古叙利亚埃勃拉城邦的文化与族群归属

Culture and Ethnic Affiliation of Ebla in Ancient Syria

地中海东岸是古代两河流域文明和古埃及文明的交汇之处,历来是不同文化和族群交融的地区。公元前三千纪中期,叙利亚北部的埃勃拉城邦蓬勃发展,为后世留下了丰富的文献资料。虽然叙利亚—巴勒斯坦地区一直被视作西北闪米特人的聚居地,但埃勃拉在语言、文字、宗教、艺术等诸多领域都具有明显的东闪米特特征。与此同时,埃勃拉文化也包含诸多西北闪米特乃至非闪米特元素。埃勃拉的文化和族群归属问题是分析早期文明传播与族群迁移间关系的一个经典案例。通过分析埃勃拉的语言、众神、人名、艺术等古代族群身份特征的体现,本文认为埃勃拉在整体上应被视作一个长期受到周边西北闪米特文化影响的东闪米特族群。这种以东闪米特元素为基础的混合性是理解埃勃拉文化和族群归属问题的关键。

The Eastern Mediterranean region was the crossroad of the Mesopotamian and the Egyptian civilizations and it has been the place where different cultures and ethnic groups cohabited and interacted.In the middle of the third millennium BC,the city-state of Ebla in northern Syria flourished,leaving a wealth of literature for academic research.Although the east coast of the Mediterranean has always been regarded as the settlement of the Northwest Semites,Ebla has obvious Eastern Semitic characteristics in many fields such as language,writing,religion,and art.At the same time,Ebla culture also brought together many Northwest Semitic and non-Semitic elements.Ebla’s culture and ethnic group affiliation is a classic case of analyzing the relationship between the spread of early civilization and ethnic migration.This article analyzes Ebla’s language,beliefs,names,art and other ancient ethnic identity characteristics,and believes that Ebla should still be regarded as an Eastern Semitic group as a whole,but it has been extensively influenced by the surrounding Northwest Semitic culture for a long time since its early historical development.This hybridity based on East Semitic elements has become the key to understanding Ebola’s culture and ethnic affiliation.