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The Offences of Ib’al against Ebla: A New Edition of ARET 13, 13
During the past five years, the authors of the present study have been intensely occupied with grammar, lexicon and contents of the Eblaite “chancery texts” – a highly informative, yet seriously underinvestigated group of thematically heterogeneous compositions published as part of ARET 13, 16 and 18. The present article is the second in a series of studies aiming at a detailed, comprehensive re-edition of texts dealing with Ebla’s troublesome international relations. The text under scrutiny relates Ebla’s vision of the ambiguous behavior of the Ib’al tribal confederation, changing loyalties between Ebla and its major adversary, the kingdom of Mari. After a brief historical and geographical introduction to the Ib’al question, an annotated edition of ARET 13, 13 is offered to the readers’ attention.