8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Research on Ebla in the pop press at the end of the 70's, April 5, 2000
This review is from: Ebla: A revelation in archeology (Hardcover)
Chaim Bermant and Michael Weitzman summarized the situation at Ebla (=Tell Mardikh) at the end of the 1970's. The rage about Biblical characters being in the tablets had subsided; Pettinato was replaced by Archi; ARES and ARET were still being written. Over all, it was a good review for the average reader for a archaeological expedition that continues to mount in excitement for us armchair diggers. They give the history starting in 1964 with Matthiae, then the statue in 68-69 with the first glimmer of identification, then the archives being found in 74-76. The making of two grammars for the new language by Pettinato (74) and Archi (81) is covered. The relevancy to other Ancient Near East languages like Akkadian, Amorite, Babylonian, Sumerian, Hurrian, Aramaic, Hebrew, Arabic, etc., is touched upon.
I'm not an Eblaitologist or even a scholar, but Ebla fascinates me. This is an easier treatment than Matthiae (76) or Pettinato (75 or 91). The Pettinato (91) is more reasoned as you would expect after 15 years of research than either of the other preceding 3.
It is a good book. The bibliography is more popular than scholarly. Pettinato (91) does cover the development of the last 25 years in bibliography. If you like archaeology, library science (Ebla has the first bilingual dictionary), the Ancient Near East, or paleo-Syrian history, I would recommend you read this book.
marc_bauer@yahoo.com
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