In the early 1900’s the German orientalist, Max Von Oppenheim, discovered cities in the the Jezirah, between the Balikh and Khabur, which he named Kranzhügel or “wreath hills” due to their circular plan and large inner and outer walls. Noting the difficult conditions of the region, Akkermans and Schwartz refer to the appearance of these cities in the Jezirah as the “Kranzhügel Problem.”¹Akkermans and Schwartz 2003, 256 Like Margueron, they ask, “Why did so many large settlements thrive in areas now ill suited for rainfall agriculture, and to what do they owe their distinctive layout?”²Akkermans and Schwartz 2003, 256

In a survey of the evidence discovered to date, Stefan Smith counts eight cities in the Greater Western Jezirah (GWJ) which fit the classic description of a Kranzhügel. They are round and have large, concentric, inner and outer walls. Smith counts twelve other cities in the GWJ with a round footprint, but a single outer wall, which for simplicity’s sake, might simply be classified as “ring-wall” cities. Altogether, thirty-two cities have been located in the GWJ. Commenting on the appearance of so many cities in the semi-arid steppe lands of Syria, Frank Hole notes that “even today, with industrial scale agriculture and support systems, there are no settlements comparable to those of the third millennium.”³Hole 1997, 52; also Smith 2022, 3 The cities are thought to have their origin in the Early Dynastic I, around the same time as Mari. By the end of the Early Bronze period they have disappeared, like a hatch of mayflies on a river. Hole attributes their existence in the Greater Western Jezirah during the Early Bronze period to the wetter climate which must have prevailed in the region during this period.⁴Hole 1997, 56

This helps us to understand Mari, for although located in the south eastern part of Syria, and not therefore generally classified as a Kranzhügel (a phenomena which is thought to have been confined to northern Syria), Mari shares several key characteristics in common with them, such as its sudden appearance ex nihilo, a planned city with a round footprint and fortified with inner and outer city walls. If the climate of southern Syria was more congenial in the Early Bronze period, as it was in the Jezirah, than we have an answer to the question of why Mari was chosen as a place to found a city in the first place.