Mari
Topic: Bronze Age Civilisations: Mesopotamia, Egypt, China · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 1 "Writing and City Life"
Meaning
Mari was a royal capital on the Euphrates River, upstream from the farming south. It flourished after c. 2000 BCE in an area where most land was used for grazing sheep and goats. Its kings were Amorites, who came from a herding background. They honoured the old gods of Mesopotamia but also built a temple to Dagan, god of the steppe (dry grassland). Mari was weak in war but very rich, because it sat on a busy trade route and lived on trade.
Example
Boats on the Euphrates carried wood, copper, tin, oil and wine past Mari. One boat carried 300 jars of wine. Mari's officers stopped the boats and took about one-tenth of the value of the cargo as tax. Copper came from 'Alashiya' (Cyprus). King Zimrilim's palace (1810–1760 BCE) had 260 rooms over 2.4 hectares and only one entrance. It was the king's home, the centre of government and a place of production. It was so famous that a minor king from Syria came just to see it.
Don't confuse with
- Ur: a city in the farming south, known for its houses and royal graves. Mari was a trading town upstream, in a herding area.
Related concepts
- Mesopotamian temple
- Ziggurat
- Uruk
- Cylinder seal
- Ur
- Abu Salabikh
- Amorites
- Pastoralists in Mesopotamia