When written sources begin to appear toward the end of the nineteenth century BCE, most of the major cities of Mesopotamia and northern Syria were ruled by kings with Amorite names. Many of the cities that had played major roles in the Early Bronze Age were replaced by new cities that assumed political dominance.
The great archives of Mari supply the foundation for our understanding of Syria and Mesopotamia during the nineteenth and eighteenth centuries BCE. These archives were recovered from the ruins of the palace of Zimri-Lim, the last king of Mari before its destruction by Hammurapi of Babylon about 1760 BCE. The palace itself was an extraordinary building, sprawling over about 2.5 hectares (6 acres) and boasting more than 260 rooms, courtyards, and corridors on the ground level, as well as an undetermined number on the second floor. In this enormous building culminated centuries of construction that had begun in the late third millennium. Reports of its splendor spread widely in the Near East.
But more significant than the ruins of the palace for the study of Syro-Palestinian history and culture are the collections of tablets found within the city. Some twenty-five thousand tablets, dating between the twenty-fourth and eighteenth centuries, have come to light at Mari, most of them dating from its final decades during the late nineteenth and early eighteenth centuries, the period roughly contemporary with Shamshi-Adad I of Upper Mesopotamia and Hammurapi of Babylon. About two thousand of the tablets are letters, while most of the rest are economic, administrative, and juridical documents. Besides the tablets, a number of official royal inscriptions also provide much important information.
All of the documents are valuable in reconstructing the political, social, and economic history of the region, but the letters in particular give extraordinary insight into life at Mari and throughout Syro-Mesopotamia during one of the most interesting periods of its history. The letters come from a host of different people, including kings and administrators, Mari diplomats in other states, family members, priests, and prophets. Most were sent to the kings of Mari, who thus kept themselves abreast of what was going on in their kingdom and, at times, in the kingdoms round about. The letters provide inside information, not royal propaganda. Thus they give us a view, unmatched from any other archive, into the workings of an ancient royal city, as well as into individuals living through extraordinary times.
The tablets are particularly informative about the major political powers in Syria and Mesopotamia during this period. Farthest south was Larsa, an important city that during the reign of Rim-Sin (1822–1763) held sway over a significant part of southern Mesopotamia. About 200 kilometers (125 miles) to the northwest of Larsa lay Babylon, which first began to emerge as an important city in the late nineteenth century and rapidly reached its first period of political dominance during the 1760s, the latter years of Hammurapi’s reign. Eshnunna (Tell Asmar), a city east of the Tigris, along the Diyala River, had made itself master of Assyria and the region west of the Tigris about the time the Mari archive begins, but later lost the area to Shamshi-Adad I. After Shamshi-Adad’s death, Eshnunna’s fortunes revived briefly, soon to be dashed with the rise of Hammurapi.
Along the middle Euphrates was Mari itself, whose fortunes waxed and waned during the period of the archives. It first appears as an independent state of considerable strength under the rule of Yahdun-Lim. But not long after his death, the city passed into the empire of Shamshi-Adad I. Mari later regained its independence and prestige under Zimri-Lim, only to be overthrown forever by Babylon.
On the upper part of the Habur River was the city of Shekhna, in the land of Apum. Shamshi-Adad I chose the town as the primary capital of his empire, renaming it Shubat-Enlil. Recent discoveries at the site of Tell Leilan have shown decisively that it should be identified as ancient Shekhna/Shubat-Enlil. Modern historians often call Shamshi-Adad the first great king of Assyria, but this is misleading. He appears to have belonged to an Amorite tribe whose homeland lay in northern Syria, which may have been why he moved his capital to the Habur Plain. Assyria was the first part of his empire, however; he had an enormous impact on the Assyrians’ imperial ideology and long survived in their memories as one of their greatest kings.
