The Standard of the maliktum of Ebla in the Royal Archives Period

In a peripheral room of the Administrative Quarter of the Royal Palace G at Ebla, Early Bronze IVA (ca. 2400-2300 BC), two miniature statues of females were found on the floor: one is a standing figure of silver, steatite, and wood, and the other one is a seated figure of gold, steatite, limestone, and wood. These nearly intact images are masterpieces of the miniature art of the very end of Early Dynastic IIIB, and probably belonged to a precious ceremonial standard of an Ebla queen. The proposal is that the standard represented the homage paid by queen Tabur-Damu, the last Ebla king Ishar-Damu's wife, to a funerary statue of the deceased queen mother Dusigu.