Ibbit-Lim

The king Ibbit-Lim ("ca" 2000 B.C.) of Ebla in Syria is represented in a fragmentary basalt bust found in 1968 now at the Museum in Aleppo, where most of the findings from Ebla are kept. Some are in the local museum of the department ("mouhafazat") of Idlib, where the archaeological site of Ebla lies beneath Tel Mardikh. The votive statue bears a cuneiform inscription to Ishtar inscription of Ibbit Lim, an Amorite prince of Ebla, on its shoulder was the first evidence permitting the identification of the Tell with the ancient city of Ebla, whose location had been lost.

Sources are divided as to whether he was a king in Ebla or of Mari. A reasonable suggestion is that he ruled in Ebla as king of Mari at a time of Amorite domination of Ebla, thus placing the city under Mari's control. In any case, the inscription, corresponding to the Middle Bronze Level I period (contemporary with the end of the Third Dynasty of Ur, "ca" 2000 B.C.), allowed the site of Tell Mardikh to be identified with Ebla.