Page 108 - Four Thousand Years Ago by Geoffrey Bibby

Amontes naa Deen long in Mesopotamia, and they could recall
tales of how their tribes, in the days of their great-grandfathers

had swept in from the Syrian desert, establishing their rule at
Mari, on the great bend of the Euphrates, and then at Larsa It
was the Amorite king of Larsa, to the north, who had combined

with the Elamites and their proteges in Isin to overthrow the rule
of Ur over the. whole of southern Mesopotamia. But that was
long ago, a hundred and twenty years or so. Since then Ur had

been the nominal vassal of Isin, ruled in the name of the Isin
king by his nominee, the high priest of the Moon temple, the
chief temple of Ur.

It had made little difference to the city. Whoever the over-
lord, trade still came to Ur and the city prospered. And the high
priest was careful to avoid political entanglements. Just now, for

example, Enannatum, the present high priest, though a younger
son of the former king of Isin, nevertheless had sworn allegiance

to King Gungunum of Larsa, who a few years back had over­
thrown the king of Isin, Enannatum’s own brother, and now
called himself king, not only of Larsa, but of Ur as well. Gungu­
num was an Amorite, and it was after his conquest of Ur that

the number of Amorite merchants in Ur had increased so enor­
mously.

But now there was a new and vigorous king in Isin, Ur-
Ninurta, and it was questionable whether Larsa could con­
tinue to hold Ur.

In these surroundings the young Abram grew to manhood.
He would attend the festivals in the temples, and even pay thank-
offerings for successful trading ventures to the priests of Ishtar,

though he would, of course, also have his own Amorite gods.
Here he took Sarai to wife, and from here, at the beginning of
most winters, he would set out with his family and retainers

and his well-loaded pack donkeys (for the camel was not yet
domesticated, and the horses of the Indo-Europeans had not
penetrated farther south than the northwest mountains of Persia),

to spend the winter grazing westward with the flocks of his tribe,
aiming for one of the spring markets on the opposite fringe of the
desert. By the end of spring he would be back at Ur, with a

return load of silver and marble from the north, or linen from