Abarsal was a city-state of Mesopotamia in the area of the Euphrates. The city was contested by the greater powers of Mari and Ebla in the Early Bronze Age. Its location is unknown.
Location The site of Tell Chuera has been suggested.Archi, Alfonso, "Wars at the Time of Irkab-damu, King of Ebla", Studia Eblaitica 5, pp. 1-13, 2019 In the area north of Carchemish and at the site of Til Barsip have also been proposed.Catagnoti, A. and Bonechi, M., "‘Ha‑zu/ su‑wa‑an’ nei testi di Ebla", Nabu, pp. 23‑24, 1990Astour, Michael C., "A Reconstruction of the History of Ebla (Part 2)", Eblaitica: Essays on the Ebla Archives and Eblaite Language, Volume 4, edited by Cyrus H. Gordon and Gary A. Rendsburg, University Park, USA: Penn State University Press, pp. 57-196, 2002 More recently Tall Bazi has been suggested.Winters, R.D., "Negotiating Exchange: Ebla and the International System of the Early Bronze Age", PhD Thesis, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 2018
History Very little is known of the history of the town.Textos para un Historia política de Siria-Palestina, per Joan Oliva.
Early Bronze IIIB Around 2420 BC, Iblul-Il was called King of Mari Abarsal. Vizier of Ebla Ibrium (24th-century BC) campaigned against the city of Abarsal during the time of vizier Arrukum.Mario Liverani (2013). The Ancient Near East: History, Society and Economy. p. 119.
Early Bronze IVA The Treaty between Ebla and Abarsal has been discovered in Ebla archives.
References
Further reading
Archi, A., "The Chronology of Ebla and Synchronisms with Abarsal, Tuttul, Nagar and Nabada, Mari, Kish", In W. Sallaberger and I. Schrakamp (eds.): ARCANE. Associated Regional Chronologies for the Ancient Near East. Vol. 3: History & Philology. Brepols. Turnhout, pp. 163‒179, 2015 Archi, A., "La ville d’Abarsal", in M. Lebeau and Ph. Talon (eds.): Reflets des deux fleuves. Mélanges offerts à André Finet. Peeters. Louvain, pp. 15‑19, 1989 Fuensanta, Jesús Gil, Alfredo Mederos Martín, and Otabek Uktamovich Muminov, "On the Northern frontier of the Ebla Kingdom during the Early Bronze Age IVA. The Birecik Valley and the Kingdom of Abarsal in the left bank of the Middle Turkish Euphrates", Cuadernos de Prehistoria y Arqueología de la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid 50.1, pp. 81-107, 2024