Ur ( or ) was a major Sumerian city-state in ancient Mesopotamia, located at the site of modern Tell el-Muqayyar (Arabic: تَلّ ٱلْمُقَيَّر, lit. 'mound of bitumen') in Dhi Qar Governorate, Iraq. Although Ur was a coastal city near the mouth of the Euphrates on the Persian Gulf, the coastline has shifted and the site is now well inland, on the south bank of the Euphrates, 16 km (10 mi) southwest of the city of Nasiriyah. The city dates from the Ubaid period c. 3800 BC, and is recorded in written history as a city-state from the 26th century BC, its first recorded king being Mesannepada.
The city's patron deity was the moon god Nanna (Sin in Akkadian), and the name of the city is derived from UNUGKI, literally "the abode (of Nanna)". The site is marked by the partially restored ruins of the Ziggurat of Ur, which contained the shrine of Nanna, excavated in the 1930s. The temple was built in the 21st century BC, during the reign of Ur-Nammu and was reconstructed in the 6th century BC by Nabonidus, the last king of Babylon. In recent years, Ur Tourist City, a modern heritage and tourism district, has been developed adjacent to the site to accommodate tourists and pilgrims.
Society and culture
Archaeological discoveries have shown that Ur was a major Sumerian urban center on the Mesopotamian plain. The discovery of Ur's Royal Tombs further confirmed this. These tombs, which date to the Early Dynastic IIIa period (approximately in the 25th or 24th century BC), contained many luxury items made of precious metals and semi-precious stones imported from long distances (Ancient Iran, Afghanistan, India, Asia Minor, the Levant and the Persian Gulf). This immense wealth shows Ur's economic importance during the Early Bronze Age.
Excavation in the old city of Ur in 1928 revealed the Lyres of Ur, instruments similar to the modern harp but in the shape of a bull and with eleven strings.
Ur was an important religious center in ancient Mesopotamia. It was home to the Temple of Inanna, a prominent religious site. When Ur was conquered by Sargon of Akkad, he appointed his daughter, Enheduanna, as high priestess of Nanna, the Mesopotamian moon god. Control over the priesthood of Nanna remained a symbolic marker of political control over the region of Babylon for five centuries following Sargon's reign.
Ur was also a significant city-state with regard to the production of Sumerian literature. The potential first identifiable author in world history, Enheduanna, composed hymns to various Mesopotamian deities, such as The Exaltation of Inanna, during her time as a high priestess in Ur; however, Assyriologists are unsure whether Enheduanna composed the hymns herself or if a scribe composed them on her behalf. During the Ur-III period, hymns praising rulers and heroes became a popular literary genre, although only copies from later periods survive. Toward the end of the Ur-III period, a series of poems lamenting the decline of Ur were produced, with the famous Lament over the destruction of Sumer and Ur detailing the capture of King Ibbi-Sin by the Elamites.
History
The site consists of a mound, roughly 1200 by 800 metres with a height of about 20 metres above the plain. The mound is split by the remnants of an ancient canal into north and south portions.
The remains of a city wall are visible surrounding the site. The occupation size ranged from about 15 hectares in the Jemdet Nasr period to 90 hectares in the Early Dynastic period and then peaking in the Ur III period at 108 hectares and the Isin-Larsa period at 140 hectares, extending beyond the city walls. Subsequent period had varying lesser degrees of occupation.
Prehistory
When Ur was founded, it was near the coastline of the Persian Gulf. Ur is thought, therefore, to have had marshy surroundings; irrigation would have been unnecessary, and the city's evident canals likely were used for transportation. Fish, birds, tubers, and reeds might have supported Ur economically without the need for an agricultural revolution sometimes hypothesized as a prerequisite to urbanization.
Prehistoric Ubaid period
Archaeologists have discovered evidence of early occupation at Ur during the Ubaid period (c. 5500–3700 BC), a prehistoric period of Mesopotamia. The name derives from Tell al-'Ubaid where the earliest large excavation of Ubaid period material was conducted initially in 1919 by Henry Hall and later by Leonard Woolley.
