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| Mari Book Report | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Feb 15 2015, 09:08 PM (891 Views) | |
| Brock H | Feb 15 2015, 09:08 PM Post #1 |
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Mari: Capitol of Northern Mesopotamia in the Third Millennium by Jean-Claude Margueron. I'm at the halfway point through it now and thought this would be a good time to give a preliminary report. The book is well written, interesting (to me at least) and has a minimum of jargon, which can be understood from context. It is lavishly illustrated with drawings and photographs. Given its price and relative shortness (159 pages of text, with may illustrations) most would probably prefer to borrow it from a library rather than buy it as I did. Anybody interested in northern Mesopotamia from ca. 2950 BC to Hammurabi should find this a good read. As for Mari itself. Over the course of approximately 1200 years there were three different cities: I, II & III. All followed the same plan, although II & III elaborated on the original. City I was founded on virgin soil between 3000 and 2900 BC (dates established by both C14 and thermo-luminescence, not reference to the Egyptian king list), with 2950 designated as the founding date. Clearly, its founders understood urban planning. It consisted of a circular dike 1.9km in diameter to protect the city from floods. Inside that was another circle 1.3km in diameter which was the city wall. The space between the dike and the city wall may have been planted with gardens and orchards; certainly it was by the time of City III. Why 300m between the dike and city wall? The author believes that was the range of composite bows which were known at the time. Since Mari was 1-2 km from the Euphrates, a canal several kilometers in length was dug to bring water to the city and return to the river. Naturally, there were also irrigation canals for agriculture since it was located in a semi-desert region. Now here's the real interesting part. A 120 km long canal was dug in order to facilitate trade by eliminating the need to follow the Euphrates with all its meanders with Mari located approximately 15 km from the southern end. The northern end connected with a river flowing down from the highlands in the Lake Van region. The author believes the canal was dug at the same time as the city was founded and they went hand-in-hand; one made no sense without the other. After about 300 years City I came to an end around 2650 BC, reasons unclear. About 100 years after that City II was founded. City II shows highly sophisticated planning. The streets were laid out first, following those of City I. However, the streets (and the entire city) were raised a bit above the existing ground level, filled with gravel and other porous material and sloped to carry water outside the city. This was done to protect the mudbrick foundations of the buildings from the heavy rains that occasionally occurred in the region. City II (2550-2220 BC) added a fairly low and narrow (2m wide) wall atop the surrounding dike. This could deter raiders, but would only slow a determined attacker come to lay siege. However, if the wall was pierced by slits for archers, as the author believes, it would delay an attacker and cost him casualties. City II was mostly destroyed by Naram-Sin. However, something was left since he left a military governor in place and installed two of his daughters as priestesses. But Mari did require rebuilding, which was delayed. After the fall of the Akkadian empire Mari's military governors became its new ruling dynasty. Unlike Cities I & II, which seem to have been built pretty much in one go, City III (2200-1760 BC) was built in stages, although the rebuilding followed a plan laid out at the start. The rebuilding was spread out over 2 centuries. City III did have a proper defensive wall built atop the dike, as well as the second wall enclosing the city itself. City III was destroyed by Hammurabi and that was the end of Mari as a city, although there was some minor settlement for a period at that location. City I had metal working, but no sign of writing. It must have existed for record keeping, but nothing remains. City II has left a little writing. City III has left thousands of tablets or pieces of tablets, mostly from its last 50 years. What I've read so far has concerned the geographic region of Mari, the reason for its founding (trade) and the architecture of the city and some of the buildings. There has been some mention of agriculture and trade, but very little, which has been the biggest disappointment for me so far. And I don't think there'll be more about them. I'm about to get into the parts about the temples, palaces, funerary practices, everyday life and art. Most of the book is devoted to architecture, which may not be too surprising as that's the greatest part of what remains of Mari. Still, since most of the tablets have been translated and Mari is mentioned in texts from other Mesopotamian cities, I do wish there was more on agriculture, trade and international relationships. However, I do feel my money was well-spent in buying this book. |
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| Todd Feinman | Feb 18 2015, 08:32 PM Post #2 |
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Thanks Brock for that nice report! Very interesting. Of course if there is any mention of armour scales found...
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| Brock H | Feb 19 2015, 02:31 PM Post #3 |
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Not a word about armor. Weapons are mentioned a couple times: axes, spearheads, daggers. There are several illustrations reproduced of warrior artwork found in City II. They are very similar if not identical to the warriors on the Standard of Ur--some sort of cap and a cloak with spots/disks on it. And that's all there is for armor. Of course, it's impossible to tell if their clothing might have consisted of several layers that would provide at least some protection. I'm almost finished with the book. The architecture of the city and its buildings is by far the major focus. The fact that texts were found is mentioned, but never elaborated. An example is that 3 tablets dealing with the issuance of barley were found in one building and that's it. Nothing about how much barley was issued or to whom. And that is one of the most detailed mentions of the texts! Besides trade and the control thereof, a major reason for the founding of Mari was industrial production. Metal working (copper & bronze) was undertaken on a large scale from the start, as was large scale pottery production and dyeing. Of the three cities City II is the best known, apart from what can be learned from the tablets of City III. City III being on top much of it was destroyed by erosion (indeed, much of the site has been lost to erosion by the Euphrates). And of course much of City I was lost by being leveled and built upon by City II (but due to the raising of the city foundations were preserved). Still, enough of it remains to get a good idea of it. Much of the site still hasn't been excavated and given the current situation in Syria it's going to be a long time before anyone returns to carry out more. |
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| Dan Howard | Feb 19 2015, 08:26 PM Post #4 |
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The period is too early to expect any body armour. It sounds like the book would be of limited use to me. I'd prefer more info on the texts and less on the architecture. I'd be interested in completed floorplans and drawings of how the buildings might have looked when they were in use but archaeological plans based solely on the extant foundations are of limted use. |
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| Brock H | Feb 20 2015, 03:56 PM Post #5 |
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Matt, the book does have floor plans and some reconstructions of how the buildings might have looked. Not just a palace or two and temples, but some of the ordinary buildings are included. As well there are reconstructions of the defensive walls. You might not want to buy it, but you might want to see if you can borrow it from a university library. I've finished it now and easily the biggest disappointment was next to nothing was included from the texts. Maybe there's another book focusing on that, but it'd probably be in French since it's the French who've been excavating Mari. |
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| Brock H | Feb 20 2015, 04:04 PM Post #6 |
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A couple interesting things about Mari. City I revealed a wheelwright's shop, the earliest one known. In City II some buildings had toilets that drained into pits located under the street outside, the earliest evidence of such. It's my own view that those pits would have been cleaned out at least once a year and the contents spread on the fields as fertilizer, although no mention is made in the book of any kind of cleanout cover for the pits. It just seems like something that would have been done. |
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