ART AND HANDICRAFT PRODUCTIONThe furniture of the Royal Palace G survives only in fragments, because the town
suffered heavy pillaging at the time of the conquest by Sargon of Akkad’s army, yet it
is still possible to reconstruct some of the precious objects it contained, and, most of
all, to appreciate the originality of the Eblaic culture, and its position within the frame
of contemporary Syrian and Mesopotamian cultures.
The art of the mature Early Syrian Ebla is characterised, as concerns techniques, by
the use of different materials for the same object, and by the use of wood, as base for
composite works, from statues in the round, of panels in relief. In fact, the region
controlled by Ebla was quite rich in wood, which was not only a basic resource for
trade, but it also became the base for local craftsmanship, highly refined and appre-
ciated even in southern Mesopotamia.
As concerns typologies, all the main categories already well attested in the
Mesopotamian world are represented: statues in the round, relief panels, wall plaques.
On the other hand, no fragments of stelae were found for this period, while a peculiarity
of the Eblaic culture is certainly represented by the carved and inlaid pieces of furniture.
This kind of furniture was so typical of Ebla, and so appreciated outside Syria, that as
soon as the town flourished again, after Sargon’s destruction, it was again traded to
southern Mesopotamia: several Ur III texts mention men from Ebla reaching Ur
carrying this type of wooden furniture (Owen 1990 ; Matthiae 1989 b; Pinnock 2000 ).
Yet, even in the more usual categories of Early Dynastic art, Ebla shows a strong
originality, particularly in the representation of the town élites. In the Land of Sumer,
the king’s image was not yet fully defined: statues in the round were usually of small
size, and they represented kings and high officials, and only the inscriptions allow us
to identify the roles of the characters represented. A smaller number of female statues
is also present, and all these images were placed inside temple areas, sometimes on small
mud-brick benches in the cellas. These statues were not true portraits, but rather
indicated that he/she had been accepted by the deity, and was therefore entitled to hold
the high office to which he/she had been appointed. Inlaid panels, usually found in
temples, celebrated military victories, or represented cult ceremonies.
At Ebla, the sovereign stands out clearly: in inlaid panels and cylinder seals he is
usually front facing, and wears a peculiar turban, with a tuft falling down on one side.
Inlaid panels usually represented processions of officials, marching towards the king,
and decorated the walls of the Royal Palace, in particular inside the Administrative
Quarter. In cylinder seals, the king’s figure is frequently accompanied by a female
character, who must be a queen, characterised by long, loose hair, performing the same
acts as the king, like the protection of bulls from lions (Figure 28. 11 ). Moreover, it is
possible to reconstruct the presence of two couples of royal statues in the round, made
of different materials, and quite close to life size, where again the male figure was
accompanied by the female one. A further element strongly characterising the Ebla
culture as compared with southern Mesopotamia is the fact that all these images of
power were located in the Royal Palace: besides the carved and inlaid panels, in fact,
concentrated in the Administrative Quarter, the four life size royal figures were placed
two at the side of the Monumental Gateway and two at the sides of the entrance to
the Throne Room inside the Administrative Quarter. Thus their visibility was very
high, and their meaning quite different: royal statues were not used to confirm and
stress the good relation with deities, but rather to celebrate in public the role of the king
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