Mari and Karana, two Old Babylonian cities
It is often very rare to be able to make acquaintance with ancient civilizations and the men and women who made them great. But by an enormous piece of good fortune, the discovery of the archives in clay of two small kingdoms in North-West Mesopotamia, Mari and Karana, unveiled before our very eyes data not only on day-to-day palace records, but also letters written by the royal families and their adherents in the years shortly before Hammurabi conquered both kingdoms (or cities) in 1815 Before Common Era. The importance of the Mari and Karana archives is great, because nowhere among the world´s early civilizations has such extensive written information emerged at so early in period.
In the posts that follow, we will see Professor Dalley´s account of these archives and correspondence.
Our period falls within the Middle Bronze Age, when most tools and weapons were made out of a copper alloy, and the working of iron had not yet developed. The whole of the Bronze Age in this area lasts from about 3,200 BCE to 1,200 BCE during most of which time Mari and Karana flourished. They are Bronze Age cities which were both abandoned in the Iron Age. In Classical times Dura Europos took the place of Mari.
These two cities are not backwaters in the history of mankind. They mark the exchange of ideas between eastern and western culture within the Near East. They also link Sumer and Babylonia with the Hittites and Phoenicians, to whom Greek culture owed a considerable debt. The customs of Zimri-Lim, King of Mari, and Aqba-hammu, King of Karana, have affected the ways in which we think and behave in the Western world until now. The palace records we are going to see are fascinating to read despite the fact that they were written about 4,000 years ago. However, in many of the ancient records, we will recognize as well our own patterns of being and living in community here and now.
From the Depths and To the Heights to share in all spheres
Mesopotamia, Greek for land between the rivers Tigris and Euphrates, has a venerable history. The region is also the cradle of urban civilization. Most of Mesopotamian cities grew up on a river bank: Babylon, Ur, Ashur, Nineveh and Carchemish. Also, where land routes pevailed, caravans of donkeys, mules and (later on)camels plied regularly through mountain passes, along foothills, or across the deserted wastes of semi-desert. Smaller towns mark these land routes, for they are the country stations along the lines between the main cities. Such towns are Erbil, Karana and Harran.
Thus, the archives of Mari and Karana give us the portrait of two small kingdoms with a cosmopolitan capital of astonishing standard of living that was not exceptional or narrowly restricted in geographical extent.How do we know this? By the records of myth and achievements of adventurous kings such as Enmerkar, Gilgamesh, the exploits of athlete king Shulgi, an early champion of his days.
The period known as Old Babylonian returns to the Mesopotamian tradition of many cities with many kings, intense foreign trade and flourishing urban life.
From the Depths and To the Heights to share in all spheres
Re: Mari and Karana, two Old Babylonian cities
Patterns of trade
Patterns of trade were set long before the Old Babylonian period by particular sources of supply and by the nature of the terrain. Outstanding among the needs of the Bronze Age was tin, that relatively rare metal which makes the best bronze when it is alloyed with copper. During the 3rd and 2nd millennia, when the cities of Karana and Mari were at their height, supplies of the metal annakum "tin" entered Mesopotamia from still unknown sources in the East. The tin came through the land of Elam, whose king in the time of Hammurabi of Babylon was called Siwe-palar-huhpak (in Mari, they had trouble with this foreign name and called him Sheplarpak). Siwe-palar-huhpak ruled broth Susa, the traditional capital of Elam, and Anshan, the ancient city which lies near Persepolis, some 2,000 km from Mari land. The tin caravans journeyed through long distances, and the city of Ashur, traditional capital of Assyria, owed its original wealth and position to this trade route, as much as to the passage of goods up and down the river Tigris. It was a middle-man merchant city that sent its own traders far abroad.
There were some other trade routes, reaching as far as Lebannon, which was famous for many timbers and cedars. Ever bigger buildings throughout Mesopotamia created a demand for larger, stronger beams that could be found locally in Lebannon; also, skilled craftsmanship in furnite demanded a variety of timbers, and aromatic resins became popular as perfumes. Many kings from Mesopotamia, Egypt and Northern Syria sent expeditions to fetch timber from Lebannon and the northern Amanus mountains. Copper from Cyprus also reached Mesopotamia.
Other metals, timbers and stones came from the East, joining the Tigris and the Euphrates at the head of the Arabian Gulf and then travelling upstream along them. Carnelian, lapis lazuli and sissoo wood (excellent for furniture), also entered Mesopotamia by this route.
Although the river valleys were the chieve and obvious routes for trade, an alternative route had developed frm the Middle Euphrates to Southern Syria and to Palestine. The desert road which later ran from Dura Europos through Palmyra to Damascus, or through Palmyra and Qariyatein to Homs was already in use in 1850 BCE. Homs was called Qatna. Mari and Qatna shared a common frontier which ran across this desert route, so that they had to negotiate pasturing rights across a border which was not marked by a natural feature. Semi-nomads roamed the area and may have played a part in organizing the trade. Certainly in recent times the desert journey is very difficult without the use of camels, and there is no good evidence of their having been domesticated pack animals in this area at this period. Caravans travelling from Mari through Tadmer to Qatna therefore probably managed the journey with donkeys and mules.
From the Depths and To the Heights to share in all spheres
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