Notes on the Concept of Time in Mesopotamia: Horizons and Semantics on Time in the Documentation from Mari

This paper aims to study how the horizons of time were envisioned by the Mariotes. To achieve this goal, we must ask if the concepts of beginning and end were somehow present in their worldview. We must also analyze the general idea of an eternity as expressed in the documentation from the Syro-Mesopotamian
kingdom of Mari. Thus, we propose to focus on the analysis of some key expressions, such as dāriš, ūm ṣiātim, or urram šēram and the contexts in which they were used. We will then try to ascertain how the Mariotes thought of time in general and how they related it to their presence in the universe.