The city's patrondeity was themoon godNanna (Sin inAkkadian), and the name of the city is derived from UNUGKI, literally "the abode (of Nanna)".[4] The site is marked by the partially restored ruins of theZiggurat of Ur, which contained the shrine of Nanna, excavated in the 1930s. The temple was built in the 21st century BC (short chronology), during the reign ofUr-Nammu and was reconstructed in the 6th century BC byNabonidus, thelast king ofBabylon.[5]
The name𒋀𒀊𒆠URIM5KI for "Country of Ur" on a seal of KingUr-Nammu
Archaeological discoveries have shown that Ur was a majorSumerian urban center on the Mesopotamian plain. The discovery ofUr'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, theLevant and thePersian Gulf).[5] This immense wealth shows Ur's economic importance during the EarlyBronze Age.[6]
Excavation in the old city of Ur in 1929 revealed theLyres of Ur, instruments similar to the modern harp but in the shape of a bull and with eleven strings.[7]
Standard of Ur mosaic (c. 2600 BC)
TheStandard of Ur mosaic, from the royal tombs of Ur, is made of red limestone, bitumen,lapis lazuli, and shell. The "peace" side shows comfort, music, and prosperity. The "war" side shows the king, his armies, and chariots trampling on enemies.
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.[8] 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.[9]
When Ur was founded, the Persian Gulf's water level was two-and-a-half metres higher than today. Ur is thought, therefore, to have hadmarshy surroundings; irrigation would have been unnecessary, and the city's evidentcanals likely were used fortransportation. Fish, birds, tubers, and reeds might have supported Ur economically without the need for anagricultural revolution sometimes hypothesized as a prerequisite to urbanization.[10]
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 theGreat Flood of theEpic of Gilgamesh andBook of Genesis. It is now understood that the South Mesopotamian plain was exposed to regular floods from theEuphrates and theTigris rivers, with heavyerosion from water and wind, which may have given rise to the Mesopotamian and derivative Biblical Great Flood stories.[13]
TheFirst Dynasty of Ur seems to have had great wealth and power, as shown by the lavish remains of theRoyal Cemetery at Ur. TheSumerian King List provides a tentative political history of ancientSumer 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. That Ur was an important urban centre already then seems to be indicated by a type ofcylinder seal called the City Seals. These seals contain a set ofProto-Cuneiform signs which appear to be writings or symbols of the name of city-states in ancient Mesopotamia. Many of these seals have been found in Ur, and the name of Ur is prominent on them.[16]
Empire of the Third Dynasty of Ur. West is at top, north at right.
Gold helmet of King of Ur IMeskalamdug, c. 2600–2500 BC
Mesopotamian female deity seated on a chair, Old-Babylonian fired clay plaque from Ur
Ur came under the control of theSemitic-speakingAkkadian Empire (c. 2334–2154 BC) founded bySargon the Great between the 24th and 22nd centuries BC. This was a period when theSemitic-speaking Akkadians, who had entered Mesopotamia in approximately 3000 BC, gained ascendancy over theSumerians, and indeed much of the ancientNear East.
After a short period of chaos following the fall of the Akkadian Empire the third Ur dynasty was established when the kingUr-Nammu came to power, ruling between c. 2047 BC and 2030 BC. During his rule, temples, including theZiggurat of Ur, were built, and agriculture was improved throughirrigation. His code of laws, theCode of Ur-Nammu (a fragment was identified inIstanbul in 1952) is one of the oldest such documents known, preceding theCode of Hammurabi by 300 years. He and his successorShulgi 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.[17]
Ur-Nammu was succeeded byShulgi, 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.[18]
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).[citation needed]
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. Nevertheless, its important position which kept on providing access to the Persian Gulf ensured the ongoing economic importance of the city during the second millennium BC. The city came to be ruled by theAmorite first dynasty ofBabylon which rose to prominence in southern Mesopotamia in the 19th century BC. During the Old Babylonian Empire, in the reign of Samsu-iluna, Ur was abandoned. It later became a part of the nativeSealand Dynasty for several centuries.
