The fourth and final volume in the series Eblaitica: Essays on the Ebla Archives and Eblaite Language embodies eight cogent essays by a variety of specialists. Of particular interest in this issue is the second part of Michael Astour's history of Ebla. Contributors include Alfonso Archi, Michael C. Astour, Cyrus H. Gordon, Gary A. Rendsburg, Robert R. Stieglitz, and Al Wolters.

The fourth and final volume in the series Eblaitica: Essays on the Ebla Archives and Eblaite Language embodies eight cogent essays by a variety of specialists. Of particular interest in this issue is the second part of Michael Astour’s history of Ebla. Contributors include Alfonso Archi, Michael C. Astour, Cyrus H. Gordon, Gary A. Rendsburg, Robert R. Stieglitz, and Al Wolters.

In Ebla , Paolo Matthiae presents the results of 47 years of excavations at this fascinating site, providing a detailed account of Ebla’s history and archaeology. Ebla grew from a small Early Bronze Age settlement into an important trading and political centre, which endured until its final destruction in c. 1600 BC . The destruction of its royal palace c. 2300 BC was particularly significant as it preserved the city’s rich archives, offering a wealth of information on its history, economy, religion, administration, and daily life. The discovery of Ebla is a pivotal moment in the history of archaeological investigations of the twentieth century, and this book is the result of all the excavation campaigns at Tell Mardikh- Ebla from 1964 until 2010, when field operations stopped due to the war in Syria. Available for the first time in English, Ebla offers a complete account of one of the largest pre-classical urban centres by its discoverer, making it an essential resource for students of Ancient Near Eastern archaeology and history.

This large, 2-volume work presents more than 50 authoritative articles by leading specialists on a wide variety of ancient, medieval, and modern languages and dialects of the greater Near East and Africa, from a variety of language families. The articles are concise descriptive narratives presenting the basics of the phonology of the languages and dialects, with an emphasis on the phonological processes operative in them. A major goal of the work is a definite statement on the language and/or dialect in question with regard to genetics, typology, and/or universal elements. Of interest to general linguists as well as those specializing in Afro-Asiatic languages.

For over threescore years Cyrus H. Gordon's scholarship and teaching have provided new directions to the study of the ancient Near East. This collection of 34 essays in honour of his 90th birthday, edited by three of his former pupils, celebrates his fascinating and remarkable achievements and reflects his broad command of ancient studies. The global impact of his research can be seen from the geographical dispersion of the outstanding scholars who have written here on the following topics: archaeology, Bible studies, Ugaritic, Aramaic, Arabic, Egypto-Semitic, the cuneiform world, Indo-European, Samaritan, the Graeco-Roman world, mediaeval studies. The inclusion of a complete bibliography of Gordon's works is of singular value.

The Semitic Languages presents a unique, comprehensive survey of individual languages or language clusters from their origins in antiquity to their present-day forms. The Semitic family occupies a position of great historical and linguistic significance: the spoken and written languages of the Phoenicians, Hebrews and Arabs spread throughout Asia and northern and central Africa; the Old Semitic civilizations in turn contributed significantly to European culture; and modern Hebrew, modern literary Arabic, Amharic, and Tigrinya have become their nations' official languages. The book is divided into three parts and each chapter presents a self-contained article, written by a recognized expert in the field. * I. General Issues: providing an introduction to the grammatical traditions, subgrouping and writing systems of this language family. * II. Old Semitic Languages * III. Modern Semitic Languages Parts II and III contain structured chapters, which enable the reader to access and compare information easily. These individual descriptions of each language or cluster include phonology, morphology, syntax, lexis and dialects. Suggestions are made for the most useful sources of further reading and the work is comprehensively indexed.

Detailed historical and archaeological essays give insight into the many people groups who interacted with and influenced ancient Israel.

A comprehensive biblical reference includes a wide range of articles about people, places, customs, events, religious concepts, and philosophical ideas mentioned in the Scriptures.

The discovery of 17,000 tablets at the mid-third millennium BC site of Ebla in Syria has revolutionized the study of the ancient Near East. This is the first major English-language volume describing the multidisciplinary archaeological research at Ebla. Using an innovative regional landscape approach, the 29 contributions to this expansive volume examine Ebla in its regional context through lenses of archaeological, textual, archaeobiological, archaeometric, geomorphological, and remote sensing analysis. In doing so, they are able to provide us with a detailed picture of the constituent elements and trajectories of early state development at Ebla, essential to those studying the ancient Near East and to other archaeologists, historians, anthropologists, and linguists. This work was made possible by an IDEAS grant from the European Research Council.

The book Presargonic Period (2700-2350 BC) provides editions of all known royal inscriptions of kings who ruled in ancient Mesopotamia down to the advent of King Sargon of Akkad. Most of the inscriptions come from the city states of Lagsh and Umma; inscriptions from other sites are rather poorly attested. The volume includes a handful of new inscriptions recently uncovered in Iraq. Information on museum numbers, excavation numbers, provenances, dimensions, and lines preserved in the various exemplars are displayed for multi-exemplar texts in an easy-to-read tabular form. Also included in several commentary sections are notes on the find-spots of the inscriptions from Lagas and references about various toponymns to be discussed in a forthcoming study of the author on the geography of Lagas and Umma provinces. Indexes of museum numbers, excavation numbers, and concordances of selected publications complete the volume.