In 1974 and 1975 the Italian archaeologist Paolo Matthiae and his team, excavating the mound of Tell Mardikh in northern Syria, found in the burnt ruins of a royal palace an archive of about 17,000 clay tablets from around 2400 to 2300 BC. The city was Ebla, a large and rich Bronze Age state not previously known, which traded with Mesopotamia and Egypt and had a population of about 30,000. The tablets, in cuneiform script, record administration, trade, and diplomacy and contain the oldest known Semitic language other than Akkadian, Eblaite. The palace was destroyed about 2300 BC, possibly by the Akkadian kings Sargon or Naram-Sin.
Before and after
- 1974Establishment of Gunung Mulu National Park
- 1974Origins of Raelism
- from 1974 to 1989Dirty War
- 1974Founding of Grenada
- 1974The Ebla tablets are found in Syria
- 1974Stephen Hawking predicts that black holes radiate
- 19 January 1974Battle of the Paracel Islands
- 30 January 1974Birth of Christian Bale
- March 1974The Terracotta Army is discovered
More in Civilizations & archaeology
- 1947The Dead Sea Scrolls are found
- 27 February 1967Founding of Saint Kitts and Nevis
- 1 March 1967Founding of Saint Lucia
- 4 February 1970Origins of Pripyat
- 1979Founding of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
- 19 September 1991Otzi the Iceman is found
The era
This moment belongs to the Contemporary world (1945 CE to today), the world since 1945. You can also browse everything in the 20th century.