Later, a layer of soil covered the occupation levels from the Ubaid period. Excavators of the 1920s interpreted the layer of soil as evidence for the Great Flood of the Epic of Gilgamesh and Book of Genesis. However, later carbon dating complicated things, as it suggested that similar layers of sediment at the sites of different Sumerian cities were from different dates. In either case, the South Mesopotamian plain was exposed to regular floods from the Euphrates and the Tigris rivers, with heavy erosion from water and wind, which may have given rise to the Mesopotamian and derivative Biblical Great Flood stories.
Early Bronze Age
There are various main sources informing scholars about the importance of Ur during the Early Bronze Age.
Early Dynastic period II
Proto-cuneiform tablets from the Early Dynastic period, c. 2900 BC, have been recovered.
Early Dynastic period III
The First Dynasty of Ur seems to have had great wealth and power, as shown by the lavish remains of the Royal Cemetery at Ur. The Sumerian King List provides a tentative political history of ancient Sumer and mentions, among others, several rulers of Ur. Mesannepada is the first king mentioned in the Sumerian King List, and appears to have lived in the 26th century BC; a cylinder with his name inscribed upon it was discovered at the Royal Cemetery. Five more kings followed until the First Dynasty came to an end, with the Kings List stating that the kingship of Ur was usurped by the city of Awan.
Little is known about the period between the First Dynasty and the Akkadian period. According to interpretations of archaeological and textual evidence from this period by Assyriologists such as C.J. Gadd and Marc van de Mieroop, it appears that Ur, as well as much of its neighboring cities, came under the control of the city of Lagash in the 25th century BC, ruled by king Eannatum. His successor, Enannatum I, left behind memorials to demonstrate the fact that Ur remained under his control. Following the reign of Enannatum II, the power of Lagash declined, although Ur remained under the control of Lagashite kings. Around 2400 BC, Lugalkinishedudu, a king of Uruk, proclaimed himself king of Ur.[4] Lugalzagesi, the king of Umma, united southern Babylonia in 24th century BC, and was the last Sumerian king of the region before the conquest of Sargon of Akkad.[5]
Akkadian period
Ur came under the control of the Semitic-speaking Akkadian Empire (c. 2334–2154 BC) founded by Sargon the Great between the 24th and 22nd centuries BC. This was a period when the Semitic-speaking Akkadians, who had entered Mesopotamia in approximately 3000 BC, gained ascendancy over the Sumerians, and indeed much of the ancient Near East. The Akkadians imposed their language upon the Sumerian-speaking population of Southern Babylonia, leading to the adaptation of cuneiform script in order to accommodate the Akkadian language's grammar. Ur was an important southern Babylonian city within the Akkadian Empire. It served the empire's hub in southern Babylonia. Sargon installed his daughter Enheduanna as high priestess of Nanna, an act which historians such as Marc van de Mieroop interpret as a symbolic act for Sargon to legitimize his rule and exert political power over southern Babylonia. However, Sargon's conquest was resisted by southern Babylonia. His successor and son, Rimush, had to put down a revolt led by a local ruler of Ur. This rebellion was crushed and according to an inscription, 8,040 men were killed, 5,460 were taken as prisoners, and the leaders of the rebellion were captured. Sargon's son, Rimush, dedicated vessels captured during his campaign in Elam to the gods at Ur. Naram-Sim, the fourth ruler of the Akkadian Empire, is known to have established triumphal inscriptions at Ur that were copied by scribal students for centuries after. The Akkadian period came to an end in the 22nd century BC during the reign of Sharkalisharri due to both internal and external pressures, particularly from a people known as the Gutians who are thought to have come from the Zagros Mountains. It is still unknown as to whether Ur became ruled by a Gutian king or returned to being ruled by a local governor.
