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UR

(Heb. ʾûr; Sum. Urim)

(PLACE)

A major city of ancient Mesopotamia. Tell al-Muqayyar, discovered in the early 17th century by the explorer Pietro della Valle, is a large imposing site, oval in shape, and rising some 18 m. (60 ft.) above the flood plain. It was first excavated in 1849 by William Kennett Loftus, followed in 1855 by the British consul at Basra, J. E. Taylor, who found the first cuneiform inscriptions. Henry Rawlinson identified the site based on an inscription excavated by Taylor, but it was not until the joint British Museum–University of Pennsylvania excavations from 1922 to 1924 under the direction of C. Leonard Woolley that the site was substantially explored. Since that time only restorations but not significant excavations have been conducted at the site.

The city was established sometime during the Ubaid period in the middle of the 5th millennium b.c.e. and was occupied until its abandonment in the Achaemenid period. At the rise of widespread urbanization in the late 4th millennium Ur appears to have become a significant settlement, although the excavated areas from that period are limited. The city continued to prosper through the Uruk and Jemdet Nasr periods (3900-2900), from which come a large temple platform with thousands of associated decorative clay cones used to decorate the facades of the public buildings. An extensive cemetery, in use from the Uruk through Early Dynastic II periods but originally dated to the Jemdet Nasr period, was also partially excavated. In the Early Dynastic period (ca. 2900-2350), extensive renovations of the temple precinct were undertaken and in the nearby rubbish dump area the so-called royal cemetery was found. The approximately 2000 graves in this cemetery were dug throughout the Early Dynastic III, Akkadian, and post-Akkadian periods (ca. 2600-2100), although the 16 famous alleged royal burials date to the earliest use. These tombs, with their numerous precious objects (jewelry, ceremonial weapons of gold, the war and peace standards, musical instruments) and accompanying human and animal sacrifices, remain among the most vivid remnants of this age. There is little excavated evidence for the city during the Akkadian period, although contemporary written sources indicate that it remained an important center. An inscribed alabaster disk found at Ur was dedicated by Enheduanna, the high priestess of Nanna, the patron (moon-) god of Ur, and daughter of Sargon, founder of the Akkadian dynasty.

However, it was in the 21st century, during the Third Dynasty of Ur (ca. 2100-2000), that the city became the capital of an empire that extended from the Persian Gulf to north Syria. Ur-namma, the founder of the dynasty, began an ambitious building program. It was concentrated on the religious center of Ur that was dominated by a huge ziggurat and temple complex dedicated to Nanna and called the temenos area by its excavator, Woolley. The city grew to at least 50 ha. (124 a.). This period is characterized by tens of thousands of archival tablets found in the excavations and from the literary sources from later periods attributed to the kings of this dynasty. Among the contemporary monuments is the stela of Ur-namma found in the ziggurat area and which depicts Ur-namma receiving the directive to construct the temple and the celebrations associated with its completion. The city was plundered by the Elamite invaders who put an end to the dynasty. The demise of the city is poignantly related in the Lament over the Destruction of Ur, written in Sumerian and preserved in an Old Babylonian copy. Shortly after its destruction, the region was incorporated by the kings of the nearby city of Isin and the city was extensively rebuilt and many older structures restored. Ur was expanded to it largest extent, ca. 60 ha. (148 a.), and continued to be an important commercial and religious center. Substantial remains from this period have been recovered along with numerous texts found in the public and private buildings. The texts provide vivid details of official functions and private lives of those who worked and lived in the city.

In the 18th century the political control of the Hammurabi dynasty in Babylon and other factors caused a decline in the prosperity of Ur along with other cities in southern Babylonia. The city underwent a number of rebuilding phases and was continuously occupied through the end of the Old Babylonian period and into the following Kassite/Middle Babylonian age. During the reign of Kurigalzu (ca. 1400) the temenos area was restored once again and the city and its surrounding countryside appear to have prospered. However, Ur never again achieved the importance it held in earlier periods. In the 1st millennium the temenos area continued to receive the attention of various rulers. In the 7th century one of its governors renovated some of the structures. Under the Neo-Babylonian kings Nebuchadnezzar (604-562) and Nabonidus (555-539) the ziggurat, temenos wall, and some of the residential areas were restored. Nabonidus favored the cult of the moon-god Sîn at Ur and appointed his mother high priestess and built a palace for her there. The city diminished in importance after that time and shortly after 400, in the Achaemenid period, it fell into obscurity and was abandoned.

Bibliography. P. R. S. Moorey and C. L. Woolley, Ur of the Chaldees, rev. ed. (Ithaca, 1982); S. Pollock, “Chronology of the Royal Cemetery of Ur,” Iraq 47 (1985): 129-47; “Ur,” OEANE 5:288-91; J. M. Sasson, ed., CANE, 4 vols. (New York, 1995); C. L. Woolley, Ur Excavations, 2-10 (London, 1934-1974).

David I. Owen

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

UR

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)