It then came under the control of theKassites in the 16th century BC, and sporadically under the control of theMiddle Assyrian Empire between the 14th and 11th centuries BC.[21]
The city, along with the rest of southern Mesopotamia and much of theNear East,Asia Minor,North Africa and southernCaucasus, fell to the north MesopotamianNeo-Assyrian Empire from the 10th to late 7th centuries BC. From the end of the 7th century BC Ur was ruled by the so-calledChaldean Dynasty ofBabylon. In the 6th century BC there was new construction in Ur under the rule ofNebuchadnezzar 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 thePersianAchaemenid 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 thePersian Gulf.
Ur is possibly the city ofUr Kasdim mentioned in theBook of Genesis as the birthplace of theJewish andMuslim patriarchAbraham (Avraham in Hebrew,Ibrahim in Arabic), traditionally believed to have lived some time in the 2nd millennium BC.[22] There are, however, conflicting traditions and scholarly opinions identifying Ur Kasdim with the sites ofŞanlıurfa,Urkesh,Urartu, orKutha.
The biblical Ur is mentioned four times in theTorah orHebrew Bible (Tanakh in Hebrew), with the distinction "of the Kasdim"—traditionally rendered in English as "Ur of the Chaldees". TheChaldeans had settled in the vicinity by around 850 BC, but were not extant anywhere in Mesopotamia during the 2nd millennium BC period when Abraham is traditionally held to have lived. The Chaldean dynasty did not rule Babylonia (and thus become the rulers of Ur) until the late 7th century BC, and held power only until the mid 6th century BC. The name is found inGenesis 11:28,Genesis 11:31, andGenesis 15:7. InNehemiah 9:7, a single passage mentioning Ur is a paraphrase ofGenesis.[citation needed]
In 1625, the site was visited byPietro Della Valle, who recorded the presence of ancient bricks stamped with strange symbols, cemented together withbitumen, as well as inscribed pieces of black marble that appeared to beseals. He retrieved several inscribed bricks.[25] It was visited in 1835 byJames Baillie Fraser and John Ross who provided a detailed description.[26] In January 1850 William Loftus and H. A. Churchill visited the site and collected brick inscriptions.[27] European archaeologists did not identify Tell el-Muqayyar as the site of Ur untilHenry Rawlinson successfully deciphered some bricks from that location, brought to England byWilliam Loftus.[28]
Foundation cone of A'annepada for Inanna, British Museum BM 90951
The site was first excavated, on behalf of theBritish Museum and with instructions from theForeign Office, byJohn George Taylor, Britishvice consul atBasra in 1853, 1854, and again in 1858.[29][30][31] It had long been thought that Taylor only worked at the site in 1853 and 1854 but a 48 page handwritten report of his work there in 1858 has now come to light. Finds from the dig included a carved stone with integral handle, a plaque with woman's face, and a foundation cone of A'annepada.[32] Taylor uncovered theZiggurat of Ur and a structure with an arch later identified as part of the "Gate of Judgment".[33] Among the finds were copies of a standard cylinder ofNabonidus, Neo-Babylonian ruler, mentioning the prince regent Belshar-uzur, usually thought to be theBelshazzar of theBook of Daniel in the Hebrew Bible.[34] Between 1854 and 1918 locals excavated over two hundred tablets from the site, mostly from the temple Ê-nun-maḫ, of the moon god Sin.[35] Built by the Ur III rulerUr-Nammu, the ziggurat was later repaired by Isin rulerIshme-Dagan early in the 2nd millennium BC.[36] Stamped bricks on the ziggurat detail the rebuilding of the temple ofNingal by 14th century BC Kassite rulerKurigalzu I.[37]
Some cuneiform tablets were found. Thirty four of these tablets were inadvertently mixed in with those excavated atKutalla. Only in recent years has this error been recognized.[38] Typical of the era, his excavations destroyed information and exposed thetell. Natives used the now loosened, 4,000-year-old bricks and tile for construction for the next 75 years, while the site lay unexplored, the British Museum having decided to prioritize archaeology inAssyria.[39]
The site was considered rich in remains, and relatively easy to explore. After some soundings were made during a week in 1918 byReginald Campbell Thompson,H. R. Hall worked the site for one season (using 70 Turkish prisoners of war) for the British Museum in 1919, laying the groundwork for more extensive efforts to follow. Some cuneiform tablets from the Isin-Larsa period were found, including omen and medical texts. They are now in the British Museum.[40][41][42]
Aerial photograph of Ur in 1927
