Mari was an ancient city on the western bank of the Euphrates in present-day Syria, near the modern town of Abu Kamal. Founded in the third millennium BCE, it controlled trade along the river between Mesopotamia and the Levant and became a powerful kingdom, at times ruled by Sumerian and later Amorite dynasties. Excavations beginning in the 1930s uncovered a large royal palace and an archive of some twenty thousand clay tablets, which are a main source for the diplomacy and daily life of the Old Babylonian period. The city was destroyed by Hammurabi of Babylon in the eighteenth century BCE. Its ruins have been damaged by conflict in the region in recent years.
Before and after
- c. 3,000s BCEYamnaya herders spread across Europe and Asia
- c. 3,000 BCECuneiform
- from c. 3,000 BCE to 1,800 BCEIndus Valley Civilization
- from c. 3,000 BCE to 2,240 BCEEbla
- from 30th century BCE to 18th century BCEMari
- from c. 2,890 BCE to 2,686 BCESecond Dynasty of Egypt
- from c. 2,707 BCE to 2,216 BCEOld Kingdom of Egypt
- from c. 2,700 BCE to 539 BCEElam
- c. 2,700 BCEConstruction of Bent Pyramid
More in Evolution & life
- from c. 3,200 BCE to 1,050 BCECycladic civilization
- from 31st century BCE to 20th century BCECorded Ware culture
- from c. 2,300 BCE to 1,000 BCEAndronovo culture
- from c. 1,300s BCE to 500s BCEChavín culture
- 11th century BCEThe Bantu expansion begins
- from 1st century to 7th centuryNazca culture
The era
This moment belongs to the Ancient civilizations (3,200 BCE to 500 CE), writing, cities and empires.