Research > Archaeological Fieldwork > Sapienza "Grandi Scavi" > Missione Archeologica Italiana in Siria (Ebla – Siria)
Director: Davide Nadali
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The ancient city of Ebla served as the capital of a significant kingdom during the 3rd millennium BCE, controlling a vast territory that extended from the Euphrates in the east to the Mediterranean in the west, while maintaining contact with the most influential Sumerian cities of southern Mesopotamia (e. g., Kish and Mari) and northern Syria (e. g., Tell Brak, ancient Nagar). Akkadian king Sargon destroyed the city in the 23rd century BCE during his military expedition to Syria. However, Ebla was not abandoned; the city remained inhabited until the mid-2nd millennium BCE.
During the Middle Bronze Age, Ebla was part of the kingdom of Yamkhad, with Aleppo as its capital. It was an important independent city-state, featuring a significant temple dedicated to the goddess Ishtar.
The Italian Archaeological Expedition to Syria from Sapienza University of Rome conducted excavations at Ebla from 1964 to 2010. However, due to the instability caused by the Syrian political crisis, all foreign archaeological excavations and research projects have been suspended since 2011. In June 2025, a new agreement was established between Sapienza University of Rome and the General Directorate of Antiquities and Museums of Syria for the ancient site of Ebla.
Starting in the 1990 s, the Italian Archaeological Expedition launched an intensive restoration programme, particularly focused on the ancient mudbrick structures, aimed at protecting and enhancing the archaeological site with the creation of an archaeological park, which was officially inaugurated in 2003 and 2010. Except for Areas E and F on the citadel of Tell Mardikh, where ongoing operations involved an extended excavation on the levels of the Middle and Late Bronze Age of the Royal Palace of the city from the 2nd millennium BC, the rest of the site has been restored.
Each area was equipped with protective fences and panels providing information and explanations about the nature and function of the excavated ancient buildings, presented in Italian, Arabic, and English.
Between 2011 and 2014, the site of Ebla was subjected to sporadic illicit excavations in the areas that had already been excavated, notably focusing on the Royal Palace G. The prolonged military occupation until 2019 inflicted the most significant damage upon the site. In addition to the illicit digging activities, the use of Ebla as an army camp fundamentally transformed the morphology of the site, with concrete structures adversely impacting the underlying archaeological strata. In 2020, the campaign of study and evaluation of the damages by the archaeologists and architects of the Directorate-General of Antiquities and Museums of Syria collected information on the types of damage within the excavation areas and in the parts of the site that were not investigated by the Italian expedition.
Collaborators:
Lorenzo Verderame, Mohammed AlKhalid, Licia De Vito, Andrea Discepoli, Andrea Narciso
- Bibliography
D. Nadali, 2012, Things also die. Considerations on the meaning and function of funerary furnishings in Mesopotamia and Syria, in R. Matthews et al. (eds.), Proceedings of the 7th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East, 12-16 April 2010, the British Museum and UCL, London Volume 1: Mega-cities & Mega-sites, The Archaeology of Consumption & Disposal Landscape, Transport & Communication, Wiesbaden, pp. 339-354.
D. Nadali, 2014-15, The Northern Gate at Tell Mardikh-Ebla: An Attempt at Reconstruction, AAAS 57-58, pp. 213-220.
D. Nadali, 2018, Inward/Outward: A Re-Examination of the City-Gates at Ebla, in P. Matthiae, F. Pinnock and M. D'Andrea (eds.), Ebla and Beyond Ancient Near Eastern Studies after Fifty Years of Discoveries at Tell Mardikh. Proceedings of the International Congress Held in Rome, 15th-17th December 2014, Wiesbaden, pp. 295-316.
D. Nadali, 2019, The Seal of Ishqi-Mari: Does It Represent the Defeat of Ebla?, Studia Eblaitica 5, pp. 194-200.
D. Nadali, 2020, A Soft Step and a Little Drop. On the Acoustic Experience of the Early Bronze Age Temple of the Rock at Ebla, D. Nadali and F. Pinnock (eds), Sensing the Past Detecting the Use of the Five Senses in Ancient Near Eastern Contexts Proceedings of the Conference Held in Rome, Sapienza University, June 4th, 2018, Harrassowitz-Verlag,
Wiesbaden, pp. 59-83.
D. Nadali, 2021, The Seal of the Princess? Hypothesis on an Old Syrian Cylinder Seal from Ebla, Studia Eblaitica 7, pp. 197-203.
D. Nadali, 2021, To See or Not to See. The Issue of Visuality in Ancient Near Eastern Art Images of Queens, High Priestesses, and Other Elite Women in the 3rd Millennium BC, in R. Del Fabbro, F. M. Fales, H. D. Galter (eds), Headscarf and Veiling. Glimpses from Sumer to Islam (Antichistica 30 | Studi orientali 12), Venezia, pp. 101-118.
D. Nadali e F. Pinnock, 2018, Far from the River: Physical and Metaphorical Use of the Territory and Its Water Resources in Early and Middle Bronze Age Syria, in M. Frangipane and L.R. Manzanilla (eds), Rethinking Urbanization and Its Living Landscapes from the Inspiring Perspective of a Great Maestro. In Memory of Robert McC. Adams (Origini XLII-2), Roma, pp. 148-176.
Paolo Matthiae, Nazir Awad, Davide Nadali, Houmam Saad and Frances Pinnock, 2022, Ebla, Ten Years After: An Assessment of the Damages, Studia Eblaitica, pp. 1-27.
Davide Nadali, 2023, Ebla. Dieci anni dopo il ritorno, Archeologia Viva n. 217 gennaio/febbraio 2023, pp. 18-25.
Davide Nadali, 2023, How to Deal with Adobe Architecture in the Ancient Near East: The Case of Ebla in Syria, Heritage 2023, 6(2), 1856-1870.
Davide Nadali, 2024, The Terracotta Army? Notes on Some Clay Figurines from Ebla, in Elisabetta Cianfanelli and Fiammetta Gori (eds), níg-ba dub-sar mah. Studies on Ebla and the Ancient Near East presented to Amalia Catagnoti (Documenta Asiana XIV), Roma, pp. 301-310.
Davide Nadali, 2024, Old Syrian Palace Seals from Ebla: A Reassessment of the Evidence, Studia Eblaitica 10 (2024), pp. 119-146.
Further details about this research:
- Research type: Sapienza "Grandi Scavi"
- Location of the excavation: Ebla – Syria
- Research topic: Archaeology
- Fundings: Grandi Scavi di Ateneo, Ministero degli Affari Esteri e della Cooperazione Italian
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