Excavations from 1922 to 1934 were funded by theBritish Museum and theUniversity of Pennsylvania and led by thearchaeologist SirCharles Leonard Woolley.[43] The last two seasons focused on closing the site properly.[44][39][45] A total of about 1,850 burials were uncovered, including 16 that were described as "royal tombs" containing many valuable artifacts, including theStandard of Ur. Most of the royal tombs were dated to about 2600 BC. The finds included the unlooted tomb of a queen thought to be QueenPuabi (formerly transcribed as Shub-ab), known from a cylinderseal found in the tomb, although there were two other different and unnamed seals found in the tomb. Many other people had been buried with her, in a form of human sacrifice.[46] Near theziggurat were uncovered the temple E-nun-mah and buildings E-dub-lal-mah (built for a king), E-gi-par (residence of the high priestess) and E-hur-sag (a temple building).
Outside the temple area, many houses used in everyday life were found. Excavations were also made below the royal tombs layer: a 3.5-metre-thick (11 ft) layer ofalluvial clay covered the remains of earlier habitation, includingpottery from theUbaid period, the first stage of settlement in southern Mesopotamia. Woolley later wrote many articles and books about the discoveries.[47] One of Woolley's assistants on the site was the BritisharchaeologistMax Mallowan.[48]
Bitumen "mortar" among Ur's mudbricks
Circular groups of bricks excavated in 1900
A number of royal inscriptions were found during the Woolley excavations.[49][50] Numerous cuneiform tablets were also recovered. These included archives, temple and domestic, from the Early Dynastic and Sargonic periods,[51][52][53][54] the Ur III period,[55][56] Old and Middle Babylonian period,[57][58] and the Neo-Babylonian and Persian periods.[59] Many literary and religious texts were also recovered.[60][61][62]
The discoveries at the site reached the headlines in mainstream media in the world with the discoveries of the Royal Tombs. As a result, the ruins of the ancient city attracted many visitors. One of these visitors was the already famousAgatha Christie, who as a result of this visit ended up marrying Max Mallowan.[63][64] During this time the site was accessible from theBaghdad–Basra railway, from a stop called "Ur Junction".[65]
In 2009, an agreement was reached for a joint University of Pennsylvania and Iraqi team to resume archaeological work at the site of Ur.[66] Excavations began in 2015 under the direction of Elizabeth C Stone and Paul Zimansky of theState University of New York. In part of the section they planned to work (designated AH) they found that a large area had been leveled to build a modern reconstruction of the fictional "House of Abraham" and another area have been paved over for a Papal visit.[67] The first excavation season was primarily to re-excavate Woolley's work in an Old Babylonian housing area with two new trenches for confirmation. Among the finds were a cylinder seal and balance pan weights. A number of cuneiform tablets were unearthed, a few Ur III period, a few from the Isin-Larsa period (including one fromRim-Sîn I year 24), a few Old Babylonian period, and a number of Old Akkadian period.[68] A similar though smaller dig was made in a Neo-Babylonian housing area.[69][70] In the 2017 season an urban area adjacent to Wooleys very large AH area was excavated. The burial vault of a Babylonian general Abisum was found. Abisum is known from year 36 of Hammurabi into the reign of Samsu-iluna. Thirty cuneiform tablets were found around the vault and another 12 inside the tomb itself. A 3rd excavation season was conducted in 2019 (the University of Pennsylvania excavated in 2023 though nothing has yet been published of that work).[71] A notable find was a large cuneiform tablet dated to the 6th year of Ur III rulerIbbi-Sin on the swap of two large residences between private individuals (Munimah and Gayagama). One home was about 240 square meters and the other 423 square meters which is especially large for a home in that time.[72]
Some distance south of Area AH in 2017 and 2019 a German team ofLudwig-Maximilians-Universität München directed by Adelheid Otto excavated a large home of Sîn-nādā (mid 19th century BC) chief administrator of the Temple ofNingal in the Isin-Larsa period. In levels below the final occupation were found tablets dating toSin-Eribam andSilli-Adad, rulers ofLarsa. They included a new copy of theLament for Sumer and Ur.[73][74][75]
Rawlinson's March 1854 letter toThe Athenaeum announcing his reading of the Nabonidus cylinders which connected Muqeyer or "Um Qeer" with the name Ur[76]
