Ur
The Sumerian city of the Great Ziggurat, whose fall to Elamite armies around 2004 BCE inspired the Lament for Ur.
- Location
- Near the old course of the Euphrates, southern Iraq
- Modern name
- Tall al-Muqayyar
- Peak
- Third Dynasty of Ur (Ur III), 21st century BCE
- Monuments
- Great Ziggurat; Royal Cemetery
- Excavated by
- Sir Leonard Woolley, 1922–1934
- Status
- UNESCO World Heritage (Ahwar of Southern Iraq, 2016)
What is Ur known for?
Ur was a major city of Sumer in southern Mesopotamia, today the mound of Tall al-Muqayyar in Iraq. Its most important monuments, including the Great Ziggurat of the moon god Nanna, date to the Third Dynasty of Ur in the 21st century BCE, when its kings ruled much of Mesopotamia.
Around 2004 BCE Elamite armies sacked the city. The Sumerian Lament for Ur describes the ruin as a storm sent by Enlil after the gods decided its fate, a poetic and religious framing of a historical disaster. Genesis calls it Ur of the Chaldees, the hometown of Abraham.
Leonard Woolley excavated Ur from 1922 to 1934, finding the rich Royal Cemetery and a thick layer of water-laid silt that he connected with the Flood. Later scholars noted that similar layers at Ur, Kish and Shuruppak date to different times, pointing to local river floods rather than one universal deluge.
The Lament for Ur blames Enlil's storm for the city's fall, and Woolley's flood layer made Ur part of the Flood debate.
Mentioned on these pages
- Rabbit holeEridu
- PersonAbraham (Abram)
- PersonEnheduanna
- PersonFuad Safar
- PersonSeton Lloyd
- PersonTerah
- PlaceIsin
Sources
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, 'Ur'Reference
- ETCSL, 'The lament for Urim' (t.2.2.2)Primary text
- Wikipedia, 'Ur'Reference
Pictures on profile pages are drawn placeholders, not likenesses. Public-domain portraits and photographs will replace them.