power, with the Royal Palace, a classic multi-function building built up of juxtaposed
units with different functions. In the final phase of the period, an important temple
was built on the Acropolis, while a second temple was located in the Lower Town, close
to the town wall.
From the textual evidence it seems quite likely that the town was divided into four
quarters, so it is also possible that the four gates opening in the Old Syrian rampart
reproduce the location of gates to the town of the Early Syrian period, of which,
however, nothing is preserved under the later ruins.CULT ARCHITECTURE
In the most recent years of the archaeological exploration of Ebla, two cult areas were
brought to light: one in the southeast of the Lower Town, and one on the northwest
edge of the Acropolis. Both were used as cult areas for a long time, between Early Bronze
IVA and Middle Bronze II. As concerns the State Archives Age, the temple in the
southeast of the Lower Town is probably the older one. It is called Temple of the Rock
because the rock layer, on which the temple was built, was left bare inside the cella
(Figure 28. 2 ): here a large semi-circular cavity was served by three wells, probably leading
to sources of underground water (Matthiae 2007 , 2008 b, 2009 a; Pinnock forthcoming).
On the other hand, the second temple, called the Red Temple because of the very
strong colour of its bricks (Figure 28. 3 ), was probably built by the end of the State
Archives Age, on the northwest edge of the Acropolis, over the remains of sectors of the
Royal Palace G: these had been abandoned and razed in order to create a space for the
–– Frances Pinnock ––Figure 28.2The Temple of the Rock in Area HH, Early Bronze IVA
(© Missione Archeologica Italiana in Siria)