Ancient city excavated at the site of Tell Mardikh on the River Orontes in Syria. Recent excavations have yielded evidence of the previously unknown language and history of a powerful state of the 3rd millennium BC. Although the site was occupied from the 4th millennium BC onwards the period of its greatest wealth and power was in thc mid 3rd millennium; a large royal palace of this period has yielded an archive of more than 15,000 clay tablets inscribed in the cuneiform script in two languages, Sumerian and the local language, a Semitic tongue now labelled Eblaitc. Work is still continuing on the tablets, but they have already revealed a wealth of information about the economy, political organization and religion of Ebla.