Indilimma, previously read Indilimgur, was likely the last king of

Ebla Ebla ( Sumerian: ''eb₂-la'', ar, إبلا, modern: , Tell Mardikh) was one of the earliest kingdoms in Syria. Its remains constitute a tell located about southwest of Aleppo near the village of Mardikh. Ebla was an important center t ...

, in modern Syria, reigning around 1600 BCE.

Reign

Indilimma was the son of Sir-Damu according to a seal of his discovered in Cilicia. He is also known from several

jar A jar is a rigid, cylindrical or slightly conical container, typically made of glass, ceramic, or plastic, with a wide mouth or opening that can be closed with a lid, screw cap, lug cap, cork stopper, roll-on cap, crimp-on cap, press-on c ...

s bearing the impression of a

cylinder seal A cylinder seal is a small round cylinder, typically about one inch (2 to 3 cm) in length, engraved with written characters or figurative scenes or both, used in ancient times to roll an impression onto a two-dimensional surface, generally ...

of his son, the

crown prince A crown prince or hereditary prince is the heir apparent to the throne in a royal or imperial monarchy. The female form of the title is crown princess, which may refer either to an heiress apparent or, especially in earlier times, to the wi ...

Maratewari. The seal impressions are of high quality and show inspirations from the art of the kingdom of

Yamhad Yamhad was an ancient Semitic people, Semitic kingdom centered on Aleppo, Ḥalab (Aleppo), Syria. The kingdom emerged at the end of the 19th century BC, and was ruled by the Yamhad dynasty, Yamhadite dynasty kings, who counted on both military ...

. On the seals, Indilimma's son is depicted while receiving life (in the form of an ancient Egyptian ''

ankh Progressive ankylosis protein homolog (ANK ilosis H omolog) is a protein that in humans is encoded by the ''ANKH'' gene. This gene encodes a multipass transmembrane protein that is expressed in joints and other tissues and controls pyrophosphat ...

'' symbol) by the Yamhadite deities Hadad and Hebat.Matthiae (2010), pp. 318-19
The fact that these jars were found within the

archaeological context This page is a glossary of archaeology, the study of the human past from material remains. A B C D E F ...

of the final destruction of Ebla, which occurred around 1600 BCE by the hands of the Hittite king

Mursili I Mursili I (also known as Mursilis; sometimes transcribed as Murshili) was a king of the Hittites 1620-1590 BC, as per the middle chronology, the most accepted chronology in our times, (or alternatively c. 1556–1526 BC, short chronology), and w ...

, suggested to Paolo Matthiae that Maratewari had no time to become king and that his father Indilimma was indeed the last ruler of palaeosyrian Ebla. Alfonso Archi argued that Maratewari (whose name reading is not certain and Archi gives it as ''Memal...arri'') was the last king and noted that Maratewari was not mentioned as king on his seal but neither was Indilimma on his seal from Cilicia. For Archi, the lack of the royal title does not mean that both father and son were not kings, but it is just a sign of subordination to

, the hegemonic kingdom of Northern Syria during the seventeenth century BCE. Indilimma's name also appears on a legal document found in the western palace at Ebla.

References

Kings of Ebla 17th-century BC monarchs 17th-century BC people {{ANE-bio-stub