travelling downstream. Transport on land by donkey or oxen only became possible
after the domestication of the donkey in the fourth millennium and the invention of
the wheel at the beginning of the third. The first centuries of the third millennium
mark an essential stage in the development of land transport; Mari I is clearly the
product of a system of river transport, while the towns of Early Dynastic III, Mari II
especially, which represent the second generation of urban settlement, often suggest a
much greater reliance on land transport.
River transport has one serious handicap; it uses little energy when travelling down-
stream, but a great deal hauling the boats upstream against the current which is the
only way of going north. The numerous meanders along the river make the route even
longer and necessitate frequent changes from one bank to the other, something which
is difficult and time-consuming. When traffic is not very heavy such a method is
satisfactory. The foundation of Mari, which can only be explained by an expansion of
trade, meant this was no longer the case.
Survey along the valley of the Euphrates and that of the Khabur have revealed traces
of another canal 120 km long from es-Sijr on the Khabur to the narrows of Baghouz
(Figure 27. 2 ); this canal which is dug down as much as 28 m, shortens the journey by
about 40 km, ensuring an easier path for haulage and can be navigated throughout the
greater part of the year. It is not possible to date this canal by associated objects as it
was probably in use for a long time. It is difficult not to attribute it to the founders of
Mari, because the canal is the only justification for the position of the city, without it
Mari had no raison d’être. It is difficult to see any other justification for the building
of an irrigation system here in a particularly inhospitable region if engineers had not
been motivated by the need for a large-scale enterprise which assured the growth of
the city.
Economic lifeExcavation of the various levels of City I illustrates the importance of manufactur-
ing industries in this new city. There is evidence for a wide range of crafts, but it is
sometimes difficult to say exactly what they were as the tools and the installations are
frequently rather non-specific. One puzzling installation, certainly used for some sort
of manufacturing, was originally identified, wrongly, as a type of ‘sit-down’ lavatory:
it consisted of a platform of baked bricks with a vertical vent, which divided the
platform into two equal parts. All we can say is that it must have been used in some
process where the elimination of water was important.
Another small installation looks as though it was designed to collect some liquid
after it had been used: it is made up of a low platform surrounded by a raised edge,
the whole covered with a layer of bitumen. There is a jar sunk in the centre of the
platform, buried up to its neck. Could this be the remains of a dyeing works where
surplus dye from the dyeing of cloth was retrieved for future use? This is only a
hypothesis.
A workshop for making wheels is a unique find at Mari; the imprint of a wheel, the
earliest from Syria, is preserved in the bitumen with which it was covered and even
shows how the planks and the hub were put together. In addition, a number of bronze
tools were found including a gouge usually associated with the making of this type of
object.
–– The Kingdom of Mari ––