The Relief Art of Northern Syria in the Middle Bronze Age: the Alsdorf Stele and Some Sculptures from Karkemish

The problem of the origins of the North-Syrian relief art remained unchanged until at least the 1960s with the excavations at Tell mardikh which led to the identification if the ancient city of Ebla, in northern Syria.Fieldwork and critical studies inspiredby it progressively demonstrated the existence, from at least the first centuries of II millenium BC of a figurative language which was advaned and largely autonomous of the contemporary artistic production of mesopotamia. Stele Alsdorf and Some reliefs from karkemish re-dated to the Middle Bronze Age