When the Royal Tombs at Ur were discovered, their size was unknown. Excavators started digging two trenches in the middle of the desert to see if they could find anything that would allow them to keep digging. They split into two teams – A and team B. Both teams spent the first few months digging a trench and found evidence of burial grounds by collecting small pieces of golden jewelry and pottery. This was called the "gold trench". After the first season of digging finished, Woolley returned to England. In Autumn, Woolley returned and started the second season. By the end of the second season, he had uncovered a courtyard surrounded by many rooms.[77] In their third season of digging archaeologists had uncovered their biggest find yet, a building that was believed to have been constructed by order of the king, and a second building thought to be where the high priestess lived. As the fourth and fifth season came to a close, they had discovered so many items that most of their time was now spent recording the objects they found instead of actually digging objects.[78] Items included gold jewelry, clay pots and stones. One of the most significant objects was theStandard of Ur. By the end of their sixth season they had excavated 1850 burial sites and deemed 17 of them to be "Royal Tombs". Some clay sealings and cuneiform tablet fragment were found in an underlying layer.[79]
Woolley finished his work excavating the Royal Tombs in 1934, uncovering a series of burials. Many servants were killed and buried with the royals, who he believed went to their deaths willingly. Computerized tomography scans on some of the surviving skulls have shown signs that they were killed by blows to the head that could be from the spiked end of a copper axe, which showed Woolley's initial theory of mass suicide via poison to be incorrect.[80]
Reconstructed Sumerian headgear and necklaces found in the tomb ofPuabi in the "Royal tombs" of Ur
InsidePuabi's tomb there was a chest in the middle of the room. Underneath that chest was a hole in the ground that led to what was called the "King's Grave": PG-789. It was believed to be the king's grave because it was buried next to the queen. In this grave, there were 63 attendants who were all equipped with copper helmets and swords. It is thought to be his army buried with him. Another large room was uncovered, PG-1237, called the "Great death pit". This large room had 74 bodies, 68 of which were women. This was based on artifacts found with the bodies, weapons and whetstones in the case of males and simple, non-gold, jewelry in the case of females. There is some debate about the gender of one body. Two large ram statues were found in PG-1237 which are believed to be the remains of lyres. Several lyres were found just outside the entrance. The bodies were found to have perimortem blunt force injuries which caused their death. They also had skeleton markers for long term manual labor.[81][82][83]
Most of the treasures excavated at Ur are in the British Museum, theUniversity of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology and theBaghdad Museum. At the Penn Museum the exhibition "Iraq's Ancient Past",[84] which includes many of the most famous pieces from the Royal Tombs, opened to visitors in late Spring 2011. Previously, the Penn Museum had sent many of its best pieces from Ur on tour in an exhibition called "Treasures From the Royal Tombs of Ur." It traveled to eight American museums, including those in Cleveland, Washington and Dallas, ending the tour at the Detroit Institute of Art in May 2011.[citation needed]
Samples from two stratigraphic layers in the royal cemetery area, from before the royal burials, have been radiocarbon dated. The ED Ia layer dated to c. 2900 BC and the ED Ic layer to c. 2679 BC.[85][86]
Though some of the areas that were cleared during modern excavations have sanded over again, theGreat Ziggurat is fully cleared and stands as the best-preserved and most visible landmark at the site.[87] The famous Royal tombs, also called the Neo-Sumerian Mausolea, located about 250 metres (820 ft) south-east of the Great Ziggurat in the corner of the wall that surrounds the city, are nearly totally cleared. Parts of the tomb area appear to be in need of structural consolidation or stabilization.[citation needed]
There arecuneiform (Sumerian writing) on many walls, some entirely covered in script stamped into the mud-bricks. The text is sometimes difficult to read, but it covers most surfaces. Moderngraffiti has also found its way to the graves, usually in the form of names made with coloured pens (sometimes they are carved).[citation needed]
The Great Ziggurat itself has far more graffiti, mostly lightly carved into the bricks. The graves are completely empty. A small number of the tombs are accessible. Most of them have been cordoned off. The whole site is covered with pottery debris, to the extent that it is virtually impossible to set foot anywhere without stepping on some. Some have colours and paintings on them. Some of the "mountains" of broken pottery are debris that has been removed from excavations.
