Holy Water or Healing Water? See, Salt, Rivers, and Wells in Middle Bronze Age Tall Hariri/Mari (Syria)

Abstract

This paper examines the religious significance of natural elements—rivers, wells, salt
deposits, and the sea—in the Middle Bronze Age city of Mari (Tall Hariri, Syria). It highlights
how these features, especially water sources, were central to the cultic and political
landscape. The study explores the animistic component of the cults at Mari, showing
how elements like rivers and salt were perceived as divine or spiritually potent. In
particular, it reveals that natural elements remains resilient in local religious practice,
more than other cults. Although no specific temples dedicated to these cults have been
identified archaeologically, the paper analyzes their symbolic and spatial integration
into the city’s religious and royal architecture, particularly within the palace. Through
combined textual and material evidence, the study reveals how sacred geography at
Mari was shaped by the interplay of environment, religious ideology, and royal power.

Keywords: Mesopotamia, sacred landscape, Mari, water cult, Middle Bronze Age