At the beginning of the 20th century, the German archaeologist Robert Koldewey, who had a chance to excavate Babylon, found there "captive" statues of the kings of Mari. And two decades later, the Frenchman André Parrot revealed to the world the ruins of the palace, scorched by fire, and the temple of Ishtar, desecrated by the Babylonian marauders.
In early August 1933, the French lieutenant Kabane, who served at the commandant's office of the Syrian town of Abu Kemal near the border with Iraq, making his usual detour of his site, saw a group of Bedouins on the slope of the Tell-Harriri hill, who, as they explained to him, were looking for a large stone for a grave slabs to a deceased relative. However, instead of a boulder, they dug up a headless stone figure with arms crossed on its chest. Kabane sent an urgent dispatch.
Coronation of Zimri Lim
Upon learning of the find, the Parisian Louvre Museum organized an expedition to the Tell-Harriri Hill led by André Parrot, a renowned archaeologist and orientalist, later director of the Louvre.
Other similar statues were soon found. They depicted a man with a long, well-groomed beard walking with crossed arms in prayer. A narrow diadem supported her hair tied in a bun at the back of her head. All the figures were accompanied by short cuneiform lines, after deciphering which it was possible to establish the names of the kings of the city-state of Mari.
It was located in the middle reaches of the Euphrates River and was mentioned more than once in ancient documents found earlier by archaeologists in Syria and Iraq. Many dreamed of finding this famous city in the ancient world, but it remained elusive. And suddenly the French were lucky. For 20 years, Parro has been digging an ancient hill in the Syrian desert and discovered truly fantastic things.
Excavations have uncovered the ruins of a huge royal palace - 300 rooms with corridors and courtyards. The palace occupied an area of 2.5 hectares. The royal apartments were well protected from the outside by walls seven, 10, and sometimes even 15 meters high. They were interconnected inside by narrow passages with many partitions. The suite of rooms led from the inner chambers of the monarch to the throne room, located 80 meters from his bedchamber. The king could do this way, being practically invisible to possible ill-wishers.
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The walls of numerous halls of the palace were decorated with murals depicting gods and goddesses, scenes of battles and everyday life. One of the murals represents the moment when King Zimri-Lim was enthroned. He ruled over Marie in the 18th century BC. The ceremony is led by the goddess Ishtar, standing on the back of a lion. The coronation takes place against the backdrop of the Garden of Eden, among trees, flowing springs, gods and spirits.
Temples and ziggurats
The palace housed premises for tsarist officials, private chambers, bathrooms. The latter usually had two terracotta baths, and next to them were bitumen seats with armrests for massage. Water came from fountains through ceramic pipes. In addition, there was a whole drainage system. When one day during the work of archaeologists there was a downpour, it seemed that the rooms they had opened should have flooded, the system worked perfectly, the ruins were not damaged. To the surprise of the researchers, the palace contained a completely modern type of toilets with sewerage systems, reminiscent of those that were recently encountered, for example, at train stations, with small footrests made of asphalt.
In the main kitchen of the palace, there are still vaulted stoves. There was also a wide variety of dishes. The utensils were painted with all kinds of relief images: a man leads a goat, in a swift throw a lion overtakes a hefty bull, a hedgehog with a whole brood of hedgehogs, groups of dogs, jackals, gazelles. A few meters from the kitchen there were large storerooms. One of them contains large amphorae standing on a long stand along the wall. Small steps led to them.
In the center of the city, the remains of temples and a ziggurat, a cult tower, appeared to the eyes of researchers. The main temple was dedicated to Ishtar, the most revered goddess of the East. Archaeologists have discovered several female figurines, dressed in long, toe-length, fleecy dresses and high headdresses expanding upward. Numerous sacred vessels lay everywhere, many lapis lazuli beads with amulets pinned to them - owls, fish, birds carved from mother-of-pearl.
Hammurabi's revenge
At the beginning of the III millennium BC, the Sumerians appeared on the historical arena - the founders of one of the world's oldest civilizations. They settled throughout southern Mesopotamia - from Mari to Susa. There is still no consensus among researchers about their origin. Most likely, the Sumerians were not Semites. Before the accession of Sargon of Akkadian (2750 BC), not a single inscription in the languages of the Semitic group was found in all of Mesopotamia.
Literary texts found in Ebla, myths about the creation of the world and the Flood associated with the Sumerian epic poem about Gilgamesh, were later recorded in Akkadian (Semitic) language in the II millennium BC. One of these texts claimed that Mari was the tenth city founded after the Flood.
André Parro believed that Marie emerged around the beginning of the 4th millennium BC. The city's population was originally Hurrian. And the Hurrians are the people who created such large city-states as Yamkhad, Alalah and Alep (Aleppo). The Hurrians came under the influence of Sumerian culture, adopting writing, many legends and myths. In the second half of the 3rd millennium BC, the population was Semitized.
By this time Marie took off again. The city became the center of the small country of Khan. But, occupying key positions in the Middle Euphrates, the Mari rulers exercised control over almost all of southern Mesopotamia. Including over the trade routes that led from Anatolia, where copper and silver were mined, to the Persian Gulf.
Marie became rich in trade and thus attracted the envy of the growing power of Babylon. Its ruler, Hammurabi, dealt a devastating blow to the inhabitants of Mari around 1759 BC. “At the behest of Annu and Enlil, he destroyed the walls of Mari,” says one of the surviving cuneiform tablets. The invaders burned down the royal palace, plundered and destroyed the posad, razed the houses of citizens, and executed the king Zimri-Lim. The former capital of the kingdom has never been able to rise after the defeat. She was carried by the sands …
Archives that don't burn
Digging through the ruins, Parro, among other things, discovered a priceless library of 25,000 cuneiform tablets. The fire that destroyed the palace preserved the clay notebooks. They compiled the state archive containing personal correspondence and important government acts relating to the rule of Zimri-Lim.
Cuneiform texts tell about life in the ancient city and the activities of the tsarist administration. Many documents indicate Mari's active foreign trade relations with Ebla, Elam, Syria, Babylon, Egypt and even with the island of Crete. All texts are in Akkadian (Semitic) language. To the amazement of the biblical scholars, they mention the cities of Nahur, Farrahi, Saruhi and Faleki. In addition, it speaks of the Avairam, Jacobel and even the Benjamin tribe, which appeared on the border and annoyed the inhabitants of Mari. It is not difficult to see the identity of these place names with the names of the Old Testament ancestors of the people of Israel - Nahor, Terah, Serug, Abraham, etc.
In addition to the library, the most remarkable find, recognized as the best sculpture of ancient Mesopotamia, was the statue of the goddess of fertility and giver of rains, Ishtar.
A detail of the sculpture, which especially amazed archaeologists, turned out to be a vase, with which the priests arranged amazing performances for the believers, which the goddess holds, tilting slightly forward. The vase was hollowed out; a channel ran through its bottom, continuing inside the entire figure. During the divine services, at the right moment, in response to the prayers of those present, the priests let water through this channel. And then a high stream gushed from the vase of the goddess, sparkling in the flames of torches, to the hymns of the singers.
During the conquest of the city by Babylon, Ishtar's eyes, made of lapis lazuli, were torn out, the entire statue was crippled. It was assembled piece by piece and restored. Nowadays, a beautiful statue is in the museum of the Syrian city of Aleppo.
Irina STREKALOVA