Ur
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Ur (Sumerian: Urim,[1] written URIM2KI ������ or URIM5KI ������;[2] Biblical Hebrew אוּר) was a city in ancient Sumer, located at the site of modern Tell el-Mukayyar in Iraq’s Dhi Qar Governorate.[3] Once a coastal city near the mouth of the then Euphrates river on the Persian Gulf, Ur is now well inland. Currently, Ur is south of the Euphrates on its right bank, 16 kilometres (9.9 mi) from Nasiriyah, Iraq and close to the site of ancientEridu.
The city’s patron deity was Nanna, the Sumerian moon god, and the name of the city is in origin derived from the god’s name, URIM2KI being the classical Sumerian spelling of LAK-32.UNUGKI, literally “the abode (UNUG) of Nanna (LAK-32)”.[4]
The site is marked by the ruins of the Great Ziggurat 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 of Ur-Nammu and was reconstructed in the 6th century BC by Nabonidus.
History
Early history
Ur was inhabited in the earliest stage of village settlement in the southern part of Mesopotamia, the Ubaid period. However, it later appears to have been abandoned for a time. Scholars believe that, as the climate changed from relatively damp to drought in the early 3rd millennium BC, the small farming villages of the Ubaid culture consolidated into larger settlements, arising from the need for large-scale, centralized irrigation works to survive the dry spells. Ur became one such center, and by around 2600 BC, in the Sumerian Early Dynastic Period III, the city was again thriving. Ur by this time was considered sacred to the god called Nanna (Sumerian) or Sin (Akkadian).[5]
The location of Ur was favourable for trade, by both sea and land routes, into Arabia. Many elaborate tombs, including that of Queen Puabi,[6] were constructed. In this cemetery were also found artifacts bearing the names of kings Meskalamdug andAkalamdug.
Eventually, the kings of Ur became the effective rulers of Sumer, in the first dynasty of Ur established by the king Mesannepada (or Mesanepada, Mes-Anni-Padda), who is on the king list and is named as a son of Meskalamdug on one artifact.
Middle Bronze Age
The first dynasty was ended by an attack of Sargon of Akkad around 2340 BC. Not much is known about the following second dynasty, when the city was in eclipse.
The third dynasty was established when the king Ur-Nammu (or Urnammu) came to power, ruling between ca. 2047 BC and 2030 BC. During his rule, temples, including the ziggurat, 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. [7]
The Ur empire continued through the reigns of three more kings, 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. [8] [9]
According to one estimate, Ur was the largest city in the world from c. 2030 to 1980 BC. Its population was approximately 65,000.[10]
Iron Age
In the sixth 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 550 BC and was no longer inhabited after about 500 BC, perhaps owing to drought, changing river patterns, and the silting of the outlet to the Persian Gulf.
Biblical Ur
Main article: Ur Kasdim
Ur is considered by many to be the city of Ur Kasdim mentioned in the Book of Genesis as the birthplace of the patriarch Abram (Abraham).
Ur is mentioned four times in the Tanakh or Old Testament, with the distinction “of the Kasdim/Kasdin”—traditionally rendered in English as “Ur of the Chaldees”. The Chaldeans, who were already settled in the vicinity by around 850 BC. The name is found in Genesis 11:28, Genesis 11:31, and Genesis 15:7. In Nehemiah 9:7, a single passage mentioning Ur is a paraphrase of Genesis. (Nehemiah 9:7)
The Book of Jubilees states that Ur was founded in 1688 Anno Mundi (year of the world) by ‘Ur son of Kesed, presumably the offspring ofArphaxad, adding that in this same year wars began on Earth.
- “And ‘Ur, the son of Kesed, built the city of ‘Ara of the Chaldees, and called its name after his own name and the name of his father.” (i.e.,Ur Kesdim) (Jubilees 11:3)
Abraham was “a Chaldean from Ur.”
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