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Mari....
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Mari was an ancient kingdom on the western bank of the
Euphrates which
flourished in the 3rd millennium BC as an important hub between the main
irrigation-based states of the Land of the Two Rivers (Tigris and
Euphrates) and the drier plains of Northern
Syria and the Upper Euphrates/Khabur
system, occupied by Akkadians, Sumerians, Amarite, and destroyed in about
1760 BC by King Hammorabi. It was the capital of the 10th dynasty after
the flood.
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Excavations revealed the remains of a 275 room palace
covering 2.5 hectares, with a great library stacked with 20,000
cuneiform
tablets. This palace is the most impressive and best preserved of the Early
Bronze Age palaces unearthed in the region. It is one of the most extensive
excavated in the Middle East and was constructed across several centuries,
though it misleadingly bears the name of the last ruler, Zimri-Lim. The fact
that the building was deliberately destroyed, its mud walls half knocked
down to fill in the rooms, accounts for its remarkable state of
preservation. |
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The site of Mari is of central importance, discovered in
1933. The excavation of this rare example of a Mesopotamian palace found
with its costumes and archives virtually intact has been one of the keys to
the unravelling of the history of the Syria/Mesopotamia
region during the
early millennia of recorded history. Its excavation has largely rested in
the hands of the French archaeologist, Andre Parrot, who supervised the
excavations from 1933 to 1974; a remarkable record. |
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Since 1978, excavations have continued with the aim of
better establishing Mari's place in the Mesopotamian world of the third
and second millennia and researching its economic resources and
agricultural base. |
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