Tuba , west of the Euphrates , was probably allied with the more dominant city-state Ebla , where archaeologists in recent decades have uncovered remains of imposing architecture and a library filled with clay tablets bearing cuneiform texts on northern Syria 's economy and diplomacy in the middle of the third millennium B.C . '' The tombs are an extraordinary find , '' said Richard L. Zettler , a University of Pennsylvania archaeologist who excavates other Bronze Age sites in Syria and is familiar with but not involved in the Umm el-Marra research .