The Ebla Chancery Texts in the Light of Recent Linguistic Research

The article aims at establishing new, more reliable meanings and functions for a number of lexical and semi-grammatical elements of Eblaite (Syrian East Semitic). The so-called “chancery texts”, first published by Pelio Fronzaroli and Amalia Catagnoti as ARET 13, 16 and 18, are in the focus of the analysis. While feasible contextual interpretation is an absolute priority for the present authors, other (notably, comparative) methods are also used when applicable. As a result, a substantial progress in our understanding of these exceedingly difficult documents is expected to be achieved.