Farther west was Yamhad, a powerful state whose capital occupied the site of modern Aleppo. Yamhad blocked both Shamshi-Adad I and Hammurapi of Babylon from expanding into western Syria. During much of the Middle Bronze Age it was the leading state of northern Syria. To the south of Yamhad, in central Syria, was the major city-state of Qatna, closely linked with Mari by the trade route that connected them across the desert via Tadmor/Palmyra. Moving south into northern Canaan, a traveler would have reached the city of Hazor, which seems to be mentioned several times in the Mari letters (although some of the references suggest that there was another Hazor in central or northern Syria). The largest city in Canaan (72 hectares [180 acres]), Hazor may have been the dominant Canaanite town of the Middle Bronze Age, but it was on the periphery of Mari’s economic horizon.
The Mari tablets, along with other sources, allow us to sketch the political history of Syria and Mesopotamia in the early centuries of the second millennium BCE. The written sources are particularly helpful in illuminating the rise of Shamshi-Adad and the collapse of his empire following his death, in tracing developments at Mari before, during, and after Shamshi-Adad’s reign, and in chronicling Hammurapi’s slow rise to dominance over Mesopotamia.
The early years of Shamshi-Adad’s long career as king are known only from a text called the Mari Eponym Chronicle, first published in 1985. The Chronicle lists the names of the years of Shamshi-Adad’s reign, along with brief notes of important events that occurred in each year. From it we know that he became king as a youth. The original seat of his kingdom is not known, and his true rise to power took place only after he had occupied his throne for approximately twenty years. In his twenty-first regnal year, he conquered the city of Ekallatum, just north of Ashur. There he ruled for three years before overthrowing Erishum, king of Assyria, and seizing his victim’s crown. From the capital city of Ashur, Shamshi-Adad began to expand his empire westward, eastward, and southward, taking over the Habur region and the Balikh River to the west, subduing Mari and other cities to the south, and expanding eastward as far as Shusharra on the Little Zab River. Within a few years he had formed a major empire and become the most powerful king of the region.
Having established his empire, Shamshi-Adad moved his own capital westward to Shekhna, in the land of Apum, changing its name as we have seen to Shubat-Enlil. Excavations since 1979 at Tell Leilan have begun to yield significant information about this city. Several important public buildings from the time of Shamshi-Adad have been excavated, including a large temple located on the acropolis and a palace in the lower city, which has produced about 600 tablets that date from the end of his reign (1781 BCE) until about 1725. While most of the tablets are administrative texts, approximately 120 are letters to two successors of Shamshi-Adad at Shekhna. In addition, fragments of 5 treaties between kings of Apum and their neighbors have been recovered. In 1991, archaeologists found another substantial administrative building, containing a group of 588 small receipt and disbursement tablets that date from the final years of Shamshi-Adad’s reign. Still awaiting full study, these tablets promise to add much to our knowledge of Upper Mesopotamia during the eighteenth century BCE.
The Near East during the Second Millennium BCE
By the time he became the ruler of this empire, Shamshi-Adad had two grown sons, whom he appointed subrulers over parts of his realm. The elder son, Ishme-Dagan, resembled his father as an able soldier and administrator. The letters of Shamshi-Adad show the two men’s close relationship and reveal the father’s pride in his son. Ishme-Dagan was appointed ruler of Ekallatum in Assyria to keep control over the eastern part of the empire.
Much to his chagrin, the king’s other son, Yasmah-Adad, proved incompetent and lazy. Shamshi-Adad placed him in charge of Mari, once he had captured that city, hoping that the young man would look
after the southern part of the empire. But Shamshi-Adad found himself spending much of his time patching up Yasmah-Adad’s poor handling of his job. The letters between father and son vividly show their strained relationship. “Are you a child and not a man? Have you no beard on your chin?” Shamshi-Adad wrote on one occasion. “While here your brother is victorious,” he scolded another time, “down there you lie about among the women!” A letter survives in which Yasmah-Adad defended himself against one of his father’s barbs, arguing that his subordinates must have been lying about him to his father.
The archives at Mari, as well as smaller ones from Tell Shemshara (Shusharra) and Tell er-Rimah, show Shamshi-Adad as an energetic administrator, constantly moving about his empire and involving himself in all the important—and many of the unimportant—decisions made in the cities that he ruled. It is a tribute to his personal abilities that he held his empire together so well.
