Mari​—Ancient Queen of the Desert

“I WAS a little giddy upon arriving in my bedroom that night after celebrating with my companions our good fortune,” recalled French archaeologist André Parrot. In January of 1934, at Tell Hariri, near the small town of Abu Kemal on the Euphrates in Syria, Parrot and his team had unearthed a statue bearing the inscription: “Lamgi-Mari, king of Mari, high priest of Enlil.” They were thrilled at the discovery.

The city of Mari had at last been found! Of what interest is this discovery to students of the Bible?

Why of Interest?

Though the existence of Mari was known from ancient texts, its exact location long remained a mystery. According to Sumerian scribes, Mari was the seat of a dynasty that may at one time have held sway over all of Mesopotamia. Built on the banks of the Euphrates, Mari was strategically situated at the crossroads of trade routes linking the Persian Gulf with Assyria, Mesopotamia, Anatolia, and the Mediterranean Coast. Goods including wood, metal, and stone​—all sorely lacking in Mesopotamia—​transited the city. Taxes on them greatly enriched Mari, enabling her to assert her authority over the region.  This predominance ended, however, when Syria was conquered by Sargon of Akkad.

For some 300 years after Sargon’s conquest, Mari was ruled by a series of military governors. Under them, the city regained a measure of prosperity. By the time of her last ruler, Zimri-Lim, however, Mari was on the decline. Zimri-Lim attempted to consolidate his empire through a series of military conquests, treaties, and marriage alliances. But about 1760 B.C.E., King Hammurabi of Babylon conquered and destroyed the city, putting an end to what Parrot called “a civilization that was one of the lights of the ancient world.”

When Hammurabi’s troops razed Mari, they inadvertently rendered a huge service to modern-day archaeologists and historians. In toppling the unbaked mud-brick walls, they buried certain buildings up to a height of 15 feet [5 m] in some places, thus preserving them from the ravages of time. Archaeologists have unearthed the ruins of temples and palaces, along with a host of artifacts and thousands of inscriptions that shed light on ancient civilization.

Why are the ruins of Mari of interest to us? Consider the time when the patriarch Abraham walked the earth. Abraham was born in the year 2018 B.C.E., 352 years after the great Flood. His was the tenth generation from Noah. At God’s command, Abraham left his native city, Ur, and went to Haran. In the year 1943 B.C.E., when Abraham was 75 years of age, he left Haran for the land of Canaan. “The migrations of Abraham from Ur to Jerusalem [in Canaan] are situated historically at the time of Mari,” says Italian archaeologist Paolo Matthiae. The discovery of Mari, therefore, has value in that it can help us to envisage the world in which God’s faithful servant Abraham lived. *​—Genesis 11:10–12:4.

What Do the Ruins Reveal?

Religion flourished in Mari as it did elsewhere in Mesopotamia. It was considered man’s duty to serve the gods. The will of the gods was always sought before making any important decision. Archaeologists have found the vestiges of six temples. Included among them are the Temple of Lions (considered by some to be a temple of Dagan, Biblical Dagon) and the sanctuaries of Ishtar, the goddess of fertility, as well as of the sun-god Shamash. These temples originally contained a statue of the deity to whom offerings and supplications were made. Devotees placed smiling effigies of themselves in prayer on benches in the sanctuary, in the belief that their image prolonged the act of worship. Parrot noted:  “The statue, like the candle in Catholic worship today but to an even greater degree, was in actual fact a substitute for the believer.”

The most spectacular discovery in the ruins of Tell Hariri was the remains of a huge palace complex, known by the name of its last occupant, King Zimri-Lim. French archaeologist Louis-Hugues Vincent described it as “the jewel of archaic Oriental architecture.” Covering over six acres [2.5 ha], it contained some 300 rooms and courtyards. Even in antiquity, this palace was considered one of the marvels of the world. “Such was its fame,” comments Georges Roux in his book Ancient Iraq, “that the King of Ugarit, on the Syrian coast, did not hesitate to send his son 600 kilometres [370 miles] inland for the sole purpose of visiting ‘the house of Zimri-Lim.’”

Before reaching a spacious courtyard, visitors gained access to the fortified palace via a single entrance flanked by towers. Seated on a throne placed on a dais, Mari’s last king, Zimri-Lim, handled military, commercial, and diplomatic affairs; handed down judgments; and received visitors and embassies. Accommodations were available for guests, who were regularly wined and dined by the king during sumptuous banquets. Dishes included roasted, grilled, or boiled beef, mutton, gazelle, fish, and poultry​—all served with spicy garlic sauces and an assortment of vegetables and cheeses. Dessert consisted of fresh, dried, or crystallized fruit and cakes baked in intricate  molds. To quench their thirst, guests were served beer or wine.

Sanitation was not absent from the palace. Bathrooms were discovered that had terra-cotta tubs and seatless toilets. The floors and lower part of the walls of these rooms were protected with a coating of bitumen. Wastewater was drained via brick gutters, and clay pipes waterproofed with bitumen are still operational after some 3,500 years. When three women from the royal harem were struck with a fatal disease, the instructions were strict. Such a sickly woman was to be isolated and kept in quarantine. “None should drink from her cup, eat at her table, sit on her seat.”

What Can We Learn From the Archives?

Parrot and his team discovered some 20,000 cuneiform tablets written in Akkadian. The tablets consisted of letters and administrative and economic texts. Of these archives, only one third have been published. Nevertheless, they consist of 28 volumes. Of what value are they? “Before the discovery of the Mari archives,” says Jean-Claude Margueron, director of the Mari Archaeological Mission, “we knew almost nothing of the history, institutions, and daily life in Mesopotamia and Syria at the beginning of the second millennium. Thanks to them, it has been possible to write whole chapters of history.” As Parrot commented, the archives “reveal surprising similarities between the peoples that they mention and what the Old Testament tells us of the period of the Patriarchs.”

The tablets found at Mari also shed light on certain Bible passages. For example, the tablets indicate that taking possession of an enemy’s harem was “a fundamental fact of royal conduct at the time.” The counsel of the traitor Ahithophel to King David’s son Absalom to have relations with his father’s concubines was by no means original.​—2 Samuel 16:21, 22.

There have been 41 archaeological campaigns to Tell Hariri since 1933. So far, however, only 20 [8 ha] of Mari’s 270 acres [110 ha] have been examined. Likely, many fascinating discoveries will yet be made in Mari, the ancient queen of the desert.

[Footnote]

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(For fully formatted text, see publication)

Persian Gulf

Ur

MESOPOTAMIA

Euphrates

MARI

ASSYRIA

Haran

ANATOLIA

CANAAN

Jerusalem

Mediterranean Sea (Great Sea)

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In this document King Iahdun-Lim of Mari boasted about his construction work

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The discovery of this statue of Lamgi-Mari resulted in the positive identification of Mari

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Ebih-Il, the superintendent of Mari, in prayer

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Podium in the palace, where the statue of a goddess may have stood

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Ruins of Mari, showing unbaked mud-brick construction

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A palace bathroom

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The victory stele of Naram-Sin, conqueror of Mari

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About 20,000 cuneiform tablets were found in the ruins of the palace

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© Mission archéologique française de Tell Hariri-Mari (Syrie)

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Document: Musée du Louvre, Paris; statue: © Mission archéologique française de Tell Hariri-Mari (Syrie)

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Statue: Musée du Louvre, Paris; podium and bathroom: © Mission archéologique française de Tell Hariri-Mari (Syrie)

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Victory stele: Musée du Louvre, Paris; palace ruins: © Mission archéologique française de Tell Hariri-Mari (Syrie)