A city on the water
Ur, whose ruins are the mound of Tell el-Muqayyar in southern Iraq, was one of the most important cities of Sumer. In the third millennium BCE it lay on or near the Euphrates in a region of canals, marshes and lagoons that connected to the head of the Persian Gulf. Since the coastline has moved over thousands of years, the modern distance from the sea does not reflect the situation then, and the exact geography of the ancient shore is still studied. What matters here is that Ur was well placed for river and sea trade.
The city had its own patron god, the moon god Nanna (Sin in Akkadian), and its temple complex stood at the centre of a walled town with harbours, a residential quarter and workshops. Ur’s earlier history includes the Ubaid period, but its most visible phases belong to the Early Dynastic period and the Third Dynasty of Ur.
The Royal Cemetery
Between 1922 and 1934, the British archaeologist Leonard Woolley led excavations at Ur on behalf of the British Museum and the University of Pennsylvania. His most famous discovery was a large cemetery dated to around 2600 to 2500 BCE, in which about sixteen graves stood out for their rich contents and were called “royal tombs.” These sat among nearly two thousand burials in all.
The best-known grave belongs to a woman whose seal gives the name Puabi, often read as a queen or a high-ranking priestess; the titles are debated. She was buried with a spectacular headdress of gold leaves and lapis lazuli beads. Other graves contained lyres decorated with gold and shell, gaming boards, vessels and the remains of attendants and animals. Some tombs include what Woolley called death pits, with many bodies arranged in rows. Interpretations of these deaths have changed. Woolley thought they were voluntary or drugged sacrifice, but modern study, including CT scanning of skulls, has raised the possibility of other explanations and of blunt trauma. The matter remains open, and it is safest to say that the burials show elite funerary ritual involving the deaths of many people.
The famous “Standard of Ur,” a small decorated wooden box covered in shell and lapis, shows scenes of banquet and war, including wagons drawn by onagers. It is a key example of Mesopotamian art, and it is also a source for early war chariots and vehicle forms, though the Ur vehicles are four-wheeled carts, not the light chariots of later periods. Its purpose is debated; “standard” is a nickname from its first excavators.
The ziggurat of Ur-Nammu
Ur became the capital of a large state under Ur-Nammu, founder of the Third Dynasty of Ur, who reigned in the late 22nd to early 21st century BCE according to commonly used chronologies. His dynasty controlled much of southern Mesopotamia for about a century before falling to attackers from the east and the Amorite groups around 2000 BCE. Ur-Nammu is credited with a major building programme, including the great ziggurat dedicated to Nanna. Its stepped brick core and staircases survive well enough to be partly reconstructed. A law collection attributed to him, the Code of Ur-Nammu, is among the earliest known sets of legal provisions and sits within a wider tradition of Mesopotamian law codes.
Ur’s religious role was reflected in the appointment of high priestesses. Enheduanna, daughter of Sargon of Akkad, served as high priestess of Nanna at Ur, and the poems traditionally attributed to her give her a place in the story of Enheduanna poetry and of named authorship.
Merchants and long-distance trade
Southern Mesopotamia lacked metal, stone and good wood, so traders had to bring them in from distant regions. Ur’s location made it a natural base. Texts from Ur and nearby cities, especially from the Third Dynasty of Ur and the early second millennium BCE, mention places called Dilmun, Magan and Meluhha. Dilmun is generally identified with the island of Bahrain and nearby coast, Magan with the area of Oman and parts of the southern Gulf, and Meluhha with the Indus region, though the exact boundaries are discussed.
Evidence for contact includes:
- Seals of Indus type, a small number of which have been found at Ur and other Mesopotamian sites.
- Carnelian and other stone beads, which appear in the Royal Cemetery. Lapis lazuli there probably came from Afghanistan, probably passing through several hands.
- Cuneiform records of copper and other goods coming from Magan and Dilmun.
These details are part of the larger picture of Meluhha trade links between Mesopotamia and the Harappan civilization, which also shows in Indus Valley cities containing imported or imitated items. Voyages in those times were made in small vessels, some built of reed and bitumen, that probably kept close to the coast, which is a reminder of how early ancient seafaring was. Merchants also needed agreed ancient weights measures to settle accounts.
One famous Ur document is a clay tablet from around 1750 BCE in which a customer named Nanni complains to a copper merchant named Ea-nasir about poor-quality ore and bad service. It is often shared as a joke, but it is also solid evidence of a private trade in copper with Dilmun, carried on by private merchants.
Ur in tradition and decline
Biblical tradition places Abraham’s origin in “Ur of the Chaldees.” Whether this refers to the Sumerian city is uncertain, and scholars disagree, so it is better treated as a tradition than as proof.
Ur continued into the Neo-Babylonian period, when Nabonidus, the last Neo-Babylonian king, took a special interest in the moon god’s cult. Its fortunes later fell, probably as the Euphrates changed course and the surrounding land dried out. The city was eventually abandoned, usually dated to around the fourth century BCE. Today the ziggurat stands in an open desert, with the old trade routes long gone.
Ur shows how a Sumerian city could combine religion, politics and commerce. Its tombs and treasure give a view of elite display, and its documents show everyday trade, which makes it one of the best-documented cities of the ancient Near East.