Pottery debris and human remains form many of the walls of the royal tombs area. In May 2009, theUnited States Army returned the Ur site to the Iraqi authorities, who hope to develop it as a tourist destination.[88]
Since 2009, thenon-profit organizationGlobal Heritage Fund (GHF) has been working to protect and preserve Ur against the problems of erosion, neglect, inappropriate restoration, war and conflict. GHF's stated goal for the project is to create an informed and scientifically grounded Master Plan to guide the long-term conservation and management of the site, and to serve as a model for the stewardship of other sites.[89]
Since 2013, the institution for Development Cooperation of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs DGCS[90] and the SBAH, the State Board of Antiquities and Heritage of the Iraqi Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, have started a cooperation project for "The Conservation and Maintenance of Archaeological site of UR". In the framework of this cooperation agreement, the executive plan, with detailed drawings, is in progress for the maintenance of the Dublamah Temple (design concluded, works starting), the Royal Tombs—Mausolea 3rd Dynasty (in progress)—and the Ziqqurat (in progress). The first updated survey in 2013 has produced a new aerial map derived by the flight of a UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) operated in March 2014. This is the first high-resolution map, derived from more than 100 aerial photograms, with an accuracy of 20 cm or less. A preview of the ortho-photomap of Archaeological Site of Ur is available online.[91]
The site (30º 58’ 33.84” N by 46º 08’ 28.36” E) was first noted, as Tell Abu Ba’arura Shimal ("Father of Sheep Droppings, North"), as aKassite period occupation (300 NE X 150 X 2.5. Cassite: 3.5 ha) during an archaeological survey of the region in the 1960s.[92] The site, which lies 6.45 kilometers northeast of Ur, was excavated in a five week season from December to January 2011 – 2012 by a joint Iraqi State Board of Antiquities and Heritage and theState University of New York at Stony Brook team led by Elizabeth Stone and Paul Zimansky. It was measured at about 250 meters by 200 meters with two high points, about 3.5 meters above the plain, separated by a saddle. Seven trenches were dug, some small, and three yielded simple slope wash.[93] On the surface were found Kassite and Old Babylonian period ceramics and satellite imagery suggested the presence of a large square building and a number of other walls but the excavators found no building remains in surface or magnetic gradiometry surveys, or in the later trenches. Three occupational levels were determined. The top layer contained Kassite pottery fragments, a late Kassite kiln, and a number of late Kassite burials. The second heldSealand Dynasty ceramics along with lithic (grinding stones, cuboids and one balance weight), metal, floral and faunal (primarily cattle, sheep, and goats) remains.[94] The excavators deemed the occupations to be repeated but transient. Neither level showed signs of formal or residential architecture.
