Mari is the second largest center in ancient Syria, in chronological order, a source of impertant historical information . Its immense archive, some 20,000 clay tablets, written mostly in Akkadian with cuneiform script, dates from Mari's second period of splendor, at the turn of the second and third millennia B.C.E. The Mari archive refers to administrative and political events of the Amorite dynasty Lim. The Amorites were nomadic Semitic tribes divided into two parts: the sons of the (hand) left, Banu-Simaal, to whom the Lim belonged, and the Banu-Yamina, the sons of the (hand) right. When one looks at the rising sun-god, that is, when one is “oriented,” the left hand points north, the right hand points south. Even today yemen means the south (and in fact the present state by this name lies to the south). The Banu-Yamina therefore are the Benjaminites sons of the south, and they existed as early as 2200 b.e.v., long before Jacob's son Benjamin and the Benjaminite tribe appeared on the biblical and historical scene.
The city of Mari was a very important trading center in upper Mesopotamia: its history spans some 2,500 years, beginning around 2900 b e v. It appears to have been founded as a new settlement during the “Sumerian” era, in which Sumerian city-states settled in lower Mesopotamia, i.e., Sumer, prospered (and fought each other). Control of water was vital, hence the founding of a northern city like Mari (it was located about 1 km from the Euphrates River, on the border between present-day Syria and Iraq). Mari also became a center and trading hub because of its geographical location. It fought with ups and downs against Ebla, the Assyrians and Babylon, and other smaller kingdoms. In the 17th century b.e.v. the kingdom of Mari (and its great king, Zimri-Lim) was conquered by Hammurapi, king of Babylon, who took away the archives pertaining to his city but left everything else behind.
