While studying the types of materials exchanged between the kingdoms of Ebla and Dugurasu, Biga proposed (2012) that Dugurasu could be identified as a place in the Delta of the Nile. She also proposed to identify the city of DUlu—from which almost the same materials came to Ebla and had a role of intermediary between Ebla and Dugurasu—with Byblos, as already proposed by Pettinato at the beginning of Eblaite studies. These proposals, positively received by some scholars, were questioned by Archi, who argued that Dugurasu is to be sought in Iran and DUlu in Anatolia. These issues are important for the history of the relationships between Syria and Egypt; for this reason, Biga and Steinkeller recently (2021) offered a systematic examination of the data bearing on the question of Dugurasu’s identity and location. The present paper presents a synthesis of the main points in Biga and Steinkeller’s article. The recently proposed identification of the presence of monkeys among the goods arriving in Ebla solely from Dugurasu and DUlu is another strong point in favor of the proposed identifications. Thus, monkeys must be studied in much detail in the Ebla texts. This is the topic of a new article (Biga and Steinkeller, in preparation), with all the data pointing to the identification of DUlu with the city of Byblos.
lapis lazuli; tin, silver; Dugurasu; DUlu; linen; elephant ivory; hippopotamus ivory; monkeys
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