Exploiting Diversity: Archaeological Site in the Ebla Region

Since the beginning of the activities of the Italian Archaeological Expedition in Syria (MAIS) of the Sapienza University of Rome headed by Paolo Matthiae, fifty years ago, only some preliminary investigations were carried out to study the archaeological landscape around Tell Mardikh/Ebla. A new program of investigations has therefore been deemed necessary to frame the history of this major centre within its surroundings. The data available from previous surveys carried out in this region have been combined here with those available through remote sensing analyses (see also Galiatsatos and Mantellini, in this volume) and topographical maps, in order to provide a preliminary inventory of the archaeological sites spread across the Eblaite chora. This inventory allows a preliminary analysis of the settlement patterns in the region during the Early Bronze Age. A brief overview then deals with the main datasets employed in the detection of sites, according to an approach employed in most of the other archaeological regional surveys in the northern Levant (see Mantellini, in this volume)