Mari

Ancient city situated on the right bank of the Euphrates, about 25 km/16 mi north of the border with Iraq in modern Syria. The site was continuously settled from the early 3rd millennium onwards, but had shrunk to the size of a small village by the Seleucid period (about 300-150 BC).

Excavations have revealed the palace of Zimrilim from the 2nd millennium BC, containing many frescoes (now in the Museum of Aleppo and the Louvre) and about 25,000 cuneiform tablets which have provided valuable information about the international politics, social organization, and nomadic groups of the Hammurabi period (1792-1750 BC).

In the early Dynastic period (about 2800-2400 BC), the culture of Mari was virtually indistinguishable from that of southern Mesopotamia, and a dynasty of its kings was included in the Sumerian King List. By about 1850 BC it was ruled by a local Amorite dynasty, and was then incorporated into Assyrian territory. In about 1780 it was recaptured by a son of the former ruler, Zimrilim and it was captured and destroyed by Hammurabi of Babylon about 1759 BC. After that, the sparse evidence suggests that Mari never regained any real political importance, although it was the seat of an Assyrian governor in the 1st millennium BC.