Early Bronze IVA weights at Tell Mardikh-Ebla. Archaeological associations and context

The peculiar condition of the Royal Palace G at Tell Mardikh-Ebla, which was destroyed at the end of the EB IVA period by the Akkadians, allows fruitful contextual analyses of the materials found in situ. The spatial distribution and stratigraphic position of the cuneiform documents inside the archive L.2769 have revealed interesting data on the internal organization of the royal archive, recording criteria and original position on the shelves. The study of the raw materials collected on the floors and in collapsed debris directly related to architectural structures has allowed to reconstruct a complex pattern of commercial interregional and international exchanges of the Early Syrian kingdom of Ebla. The evidence of several kilograms of raw lapis lazuli together with quartz, steatite and tridacna shells, used to manufacture precious objects such as the numerous inlays discovered in the palace, can be used to underline the main commercial routes towards the Iranian plateau across Northern Mesopotamia, or southwards along the Euphrates valley, and finally the relations with the coastal centers and the Egyptian cities. More than forty stone weights were found inside the royal palace; they represent a coherent group of administrative instruments, which were used either for local exchanges or for more distant economic relations, according to different systems linked to a common mina of c. 470 g with ratios 60 - 50 - 40. The recent discovery of a conical limestone pierced weight together with the remains of the wooden beam of the balance on the floor of L.2982 near several pieces of raw lapis lazuli indicates that these type of weights have been used to check the quantity of the precious blue stone.