Paolo Matthiae is Emeritus Professor of Archaeology and Art History of the Ancient Near East at Sapienza University of Rome, and Fellow of the Accademia dei Lincei (Rome), the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles- Lettres (Paris), the Akademie der Wissenschaften (Vienna), the Royal Swedish Academy (Stockholm), and the Deutsches Archäologisches Institut (Berlin). From the beginning of excavations at Tell Mardikh in 1964 to the suspension of work in 2010, he was Director of the excavations at Ebla in northern Syria.

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• 1. From Tell Mardikh to Ebla: archaeological exploration 2. Ebla and early urbanization in Syria 3. Ebla, Mari, Akkad: from city-states to empire 4. The Royal Palace in the age of the Archives space and function 5. Early Syrian religion, the Red Temple, and the Temple of the Rock 6. The State Archives: Economy, Culture, and Society 7. Artistic expressions and material culture in the mature Early Syrian period 8. The crisis in the Early Syrian world and the archaic Old Syrian renaissance 9. From Ebla to Yamkhad: the territorial states of the Amorite Age 10. Town planning and architecture in the Old Syrian city 11. Old Syrian artistic culture: originality and continuity 12. Old Syrian material culture: characteristics and development 13. From Ebla to Tell Mardikh: decline of a great urban centre