The Royal Tombs of Ebla and Byblos and the Chronology of the Middle Bronze Age
Lorenzo Nigro

To overcome the gap from relative chronology (i.e. stratigraphy and material culture sequences and typologies) to absolute chronology is a chimera? The synchronisation of Egypt, Syria-Palestine and Mesopotamia is a goal which archaeologists try to achieve comparing material culture and diagnostic indicators. However, neither pottery, scarabs, figurines, metal objects, nor compared stratigraphy allow the jump to absolute dating. Only inscribed items, bearing the names of historical personages may be used to synchronise the macro-cultural areas of the ancient Near East. The Levant is the region which has more chances of providing such clues to fix a reliable absolute chronology. A weak, but interesting, contribution springs out from the correlation of some well-known fixed chronological pinpoints offered by the Royal Tombs of Byblos and Ebla. The attempt shows that if not absolute chronology, at least relative periodization may be correlated in the light of recent scientific results of the Roman School of Near Eastern Archaeology at Ebla and Jericho.