Mara-Il is the only king of
Nagar (Tell Brak) known by name, and the first known historical figure from the
Jezirah region. He can be dated to the Early Jezirah IIIb Palace Archive (i.e. Early Bronze IIIB, between 2500-2350 BC).
[Marc Lebeau (2006) Nabada (Tell Beydar), an Early Bronze Age City in the Syrian Jezirah (lectur]
www.beydar.org Most of the texts record the ruler of Nagar using his title "
Lugal#Lugal, ensi and en, En", without mentioning a name. Only in Ebla was a name mentioned: Mara-Il; he ruled a little more than a generation before Nagar's destruction c. 2300 BC, and was most probably the "En" recorded in other texts, including the ones from
Nabada
Nabada ( ˆnaËbaËdÉœ Swabian German, schwäbisch for "Hinunterbaden" -- "swim down") is a traditional parade on the Danube, in Ulm, Germany. It takes place every year on ''Schwörmontag'', the second to last Monday of July.
Origins
The Na ...
. At this time the main city-states were
Ebla
Ebla (Sumerian language, Sumerian: ''ebâ‚‚-la'', , modern: , Tell Mardikh) was one of the earliest kingdoms in Syria. Its remains constitute a Tell (archaeology), tell located about southwest of Aleppo near the village of Mardikh. Ebla was ...
to the west and
Mari to the south. In times of war between Ebla and Mari, Ebla was allied with Nagar circumventing trade through northern mesopotamia instead of the blocked Euphrates valley.
Amar-AN
An inscription from Mari records a certain Amar-
AN of the land of Nagar, and he could be identical to Mara-Il (whose name in Ebla was written ma-ra-
AN). Four scholars,
Marco Bonechi,
Amalia Catagnoti,
Maria Vittoria Tonietti and
Walther Sallaberger
Walther Sallaberger (born 3 April 1963 in Innsbruck) is an Austrian Assyriologist.
Life
From 1982 to 1988, Walther Sallaberger studied languages and cultures of the ancient Near East as well as classical archeology at the University of Innsbr ...
, suggested a tentative relation between the element Amar and the element Ma-ra but both Catagnoti and Tonietti admit to the difficulty of this identification and have reservations.
Notes
References
Citations
Sources
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Tell Brak
24th-century BC monarchs
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