Eblaite language
Encyclopedia
Eblaite is an extinct Semitic language, which was spoken in the 3rd millennium BC
in the ancient city of Ebla
, at Tell Mardikh (تل مرديخ), between Aleppo
and Hama, in western modern Syria
.
The language is known from about 5,000 tablets
written with cuneiform script
which were found between 1974 and 1976 in the ruins of the city of Ebla. The tablets were first translated by Giovanni Pettinato.
Eblaite is an Eastern Semitic language like Akkadian
, indeed it may be identical to pre-Sargonic Akkadian.
3rd millennium BC
The 3rd millennium BC spans the Early to Middle Bronze Age.It represents a period of time in which imperialism, or the desire to conquer, grew to prominence, in the city states of the Middle East, but also throughout Eurasia, with Indo-European expansion to Anatolia, Europe and Central Asia. The...
in the ancient city of Ebla
Ebla
Ebla Idlib Governorate, Syria) was an ancient city about southwest of Aleppo. It was an important city-state in two periods, first in the late third millennium BC, then again between 1800 and 1650 BC....
, at Tell Mardikh (تل مرديخ), between Aleppo
Aleppo
Aleppo is the largest city in Syria and the capital of Aleppo Governorate, the most populous Syrian governorate. With an official population of 2,301,570 , expanding to over 2.5 million in the metropolitan area, it is also one of the largest cities in the Levant...
and Hama, in western modern Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
.
The language is known from about 5,000 tablets
Ebla tablets
The Ebla tablets are a collection of as many as 1800 complete clay tablets, 4700 fragments and many thousand minor chips found in the palace archives of the ancient city of Ebla, Syria. The tablets were discovered by Italian archaeologist Paolo Matthiae and his team in 1974–75 during their...
written with cuneiform script
Cuneiform script
Cuneiform script )) is one of the earliest known forms of written expression. Emerging in Sumer around the 30th century BC, with predecessors reaching into the late 4th millennium , cuneiform writing began as a system of pictographs...
which were found between 1974 and 1976 in the ruins of the city of Ebla. The tablets were first translated by Giovanni Pettinato.
Eblaite is an Eastern Semitic language like Akkadian
Akkadian language
Akkadian is an extinct Semitic language that was spoken in ancient Mesopotamia. The earliest attested Semitic language, it used the cuneiform writing system derived ultimately from ancient Sumerian, an unrelated language isolate...
, indeed it may be identical to pre-Sargonic Akkadian.