Mari is something of an anomaly inasmuch as it appears to have been a “planned” city—its earliest inhabitants knew what an ideal city should look like and set out to build one from scratch. Encompassing an estimated 600 acres, complete with walls and canals, Mari sprang from the earth fully grown.

The River

The Euphrates River was very nearly a Mediterranean river, if not for the slight rise in elevation which turned it eastwards and set in on a long march across the arid plains of southern Syria and the alluvium of Mesopotamia. While most rivers gain in strength and size on their way to the ocean, the volume of the Euphrates actually decreases due to the intensely dry and hot environment it passes through. The river only has two major tributaries, the Balikh and the Khabur, both of which originate in the mountains several hundred miles north of the Euphrates. Mari is located on the Middle Euphrates just below the junction of the Khabur.

Mari was not constructed on the floodplain immediately next to the Euphrates, but on a slightly elevated terrace created during what Margureron describes as a “humid period” when a high Euphrates deposited large amounts of silt in the valley, forming what Margueron terms the “Holocene terrace.”²Margueron 2014, 7 (As you may recall, the Holocene is the name geologists have assigned to our present geologic age whereas the Pleistocene is the name they have given to the preceding “Ice Age.”) The sediment deposited by the river constitutes the only productive farmland in the area.

Since the city was located on a slightly elevated terrace, only the most severe Euphrates floods ever reached the city. To connect the city to the river, city builders dug a canal that began upriver, passed through city, and reconnected to the Euphrates down stream. Although the precise route this canal took is unknown, its outline may be still be traced in places on a satellite image (see image above).

Since Euphrates was situated on a slightly elevated terrace, the linking canal had to be at least 26 feet deep in order to reach the level of the Euphrates. This is quite a bit deeper than your typical irrigation canal. Margueron argues that the canal must have been constructed at the same time as City I since it is hard to conceive of how the city could have survived without it. Indeed, for those living in Mari, this canal must have felt like an extension of the river itself.

City I

According to Jean Margueron’s reconstruction of events, the city began when settlers walked out onto the alluvial plain next to the Euphrates and inscribed a giant 2000 foot diameter circle. A low rubble wall was erected on this inscribed circle and clay heaped against either side to form a bulwark against floods. Another much larger wall was erected inside the first which served as a defensive wall for the acropolis of the city

We don’t actually know if the footprint of the city formed a perfect circle since only a third of it remains, the rest having been washed away by floods thanks to the canal, which not only connected Mari to the Euphrates, but the Euphrates to Mari! Without proper maintenance and timely interventions, the canal carried the river into the city, effectively erasing two-thirds of it. Thus while we only have a portion of the outer wall of the city, a cursory glance at a satellite image shows that what remains forms a near perfect circle. It is reasonable to extrapolate from this a circular plan for the city.

There are a few other reasons to think that Mari was built with a circular footprint: 1) other circular cities were found in the region, 2) foundation offerings discovered beneath the buildings and streets of Mari appear to represent a city with a circular footprint with a square tower or palace at center.

The boundaries of the city do not appear to have changed despite three major occupations. The discovery of Ninevite V and Scarlet Ware in the earliest levels of the city (City I) point to a date in the Early Dynastic I for its founding although very little in the way of architecture has been exposed in City I. Margueron tentatively assigned it a span of 300 years (c. 2950-2650 BC) and another 100 years afterward, when the city lay abandoned at the conclusion of the Early Dynastic II. As you may recall from our study of the Sin temple of Khafajah, we assigned lower dates to these periods. This effectively eliminates the 100 year gap between the occupations of City I and II. In any case, the archaeology does not require it.

City II

The second city of Mari (City II) flourished for the whole of the Early Dynastic III and part of the Akkadian period. The circular outer embankment of City I, which seems to have functioned as a flood barrier, was reinforced with a defensive wall in City II. A large palatial complex was constructed at the center of the city with irregularly shaped walls measuring a little over 100 feet to each side. Four distinctive building levels have been discerned, beginning with P3 (c. 2500 BC) and continuing to P0 (c. 2300 BC).

Adapted from Butterlin, “The Massif Rouge and Early Dynastic high terraces: Dynamics of monumentality in Mesopotamia during the 3rd millennium BCE,” pg. 199.

Beneath the floor of the uppermost palace (P0), next to a pillar in the main hall, archaeologists found a jar containing the famous “Treasure of Ur,” so-called because of the distinctively Sumerian objects contained within, including a lapis lazuli bead inscribed with the name “Mesannapada.” As you may recall, the Sumerian King List (SKL) credits this king with founding the First Dynasty of Ur. Unfortunately, the SKL is of no further help, for although it names four kings of Mari who ruled Sumer, so far none of their names have been found inscribed on objects recovered from Mari. It is at least noteworthy that Mari, a city on the boundary of Mesopotamia and Syria, is nonetheless treated as one of the Sumerian city-states in the SKL.

Why build a city there?

When it comes to advantageous locations for building a city, Mari does not check off many boxes. The size of the alluvial plain in the Euphrates valley is not large compared to southern Mesopotamia. The steppe above of the valley is infertile and its wells are salty. The region receives little or no rain some years; in others the rain comes in short, torrid downpours; but it does not receive more than 5 or 6 inches on average, which is well below the 9 inch threshold needed to grow cereal crops without irrigation. The southeastern region of Syria is also subject to wild temperature swings. In July temperatures do not drop below 104°F and regularly spike up to 113°F or even 119°F, whereas nighttime temperatures may drop into the 60’s. Days of successive frosts are not unknown in January.³Margueron 2014, 8 Since Mari appears to have been founded intentionally by a people already familiar with city building, Margueron asks why they should have chosen this location for a city?

For Margueron the answer lies in the strategic position Mari occupied on a trade route connecting Mesopotamia to the mineral rich mountains of Anatolia. Pointing to the extensive evidence for metal smelting in the city, Margueron suggests that Mari was an industrial town that thrived on trade.

It may also be wondered if the environment of southern Syria was not so harsh as it is today, especially in light of many more cities constructed in the arid regions of Syria at around the same time. But this is a topic we will save for the next entry.