The Ebla archives
A Syrian palace archive of 17,000 tablets, baked by fire
In 1974–75 Paolo Matthiae's Italian team found some 17,000 clay tablets and fragments from the 24th century BC in the royal palace of Ebla. They hold accounts, treaties and Sumerian–Eblaite word lists. The fire that destroyed the palace baked the clay and preserved one of the world's oldest archives.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 24th century BC
Alive at the time
- Sargon of Akkad (aged 10)