Postcard from Istanbul Archaeological Museum: Ancient War booty from Mari (modern Tell Hariri, Syria) to Babylon in the Neo-Babylonian Period

Puzur-Ishtar, governor of Mari

by Catherine Sezgin, ARCA Blog

ISTANBUL - Here's an example of ancient 'war booty' on display at the Museum of the Ancient Orient in Istanbul's Archaeological Museum  -- a statue brought from the city of Mari to Babylon in the Neo-Babylonian Period. Produced between 1894-1594 BC, the statue of Puzar-Ishtar, a governor of Mari (modern Tell Hariri, Syria) is from the palace museum of Nebuchadnessar II.

Information from History Files:

Mari was located in Mesopotamia (just inside the border of modern Syria) on the site of Tell Hariri on the west bank of the Euphrates - the most northerly of all the Sumerian city states. Thought to have been inhabited since the fifth millennium BC, the inhabitants of Mari were Semitic, probably part of the Eblaite and Akkadian migration. Their village became a flourishing city state from about 2900 BC until circa 1760 BC as a strategic stronghold between Sumer and the city states of Syria and northern Mesopotamia. It was destroyed in the 24th century BC and only revived when the Amorites succeeded the Sumerians. Hammurabi's Babylonian empire eventually conquered and sacked it in the eighteenth century BC.

Face of Puzur-Ishtar