Resources Exploitation and Handicraft Activities at Tell Mardikh-Ebla (Syria) during the Early and Middle Bronze Ages

This paper deals with a preliminary analysis of the wide range of raw materials exploited at Ebla during the Early and Middle Bronze periods, combining data from worked stone and metal objects, unworked materials, tools and implements, and working areas found at the site. Information gathered from the administrative texts of the Royal Archives are also considered in order to reconstruct the complex web of procurement and working procedures, labour allocation and exchanges attested during the Early Bronze IVA at Ebla. Some activity areas related to metalworking and pottery manufacture and a stone-working workshop dating to the Middle Bronze period are also described presenting a preliminary distribution of handicraft activities inside the town.