Northern Syria · Early Bronze Age
Kingdom of Ebla
An early Syrian power known mostly from its own archive
3,000 BCE – 1,600 BCE · 1,400 years
Known almost entirely from a vast clay-tablet archive that survived its city's destruction, revealing a sophisticated Bronze Age bureaucracy.
Where it sits on the calendar
Government
City-state
Writing system
Cuneiform (Eblaite)
Estimated peak population
40,000
How it ended
Invasion or conquest
Traits
Monumental architecture Bronze metallurgy Irrigation agriculture Standing army Long-distance trade Urban planning Iron metallurgy Codified law Astronomical record-keeping Seafaring
How Kingdom of Ebla ended
Destroyed, likely by Akkadian or later Amorite forces; the city was later resettled and destroyed again.
See other civilizations that fell the same way →Notable for
- A 17,000-tablet royal archive discovered largely intact
- Early evidence of a distinct Semitic dialect
- Extensive trade ledgers documenting Bronze Age commerce
Who else was alive at the same time
7 other civilizations in this dataset overlap with Kingdom of Ebla's 1,400-year span.
See every overlap involving Kingdom of Ebla →