Family Matters. For an Interoperable Approach to the Study of Eblaite Society

The administrative tablets from Ebla's Great Archive L.2769 primarily document the activities of the royal family, emphasizing their central role in palace administration. While these records focus on the ruling elite, they also mention numerous other individuals, often from distant regions, whose precise administrative relationships remain ambiguous. Eblaite scribes typically identified people by name and patronymic, occasionally substituting the latter with geographical origins. A limited set of primary kinship terms was used, with formal identification being unnecessary for familiar individuals. Notably, the prevalent use of Sumerian for accounting purposes has limited the presence of kinship terminology, offering minimal cultural information. To advance the study of Ebla sources, an integrated and interoperable ecosystem is essential. This approach requires a seamless connection between textual/epigraphic and prosopographical datasets, enhancing our understanding of socio-historical information. Interoperability, facilitated by semantic annotation and supported by a structured ontology, is crucial for enabling effective communication and information sharing between these datasets.