Shamshi-Adad ruled for thirty-two years after his conquest of the city of Ashur. His empire, however, did not survive his death. Once he died, the city-states Eshnunna in the southeast and Yamhad to the west immediately began reestablishing their influence in the region. Ishme-Dagan maintained control of Assyria for a while, but he had to surrender the rest of the empire. Yasmah-Adad was overthrown in Mari within four years of Shamshi-Adad’s death, and the previous dynasty returned, Zimri-Lim assuming the throne.
Most tablets from Mari come from the reign of Zimri-Lim. From them we not only learn many details about this king and his domain, but also gain important background information about his family, whom Shamshi-Adad had forced from the throne of Mari. This information explains much about Zimri-Lim’s actions as king.
About the time of Shamshi-Adad’s rise to power in Assyria, Mari was ruled by Yahdun-Lim, a member of the Simal (northern) branch of the Hanean tribal confederation. Inscriptions that survive from his reign depict him as a potent rival to Shamshi-Adad. But eventually Yahdun-Lim suffered a serious defeat in battle and was apparently assassinated by a member of Mari’s royal court, Sumu-yamam, who may in fact have been Yahdun-Lim’s son. Within two years Sumu-yamam himself fell victim to a palace coup. Shamshi-Adad thereupon saw his chance to expand southward and incorporate an important rival into his kingdom. Capturing Mari, he placed his son Yasmah-Adad on the throne.
The young Zimri-Lim, apparently either Yahdun-Lim’s son or nephew, had fled Mari before Shamshi-Adad’s conquest of the city and found asylum in Aleppo, the capital of Yamhad. Sumu-epuh, the king of Yamhad and Shamshi-Adad’s most significant rival, presumably considered that offering support to Zimri-Lim as the legitimate heir to Mari’s throne might give him valuable leverage against Shamshi-Adad.
After Shamshi-Adad’s death, Zimri-Lim returned to Mari and regained his family’s throne. In this he got substantial support from Yarim-Lim, Sumu-epuh’s successor in Aleppo. Zimri-Lim not only came to dominate the land around Mari, but he also brought all of the middle Euphrates and the Habur River Valley under his sway and opened extensive trade relations throughout the Near East. He maintained good relations with Yamhad, marrying Yarim-Lim’s daughter, Shiptu, early in his reign. But he also cultivated cordial relations with Babylon to the south and with Qatna to the west.
The correspondence of Zimri-Lim shows that he followed Shamshi-Adad’s example in maintaining close contact with his governors, vassals, and officials. A wide variety of issues filled the letters dispatched to the palace at Mari. Messages from various governors kept him informed about the political situation throughout his realm. His ambassadors to other states sent regular reports. Numerous letters concerned relations between the government and the pastoral nomads who migrated through the middle Euphrates and the Habur region. Reports from members of his palace staff and his family also found their way into the archive, as did letters from religious personnel, often reporting omens, prophecies, or unusual dreams that seemed to affect the king.
Zimri-Lim’s correspondence makes possible a partial account of his reign. Soon after assuming the throne he violently suppressed a rebellion among the Yaminite tribes, the southern members of the Hanean tribal confederation, who apparently saw no benefit in supporting a restoration of the Yahdun-Lim line at Mari, which belonged to a northern, Simalite clan. Of all the pastoral nomadic groups in Zimri-Lim’s domains, the Yaminites remained the least cooperative. The tablets also indicate that Eshnunna tried to regain territory in the Habur region that it had controlled prior to Shamshi-Adad’s reign, and they show that Zimri-Lim was deeply involved in opposing this attempt at expansion. We can also watch the slow rise to power of Hammurapi, king of Babylon, who for years remained a faithful ally of Zimri-Lim. But as he gained control of Lower Mesopotamia, Hammurapi suddenly turned on his old friend, overthrew him, and in 1760 BCE destroyed Mari. Thus abruptly ended its political power.