Ur III period
Shortly after the decline of the Akkadian Empire, Ur once again fell under the influence of Lagash. Lagashite king Ur-Bau appointed his son Enannipadda. His successor, Gudea, mentioned in his inscriptions the extensive building activities that took place in Ur during his reign. In the 21st century BC, Utu-hengal, a king of Uruk, drove the Gutians out of southern Babylonia and took control of the region. Upon his death, his governor of Ur by the name of Ur-Nammu moved the kingship to the city, ruling between c. 2047 BC and 2030 BC. During his rule, temples, including the Ziggurat of Ur, were built, and agriculture was improved through irrigation. His code of laws, the Code of Ur-Nammu (a fragment was identified in Istanbul in 1952) is one of the oldest such documents known, preceding the Code of Hammurabi by 300 years. He and his successor Shulgi were both deified during their reigns, and after his death he continued as a hero-figure: one of the surviving works of Sumerian literature describes the death of Ur-Nammu and his journey to the underworld.
Ur-Nammu was succeeded by Shulgi, the greatest king of the Third Dynasty of Ur, who solidified the hegemony of Ur and reformed the empire into a highly centralized bureaucratic state. Shulgi ruled for a long time (at least 42 years) and deified himself halfway through his rule.
The Ur empire continued through the reigns of three more kings with Akkadian names, Amar-Sin, Shu-Sin, and Ibbi-Sin. It fell around 1940 BC to the Elamites in the 24th regnal year of Ibbi-Sin, an event commemorated by the Lament for Ur.
According to one estimate, Ur was the largest city in the world from c. 2030 to 1980 BC. Its population was approximately 65,000 (or 0.1 per cent share of global population then).
Middle Bronze Age
The site was occupied in the Isin-Larsa and Old Babylonian periods. The city of Ur lost its political power after the demise of the Third Dynasty of Ur. While Ur's significance within the Near East continued into the Isin-Larsa period, interpretations of archaeological evidence suggest that the city was severely damaged in the aftermath of attacks by the Elamites. Following the decline of Isin, Ur fell under the influence of the Elamite kings of Larsa, who initiated several major rebuilding projects in Ur which included additional structures added to the ziggurat. Ur became the second capital of Larsa's dominion. In the 19th century BC during the reign of Rim-Sin I, Ur was conquered by king Hammurabi of the Old Babylonian Empire. During the Old Babylonian Empire, in the reign of Samsu-iluna, Ur was abandoned. It later became a part of the native Sealand Dynasty for several centuries.
Late Bronze Age
Following the decline of the Sealand Dynasty, Ur came under the control of the Kassites in the 16th century BC. Archaeological evidence from this period is sparse and predominately come from religious buildings. Material culture from this era is sparse, but a few inscriptions reveal that a handful of re-building projects were completed during this period. Most of the re-building activity occurred during the reign of Kurigalzu I. Ur does not appear to have been a significant city in Kassite period Babylonia. The city was sporadically under the control of the Middle Assyrian Empire between the 14th and 11th centuries BC.
Iron Age
The city, along with the rest of southern Mesopotamia and much of the Near East, Asia Minor, North Africa and southern Caucasus, fell to the north Mesopotamian Neo-Assyrian Empire from the 10th to late 7th centuries BC. From the end of the 7th century BC Ur was ruled by the so-called Chaldean Dynasty of Babylon. In the 6th century BC there was new construction in Ur under the rule of Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon. The last Babylonian king, Nabonidus, improved the ziggurat. However, the city started to decline from around 530 BC after Babylonia fell to the Persian Achaemenid Empire, and was no longer inhabited by the early 5th century BC. The demise of Ur was perhaps owing to drought, changing river patterns, and the silting of the outlet to the Persian Gulf.
Identification with the Biblical Ur
Ur is possibly the city of Ur of the Chaldees mentioned in the Book of Genesis as the birthplace of the Jewish patriarch Abraham, traditionally believed to have lived some time in the 2nd millennium BC. There are, however, conflicting traditions and scholarly opinions identifying Ur Kasdim with the sites of Şanlıurfa, Urkesh, Urartu, or Kutha.