Abstract
AbstractDuring the Middle Bronze Age, Upper Mesopotamia, Syria, and the Levant lived through alternating periods of city-state networks, ephemeral great powers, and the domination by the region’s powerful neighbors. The first two centuries of the second millennium bc are a dark age for the region since very few texts have been preserved, although outside texts and archaeological data reveal continuing urban development and flourishing long-distance trade. Most of the written records available for the period come from the archives of Mari (ca. 1805–1761 bc), the largest royal archive ever discovered in the ancient Near East, and cover just four decades. The Mari letters contain information on political struggles, state administration, and diplomatic relations in a region dominated by the competing large-scale states of Mari, Ekallatum, Aleppo, Qatna, Ešnunna, Babylon, and Elam. The texts also describe a world where thriving city and palace life coexists with powerful nomad tribes, and Mesopotamian cuneiform civilization meets West Semitic (Amorite) culture. For the subsequent period until ca. 1600 bc, medium-size royal and private archives, in particular those discovered in Terqa, Šehna, Qattara, Harradum, Tigunanum, and Alalakh, give insight into the local history of several kingdoms on the eve of the Hittite expansion.
Publisher
Oxford University PressNew York
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