The final, earliest level also lacked notable architecture but featured a very large mud or clay platform, made from clean material, devoid of sherds, bones, or other living debris. Coring to a depth of 4 meters (1 meter below the plain) failed to find the bottom of the platform. Part of the platform is underlain by a square baked brick pavement and remains of a fish pond were found. Two 5 meter by 10 meter trenches, 55 meters apart, were excavated in this platform. An inscribed brick of the first Ur III rulerUr-Nammu (c. 2112-2094 BC) "describing the construction of a barag - a pedestal or podium and a garden" was found out of context. Also found were four fragmentary inscribed bricks (surface finds), three inscribed cones (one datable toLarsa rulerRim-Sîn I (c. 1822-1763 BC) year 15), and two Sumerian language cuneiform tablets. One tablet was from the early Kassite period and the other tablet was a receipt for copper utensils is dated to year 28 of Ur III rulerShulgi (c. 2094-2046 BC). After thisexcavation season a nearby prison was expanded by the Iraqi government blocking access to the site and precluding further campaigns.[95] It has been proposed as the site of Ur III Ga’eš. The ziggurat atUr can be seen from the summit of the site.[96][97][98][99]
Based on the archaeology the site of Tell Sakhariya has been proposed as theUr III period city of Ga’eš (ga-eški and ga-eš5ki), site of the Akiti festival ofNanna/Sin, held every year for 11 days in the seventh month of the year and 7 days in the first month of the year. The festival began at Nanna’s temple in Ur and ended in Ga’eš, possibly traveling via a canal.[100] The temple of Nanna/Sin there was called the Karzida (kar-zi-da) was located at Ga’eš (the names Karzida and Ga’eš appear to have been used interchangeably for the city). The 36th year name of Ur III rulerShulgi read "Year Nanna of Ga’eš was brought into his temple" and the 9th year name of Ur III rulerAmar-Sin read "Year En-Nanna-Amar-Sin-kiagra, was installed for the third time as en-priestess of Nanna of Ga’eš / of Karzida". Amar-Sin established aGiparu (nunnery) for the en-priestess of Nanna at Karzida saying "he caused En-aga-zi-ana, his beloved priestess (en), to enter there".[101] When the en-priestess died she was buried a with "golden crown (aga), which is followed by five other golden objects".[102][103][104] From tablets found at Ur it is known that wrestling competitions were held at Ga’eš reading "for the ‘house of wrestling’ in the Akiti (building), issued in Ga’eš, during the Akiti month" and "100 liters of ordinary beer, the beer for the ‘house of wrestling’ … issued in Ga’eš", for example.[105] All that is known with certainty about its location is that it lay one days journey fromUr and was on a canal. A sketch in a 1990's paper concerning the Iturungal Canal placed Ga’eš in a location corresponding to Tell Sakhariya.[106] It has been suggested that Ga’eš was mentioned inEarly Dynastic II period administrative texts.[107] The final textual mention of was from the time ofLarsa rulerSin-Iddinam (c. 1849-1843 BC) a cone reading "Sm-i[ddinam], mighty man, [s]on [born] in Ga’eš provider of U[r], king of Lars[a], king of the land of S[umer] and Akkad] ...".[108] Apparently Ga’eš had a gate tower based on a text fromDrehem "1 fattened sheep for the great gate tower in Ga’eš" dating to the reign of Su-Sin.[109]
"Shrine, great sanctuary?, founded at a cattle-pen, ‘Small’ city, . . . . of Suen Karzida, your interior is a . . . . place, your foundation is holy and clean, Shrine, your Gipar is founded in purity, Your door is (of) strong copper, set up at a great place, Cattle-pen (filled with) the lowing (of the cows), like a young bull you . . . the horn,Your prince, the lord of heaven, standing in the . . . ., At noon (like the sun) radiating . . . ., O Karzida, he, Ašimbabbar, has placed the house upon your . . . . has taken his place on your dais. The house of Nanna in Ga’eš"[95]
"... Mighty strength was set against the banks of the Id-nuna-Nanna canal. The settlements of the E-danna of Nanna, like substantial cattle-pens, were destroyed. Their refugees, like stampeding goats, were chased (?) by dogs. They destroyed Gaeš like milk poured out to dogs, and shattered its finely fashioned statues. 'Alas, the destroyed city, my destroyed house,' Its sacred Ĝipar of en priesthood was defiled. Its en priestess was snatched from the Ĝipar and carried off to enemy territory. A lament was raised at the dais that stretches out toward heaven. Its heavenly throne was not set up, was not fit to be crowned (?)."[111][112]
And in another composition:
"O, sanctuary, big chamber built like ? a stall, mighty beaming city of Suen, Karzida, your interior is a powerful place, your foundation is holy and clean. O, sanctuary, your Ĝipar is established in purity, your door is copper, something (very) strong, established in the Underworld. O, cattle-pen, which rai[ses] the horns like a breeding bull, your prince, the lord of heaven standing in ... joy. ... at midday and ... O Karzida, Ašimbabbar, a house has established in your holy space and took (his) residence in your sanctuary!"[113]
TheSumerian King List (SKL) gives a list of only thirteen rulers from three dynasties of Ur. The once supposed second dynasty of Ur may have never existed.[114] Thefirst dynasty of Ur may have been preceded by one other dynasty of Ur (the"Kalam dynasty") unnamed on theSKL—which had extensive influence over the area of Sumer and apparently led a union of south Mesopotamian polities. This predynastic period of Ur may include at least two rulers out of the first eight on this list (Meskalamdug andAkalamdug). The following list should not be considered complete:
^abEbeling, Erich; Meissner, Bruno; Edzard, Dietz Otto (1997).Meek – Mythologie. Reallexikon der Assyriologie (in German). De Gruyter. p. 360.ISBN978-3-11-014809-1.
