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- The Great royal palace of Mari
- The palace and the arts
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Royal everyday objects
The great royal palace has yielded a small number of bronze objects. As well as ordinary earthenware, a number of jars were decorated and some are typical "Khabur ware". A series of 48 cake moulds were found in a small room next to the kitchen with ovens (Area O), where they had fallen from the upper floor, suggesting they were for royal use; this sector is adjacent to the throne room where large banquets were held. Lions and fish were among the favourite motifs, but some depicted the capture of a deer or a motif of goats on either side of a symbolic "tree of life". This suggests the symbol was also found in utilitarian contexts within the royal sphere.
Devotional objects
The domestic areas for women (Area H) and men (Area G) contained some fifty mould-pressed terracotta figurines and reliefs, which reflects popular devotion centred on two deities placed on either side of a twisted pole bearing astral symbols or on a figure wearing a high polos , holding an axe and a kind of sceptre – a priest or diviner. In the furthest reaches of the temple area (Area D, Room 149), there was a bas-relief with a mythological theme.
Decorative elements
An element of the decoration with geometric motifs similar to those found on a carpet had also fallen from the floor above the service area (Area O, Kitchen 70). It is a mosaic with lamassu goddesses under the protection of the sun disk, of which the motifs were filled with a red paste.