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During the second millennium BC the city passed into the hands of the rulers of Mari, a city a few hundred miles to the south. The king of Urkesh became a vassal (and apparently an appointed puppet) of Mari. The Urkeshites evidently resented this, as the royal archives at Mari provide evidence of their strong resistance; in one letter, the king of Mari tells his Urkesh counterpart that "I did not know that the sons of your city hate you on my account. But you are mine, even if the city of Urkesh is not."
The city appears to have been abandoned about half-way through the second millennium BC, though the reason for this is as yet unknown.
The genealogy and identity of Urkesh's rulers is largely unknown, but the following names have been identified as being those of the city-state's kings. The first three known kings (only two of whom are known by name) bore the Hurrian title endan:
The site, at Tell Mozan, has been under virtually constant excavation since 1984 as a joint effort between the Syrian government and various European (principally Italian) archaeological institutes.