^abR. L. Zettler, L. Horne, "Treasures from the Royal Tombs of Ur", University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, 1998ISBN978-0924171550
^Jacobsen, Thorkild, "The Waters of Ur", Iraq, vol. 22, pp. 174–85, 1960
^[1] Hammer, Emily, and Angelo Di Michele, "The Suburbs of the Early Mesopotamian City of Ur (Tell al-Muqayyar, Iraq)", American Journal of Archaeology 127.4, pp. 449-479, 2023
^[2] Carter, Robert A. and Philip, Graham, "Beyond the Ubaid: Transformation and Integration in the Late Prehistoric Societies of the Middle East", Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilization 63, The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, 2010ISBN978-1-885923-66-0
^[3]Hall, Henry R. and Woolley, C. Leonard, "Al-Ubaid: a report on the work carried out at Al-Ubaid for the British museum in 1919 and for the Joint expedition in 1922-3", Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1927
^Lecompte, Camille. "Observations on Diplomatics, Tablet Layout and Cultural Evolution of the Early Third Millennium: The Archaic Texts from Ur". Materiality of Writing in Early Mesopotamia, edited by Thomas E. Balke and Christina Tsouparopoulou, Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, pp. 133-164, 2016
^Denise Schmandt-Besserat, "An Archaic Recording System and the Origin of Writing." Syro Mesopotamian Studies, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 1–32, 1977
^Matthews, R.J., "Cities, Seals and Writing: Archaic Seal Impressions from Jemdet Nasr and Ur", Berlin, 1993
^P. Delia Valle, "Les fameux voyages de Pietro Delia Valle, gentil-homme Romain, surnomm? l'illustre voyageur", Vol. 4, Paris, 1663-1665
^[4]Fraser, James Baillie, "Travels in Koordistan, Mesopotamia, Etc: Including an Account of Parts of Those Countries Hitherto Unvisited by Europeans", R. Bentley, 1840
^Curtis, J. E., "William Kennett Loftus: A 19th-Century Archaeologist in Mesopotamia. Letters Transcribed and Introduced by John Curtis", London: British Institute for the Study of Iraq, 2023
^[5]William Loftus, "Travels and researches in Chaldæa and Susiana; with an account of excavations at Warka, the Erech of Nimrod, and Shúsh, Shushan the Palace of Esther, in 1849-52", J. Nisbet and Co, 1857
^[6] J.E. Taylor, "Notes on the Ruins of Muqeyer", Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, vol. 15, pp. 260–276, 1855.
^[7] JE Taylor, "Notes on Abu Shahrein and Tel-el-Lahm", Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, vol. 15, pp. 404–415, 1855
^E. Sollberger, "Mr. Taylor in Chaldaea",Anatolian Studies, vol. 22, pp. 129–139, 1972.
