a series of seven time intervals ...dated to between ∼2300 BC and ∼1400 BC. Archaeointensity experiments were performed using the Triaxe protocol that takes into account both anisotropy thermoremanent magnetization and cooling rate effects. The results, complemented by three other data previously obtained from Ebla, allow the recovery of geomagnetic field intensity variations over nearly 1000 years characterized by a V-shape, with a distinct relative intensity minimum around the 18th century BC. They also permit to constrain the occurrence of an intensity maximum between ∼2300 and ∼2000 BC. Together with other archaeointensity data obtained from Syrian, Levantine and Anatolian regions, the results from Ebla help to make emerging a coherent pattern of geomagnetic field intensity variations in the Near East over the entire Bronze period. This evolution was marked by distinct intensity maxima at ∼2600–2500 BC, ∼2300–2000 BC, ∼1550–1350 BC and at the very beginning of the first millennium BC (Iron Age), the latter showing a much higher magnitude than the three older ones. We discuss the fact that the detected geomagnetic field intensity maxima could be associated with the occurrence of archaeomagnetic jerks that appear synchronous, within age uncertainties, with significant regional climatic fluctuations.
•Eleven Bronze Age archaeointensity data were obtained from Tell Mardikh/Ebla (Syria).•These results show the regional archaeointensity variations between ∼2300 and ∼1400 BC.•They show the occurrence of a relative intensity minimum around the 18th century BC.•Four archaeointensity maxima detected in the Near East during the last 3000 years BC.•The intensity maxima appear synchronous with significant regional climatic variations.
Recent excavations carried out in Area HH at Tell Mardikh/Ebla identified a huge sacred area in use from the middle of the 3rd millennium BC until the final destruction of the Middle Bronze Age city. ...The first building erected in this area in the Early Bronze IVA (2400-2300 BC) was the monumental Temple of the Rock, which was ritually sealed and abandoned at the beginning of the Early Bronze IVB (around 2300-2250 BC). Two of the pits inside the cavity in the cella of the Temple were found to have been filled with a large quantity of fine vessels, as part of a purification ritual carried out before their definitive sealing with superimposed courses of mud-brick. These provide the first coherent ceramic pottery assemblage for the initial stage of the EB IVB Period, and accordingly shed new light on the ceramic horizon of North-West Inner Syria during the last third of the 3rd millennium BC.
