Nadene Goldfoot
In Syria, we find the ancient city of Ebla, a place where 20,000 clay tablets with writing have been found telling us about the ancient history of that place.
Tell Mardikh — Ebla, written by Faja Haj Muhammad that gives a short presentation of the history and remains of the kingdom of ancient Ebla. I will share a couple of photos with some brief info from that book. The first photo shows the reconstruction of the Palace of the Crown Prince (Palace Q or Western Palace). This palace, built of mud brick, is “located in the lower town, west of the Acropolis.” In the portion of the palace shown here you will see “a well preserved room, used for the grinding of cereals, in order to prepare bread for hundreds of persons.”
Also, the city that Abram came from UR, also had clay tablets. "About 1,100 of the tablets date from the period of the Third Dynasty of Ur, (ca. 2112–2004 BCE). They were discovered in the administrative archives of 2 towns in southern Mesopotamia, Umma and Puzrish-Dagan.
Syria (Aram) originally was vastly huge. Aram, Ancient country, Middle East, southwestern Asia. It extended eastward from the Anti-Lebanon Mountains to beyond the Euphrates River. It was named for the Aramaeans, who emerged from the Syrian desert to invade Syria and Upper Mesopotamia (c. 11th century BCE) and who built numerous city-kingdoms, including Damascus. It lends its name to the Aramaic language.
First Kingdoms: The Forgotten Mesopotamian Kingdom of Ebla
Ebla, modern Tall Mardīkh, also spelled Tell Mardikh, ancient city 33 miles (53 km) southwest of Aleppo in northwestern Syria. During the height of its power (c. 2600–2240 BCE), Ebla dominated northern Syria, Lebanon, and parts of northern Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) and enjoyed trade and diplomatic relations with states as far away as Egypt, Iran, and Sumer.
Isaiah 7:2 (CJB) It was told to the house of David that Aram (Syria) and Efrayim (Ephraim, younger son of Joseph, the hill country in central Eretz Yisrael noted for its fertility with Solomon's son,, Jeroboam, from there-1st king after Solomon's death) (had become allies with Aram, an enemy. Achaz's heart began to tremble, as did the hearts of his people, like forest trees shaken by the wind. In (Gen.10:22) we learn that Aram and Israel had a common ancestry and the Israelite patriarch were of Aramaic origin and maintained ties of marriage with the tribes of Aram.
Jewish comments: "Ebla is a site in northern Syria (Tel Mardikh) where an ancient royal archive was discovered, consisting of over 15,000 tablets written in Sumerian and a language similar to ancient Akkadian. They date back from the mid-third millennium BCE. while only a few texts have been published, it is apparent that they are of great value for biblical texts and throw new light on the early history of the Land of Israel."
Ebla maintained its prosperity through a vast trading network. Artifacts from Sumer, Cyprus, Egypt and as far as Afghanistan were recovered from the city's palaces. The kingdom had its own language, Eblaite, and the political organization of Ebla had features different from the Sumerian model.
Women enjoyed a special status, and the queen had major influence in the state and religious affairs. The pantheon of gods was mainly north Semitic and included deities exclusive to Ebla. The city was excavated starting in 1964 and became famous for the Ebla tablets, an archive of about 20,000 cuneiform tablets found there, dated to around 2350 bcE. Written in both Sumerian and Eblaite and using the cuneiform, the archive has allowed a better understanding of the Sumerian language and provided important information over the political organization and social customs of the mid-3rd millennium bcE's Levant.
At the beginning of the process of deciphering the tablets, Giovanni Pettinato made claims about a possible connections between Ebla and the Bible, citing an alleged references in the tablets to the existence of Yahweh, the Patriarchs, Sodom and Gomorrah and other Biblical references. However, much of the initial media excitement about a supposed Eblaite connections with the Bible, based on preliminary guesses and speculations by Pettinato and others, is now widely discredited and the academic consensus is that Ebla "has no bearing on the Minor Prophets, the historical accuracy of the Biblical Patriarchs, Yahweh worship, or Sodom and Gomorrah".
In Ebla studies, the focus has shifted away from comparisons with the Bible; Ebla is now studied as a civilization in its own right. The claims led to a bitter personal and academic conflict between the scholars involved, as well as what so described as political interference by the Syrian authorities. I'm not surprised that that the non-religious element refuses to
see any connection. If there is at least a 51% possibility, it
should be considered. DNA below, shows a connection that
Jews have to Ebla.
According to ancient DNA analyses conducted by Skourtanioti et al. (2020) on 10 human remains from Tel Mardikh from Early and Middle Bronze age, the inhabitants of the kingdom of Ebla were a mixture of Copper age Levantines and Mesopotamians, and were genetically similar to contemporary Levantines from Alalakh and Sidon.
One Early Bronze Age (2700-2500 BC) individual carried haplogroup E1b1b1b2a-M123, a lineage likely linked to the diffusion of Afroasiatic languages. This is pretty exciting because many Jews tested carry E-L117. the YDNA haplogroup E-L117 (if that has not also changed) has undergone several name changes, and is still often referred to as 'E1b1b1' or even 'E-3b'. Google those 'E codes' and all becomes clear, as there are numerous references to the Jewish link to the haplogroup including http://e1b1b1-m35.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/e1b1b1-jewish-haplogroup.html .
In a nutshell, the group's origins had previously been assumed to have arose in East Africa and the haplogroup was often incorrectly described as African, leaving a misimpression regarding the origin and complex history of this haplogroup. According to the International Society of Genetic Genealogy (ISOGG) and National Geographic's Genographic Project, E1b1b1 may have arisen instead in the Near East or the Middle East, and then expanded into the Mediterranean with the spread of agriculture.Another Early Bronze age (2572-2470 cal BCE) individual belonged to J1a2a1a2-P58, while four Middle Bronze Age (2000-1800 BC) individuals carried haplogroups G2a, J1a2a1a2-P58, and the West Asian T1a1-L162 which was present since the middle PPNB Levant. Jews have been found to carry J1 (Cohen gene), and G.
Resource:
https://www.britannica.com/place/Ebla
https://ferrelljenkins.blog/2011/05/25/the-golden-age-of-ebla-%E2%80%94-before-the-biblical-patriarchs/
https://groups.jewishgen.org/g/main/topic/70311032
https://www.biblestudytools.com/isaiah/7-2-compare.html
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