The Case of the Rampart’s Graves at Ebla. Revised and New Data on the Early and Middle Bronze Ages

The funerary practices during the Middle Bronze Age in Ebla reveal a variety of burial customs, including pit, jar, and shast tombs, found in different areas of the site such as the rampart slopes, near and under palaces. Excavations on the western rampart have uncovered graves with a range of poery and goods, indicating a timeline from the late Early Bronze Age to the Middle Bronze Age. These graves could be correlated to a transitional phase in Ebla’s history, marked by the coexistence of Early and Middle Bronze Age poery assemblage. The construction of the ramparts and the associated burial practices might reflect a long period of social and urban transformation in Ebla driven by the migration of new groups into the city, possibly due to climatic or political changes. This transformation played a crucial role in shaping the political and cultural identity of the Middle Bronze Age in Ebla and surrounding regions. The ramparts phenomenon and the graves phenomena dug into it could belong to those new groups with eastern origins