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^[8]Zimmerman, Paul C., and Richard L. Zettler, "Two Tombs or Three? PG 789 and PG 800 Again!.", From Sherds to Landscapes: Studies on the Ancient Near East in Honor of McGuire Gibson 71, Chicago: The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, pp. 283–296, 2021ISBN978-1-61491-063-3
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^[9] C. J. Gadd & L. Legrain, with contributions by Sidney Smith and E. R. Burrows, "Royal Inscriptions", UET 1, London, 1928
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^L. Legrain, "Business Documents of the Third Dynasty of Ur. Plates", UET 3, London, 1937
^[11] D. Loding, "Economic Texts from the Third Dynasty", UET 9, Philadelphia, 1976
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^O. R. Gurney, "Middle Babylonian Legal Documents and Other Texts", UET 7, London, 1974
^H. Figulla, "Business Documents of the New Babylonian Period", UET 4, London, 1949
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^Crawford 2015. p. 5. "It used to be close to the Basra to Baghdad railway, part of the proposed Berlin to Basra line that was never completed. It was possible to get off the train from Baghdad at the grandly named Ur Junction, where a branch line turned off to Nasariyah, and drive a mere two miles across the desert to the site itself, but the station was closed sometime after the Second World War, leaving a long, hot journey in a four-wheeled vehicle as the only option."
^[12] U.S. Archaeologists To Excavate In Iraq - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
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^Charpin, Dominique, "Epigraphy of Ur: Past, Present, and Future", Ur in the Twenty-First Century CE: Proceedings of the 62nd Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale at Philadelphia, July 11–15, 2016, edited by Grant Frame, Joshua Jeffers and Holly Pittman, University Park, USA: Penn State University Press, pp. 181-194, 2021
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^Grant Frame, Joshua Jeffers and Holly Pittman ed., "Ur in the Twenty-First Century CE", "Proceedings of the 62nd Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale at Philadelphia, July 11–15, 2016", Penn State University Press, 2021ISBN9781646021512
^Stone, Elizabeth, and Paul Zimansky, "“Alas the destroyed city!” A search for private houses of the Ur III period at Ur", TRACING TRANSITIONS & CONNECTING COMMUNITIES, pp. 301-313, 2025
^Charpin, D., "L’habitat à Ur, capitale de la IIIe dynastie. Le témoignage d’un document de 2021 av. J.-C. découvert en février 2019", in Béranger, M., Nebiolo, F. and Ziegler, N. eds. Dieux, rois et capitales dans le Proche-Orient ancien. Compte Rendu de la LXVe Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale. (Paris, 8-12 juillet 2019). PIPOAC 5, Louvain/Paris/Bristol: Peeters, pp. 27-60, 2023
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^Stone, Elizabeth, et al., "Two Great Households of Old Babylonian Ur", Near Eastern Archaeology 84.3, pp. 182-191, 2021
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^"Soldiers visit historical ruins of Ur", Nov 18, 2009, by 13th Sustainment Command Expeditionary Public Affairs, web:Army-595.
^[14] US returns Ur, birthplace of Abraham, to Iraq AFP 2009-05-14
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^Wolfhagen, Jesse, and Max D. Price, "A probabilistic model for distinguishing between sheep and goat postcranial remains", Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 12, pp. 625-631, 2017
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^Sallaberger, W., Schrakamp, I., "History and Philology", ARCANE III, Turnhout, 2015
^Douglas Frayne, "Larsa", Old Babylonian Period (2003-1595 B.C.): Early Periods, Volume 4, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, pp. 107-322, 1990
^Owen, David I., "Transliterations, Translations, and Brief Comments", The Nesbit Tablets, University Park, USA: Penn State University Press, pp. 13-110, 2016
^Helle, Sophus, "The Temple Hymns", Enheduana: The Complete Poems of the World's First Author, New Haven: Yale University Press, pp. 53-94, 2023
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[23]Woolley, Leonard, "The Royal Cemetery: a report on the predynastic and Sargonid graves excavated between 1926 and 1931", Ur Excavations II, Publications of the Joint Expedition of the British Museum and of the University Museum, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, to Mesopotamia, Oxford University Press, 1927
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