Following the overthrow of Mari, the middle Euphrates remained only briefly under Babylon’s control. After Hammurapi died, the city of Terqa took Mari’s place as the capital of the region. The land bore the name Khana during this time, but we have little information about its economy. Few material remains of the period have been excavated, and although recent digs at Terqa have produced some tablets, these come largely from private archives.
Western and Central Syria during the Middle Bronze Age
The most powerful kingdom to the west of the Euphrates was Yamhad, which thwarted the expansive plans not only of Shamshi-Adad but also of Hammurapi. It continued to dominate the north through the seventeenth century. Despite its importance, we know little about Yamhad during the Middle Bronze Age. Excavations at Aleppo, its capital, have uncovered no levels of this period and only one fragmentary inscription (as yet unpublished). We know Yamhad only from outside sources, such as the Mari tablets and a small but helpful archive from an important trade city along the Orontes River called Alalakh, over which ruled members of the royal family of Yamhad for about a century. The Alalakh archive dates to a few decades after the fall of Mari and provides information about the late eighteenth and part of the seventeenth centuries BCE.
The Mari letters illuminate the conflict between Shamshi-Adad and Yamhad. The two states were evenly matched, both militarily and politically. Thus Shamshi-Adad astutely formed an alliance with Qatna, the major power south of Yamhad, while the kings of Yamhad allied themselves with Hammurapi of Babylon, who opposed Shamshi-Adad from the southeast. After Shamshi-Adad’s death, Yamhad played a major role in the sundering of his empire, as shown by Yarim-Lim’s success in returning Zimri-Lim to the throne of Mari as a staunch ally of Yamhad.
Hammurapi of Babylon seems not to have attempted to conquer Yamhad, which continued to prosper into the seventeenth century. The Hittites, who rose to power in Anatolia in the seventeenth century, spoke of Yamhad as having a “great kingship,” a term they used only in referring to the most powerful states. We do not know the full extent of Yamhad’s domain, but the Alalakh tablets indicate that city to have been Yamhad’s vassal, as Ugarit on the coast may also have been. To the south Yamhad controlled Ebla, and to the southeast it dominated Emar on the Euphrates. Yamhad maintained its leadership in northern Syria until the opening years of the sixteenth century. Then, during a burst of military energy, the Hittites of what is today central Turkey, led by King Mursilis I, attacked and destroyed Aleppo. Although the Hittites could not exploit their great victory, Yamhad never recovered from the disaster.
To the south of Yamhad the next major power was Qatna. Again, the site itself has provided no written sources, but the city is mentioned in the Mari tablets. It formed the western end of an important trade route that crossed the Syrian desert from Mari, running through Tadmor (Palmyra) to Qatna. This was a much shorter route from Mesopotamia to the southwestern Levant, cutting many miles off the road that looped north along the Euphrates, and it made Qatna one of the major trade hubs of the Near East. The kings of Qatna found it important to befriend whoever controlled Mari, the eastern terminus of the route. When Shamshi-Adad took co
ntrol of Mari, Ishkhi-Adad of Qatna made an alliance with him, sealing it by marrying his daughter to Shamshi-Adad’s younger son, Yasmah-Adad, now the king of Mari. Such an alliance also greatly benefited Shamshi-Adad, whose northern access to the Mediterranean Sea Yamhad blocked. But when Zimri-Lim returned to Mari, the new king of Qatna, Amut-pi-el, became his ally, and they too maintained cordial relations. The Mari letters also indicate that Amut-pi-el made peace during this period with Yamhad. Otherwise little is currently known of Qatna.
Even more obscurity shrouds the area south of Qatna. The Mari letters called it the land of Amurru (“the West”), which appears to have consisted of several small kingdoms. We know that the Damascus area was known as the land of Apum, the name also given to the land around Shubat-Enlil in northern Syria. This southerly Apum is mentioned in an Egyptian document, and also apparently in as-yet-unpublished Mari letters. It is here that Egyptian influence begins to outweigh that of Mesopotamia and northern Syria.
The Oxford History of the Biblical World Page 7
