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culture

“ur profited from its location as
the city closest to the entrance of

the Arabian Gulf. Archaeological
including the ziggurat, were rebuilt, and
research shows that ur was the most agriculture was improved through irrigation.

important port on the Gulf, His code of laws, the Code or Ur-Nammu,
is one of the oldest such documents known,
which extended much further preceding the code of Hammurabi by 300

inland than it does today.” years. In the Ur III period Ur was a capital
of the vast territorial state that extended far
north and east, reaching Syria and the Zagros
mountains, exercising influence deep into the
Iranian Plateau. The Ur III administration
moving supplies up and down the Euphrates. was the most centralized bureaucratic state
Ur was situated at the edge of great marshes, the world had yet known and used written
compared to “a bull standing in the wet reeds” records on an unprecedented scale; more
in the Enheduanna’s Temple hymns. The city’s than 80 000 cuneiform tablets have been
location and strong bounds to the wetland uncovered to date, giving unique insights into
environment are repeatedly mentioned in ancient economy and society. The literature
the Sumerian texts, such as the hymn to Ur- also flourished in this period, with numerous
Namma, the hymn for Rim-sin mentioning the compositions related to the kings of the Third
temple of Ekishnugal in Ur or the hymn to the Dynasty, particularly Ur-Nammu and his
chief god of Ur-Nanna-Suen. Ur profited from son Shulgi, who were deified during their
its location as the city closest to the entrance reigns. The Ur Empire continued through
of the Arabian Gulf. Archaeological research the reigns of three more kings: Amar-Sin,
shows that Ur was the most important port on Shu-Sin, and Ibbi-Sin. It fell around 1940
the Gulf, which extended much further inland BCE to the Elamites. Historical narratives
than it does today. All the wealth which came of the Mesopotamian societies of Assyria
to Mesopotamia by sea had to pass through and Babylonia kept names, events, and
Ur. Ur emerged as a key player in the political mythologies of Ur in remembrance. The city
life of the southern city-state system during came to be ruled by the first dynasty (Amorite)
the period of the First Ur Dynasty (2670 BCE) of Babylonia which rose to prominence in
when it became one of the most important southern Mesopotamia in the 18th century
and wealthy cities under king Mesanepada. BCE. After the fall of Hammurabi’s short lived
The excavated artifacts from the Royal Tombs Babylonian Empire, it later became a part of
of Ur (First Dynasty of Ur, c. 2600 BCE) can the native Akkadian ruled Sealand Dynasty
be considered as emblematic of the wealth, for over 270 years, and was reconquered into
power, and sophistication of the Sumerian Babylonia by the successors of the Amorites,
civilization. They provide very early evidence the Kassites in the 16th century BCE. During
for the international exchange of semi- the Kassite Dynastic period Ur came under
precious stones and metals from as far away sporadic control of the Elamites and Middle
as India and Afghanistan on an institutional Assyrian Empire. The city fell to the north
scale. Mesopotamian Assyrian Empire from the
10th to late 7th centuries BCE. From the end
Further history of ur of the 7th century BCE Ur was ruled by the
Ur came under the control of the Akkadian so-called Chaldean Dynasty of Babylon. In the
Empire founded by Sargon the Great between 6th century BCE there was new construction
the 24th and 22nd centuries BCE. The Third in Ur under the rule of Nebuchadnezzar II of
Dynasty of Ur was established when the king Babylon. The last Babylonian king, Nabonidus,
Ur- Nammu came to power between c. 2047 improved the ziggurat. However the city
BCE and 2030 BCE. During his rule, temples, started to decline from around 550 BCE and

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