Mari

   Variously a city, city-state, and small kingdom situated along the upper reaches of the Euphrates River in what is now eastern Syria. The site of Mari (modern Tell al-Hariri) was occupied at least by the fourth millennium b.c., and a substantial town thrived there by the early third millennium b.c. In the late 2300s b.c. Sargon of Akkad used Mari as a base from which to launch some of his military campaigns. After the decline of Akkad, the city became subject to the Third Dynasty of Ur.

   In the wake of the Third Dynasty of Ur's own decline at the close of the third millennium b.c., Amorites settled in Mari and ushered in its heyday of power and influence, spanning the period from about 2000 to 1800 b.c. During these years the city controlled one of the main trade routes leading from Mesopotamia into Syria-Palestine, and its kings had an effective army to enforce that control and to defend the city. Mari was also a center of art and culture in this period. Eventually Shamshi-Adad, an Amorite king of Assyria, captured Mari and installed his son, Iasmah-Adad, as king there. The last native king of Mari, Zimri-Lim (reigned ca. 1775-1761 b.c.), greatly expanded the local palace. But before he could expand the kingdom he was defeated by Babylonia's King Hammurabi, who burned and destroyed Mari.

   The site of Mari then steadily faded from view until modern times. The city was rediscovered in 1933 by some Arab grave diggers, and soon a team of French archaeologists led by Andre Parrot began excavations. Another Frenchman, Jean-claude Margueron, took over the digs in 1978. The excavators found that the fire set by Hammurabi's soldiers had preserved large sections of the city's mud-brick walls. The diggers also discovered more than twenty thousand clay tablets bearing writing in cuneiform, including many letters written by Zimri-Lim and other Marian rulers.

   See also: Iasmah-Adad; letters; Shamshi-Adad; Zimri-Lim