Ishtar's Temple/Temple D on the Acropolis (Tell Mardikh/ancient Ebla)

Temple D on the Acropolis is an imposing temple building erected in the ancient city of Ebla (present-day Tell Mardikh), the most important cult building within the Citadel of the Old Syrian town. It dates back to c. 2000–1600 BCE (in the traditional middle chronology), the Middle Bronze I–II of north-western inland Syria chronology. It was the dynastic sanctuary dedicated to the great Ishtar, the city goddess and the patron goddess of the Old Syrian kings of Ebla during the age of the Amorite Dynasties. This is testified by fragments of monumental furniture that portray the great goddess and her attributes, found inside and outside the temple: a limestone double basin still in place within the temple, with mythical and ritual depictions in relief on three of the sides; a second fragmentary basalt basin from inside the temple; and two basalt votive monuments which probably stood in the open air in front of the sanctuary, the lshtar's Stele discovered in 1986 and the lshtar's Obelisk, partially recovered and reconstructed from two large fragments in 2006. As far as written evidence is concerned, Temple D on the Acropolis is the one mentioned in the inscription carved on lbbit-Lim's basalt statue (found reused at a short distance from the facade of the temple), which commemorates the dedication to the goddess Ishtar of a basin (perhaps one of the two found inside the temple). The temple was probably erected during the first decades of the second millennium BCE. It stood along the western edge of the fortified Acropolis, over a large mudbrick terrace which enclosed the levelled ruins of the previous Early Bronze IVA Kura's Temple in the SA.ZA. The building (some 30 m long and 11.50 m wide), facing south, had a longitudinal, axial, tripartite structure (with vestibule, antecella and cella), with an entrance delimitated by projecting antae: a layout that from now on will characterize the palatine and dynastic temples in the Levant, erected in the citadels close to royal palaces. It featured a quite short vestibule preceded by two steps (L.213), an equally short antecella (L.211), and a marked longroom cella (L.202), 12.40 m long and 7.20 m wide; such a marked longitudinal development of the cella is canonical in the Middle Bronze Age temples in Ebla and inland Syria (a few exceptions can be mentioned, as the Alalakh VII Temple and the MBA Hadad's Temple in Aleppo). The cella had a low bench against the back wall, onto which opened a quite deep, almost square niche for the cult image. Several remains of important basalt and limestone cult fittings (e.g., two basins and an offering table) were found inside the cella. Moreover, the entrance to the cella probably featured basalt jambs decorated with two big carved images of lying lions. In front of the temple there was a large open space, gradually sloping towards the south, which housed monumental cult fittings, including a big limestone round basin found in situ. Ishtar's Temple on the Citadel was destroyed around 1600 BCE, when the whole Old Syrian city was devastated by a Hittite-Hurrian coalition headed by Mursili I of Hatti and Pizikarra of Nineveh (Matthiae 1981, 114–116, 130–132; 2021, pp. 198–203, 322–325).