Ur

Archaeological discoveries have shown that Ur was a major Sumerian urban center on the Mesopotamian plain. The discovery of Ur's Royal Tombs further confirmed this. These tombs, which date to the Early Dynastic IIIa period (approximately in the 25th or 24th century BC), contained many luxury items made of precious metals and semi-precious stones imported from long distances (Ancient Iran, Afghanistan, India, Asia Minor, the Levant and the Persian Gulf). This immense wealth shows Ur's economic importance during the Early Bronze Age.{{citation |editor-last=Aruz |editor-first=J. |year=2003 |url=http://cdm16028.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p15324coll10/id/189351 |title=Art of the First Cities. The Third Millennium B.C. from the Mediterranean to the Indus |publisher=The Metropolitan Museum of Art |location=New York, the U.S.A.}}

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| image1 = Lizard-headed nude woman nursing a child, from Ur, Iraq, c. 4000 BCE. Iraq Museum (retouched).jpg

| caption1 = Lizard-headed nude woman nursing a child, from Ur, Ubaid period, c. 4500–4000 BC; Iraq Museum

| image2 = King Ur-Nammu.jpg

| caption2 = Enthroned King Ur-Nammu (c. 2047–2030 BC)

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Excavation in the old city of Ur in 1929 revealed the Lyres of Ur, instruments similar to the modern harp but in the shape of a bull and with eleven strings.{{cite journal |last1=Galpin |first1=F. W. |title=The Sumerian Harp of Ur, c. 3500 B. C. |journal=Music & Letters |publisher=Oxford University Press|date=1929 |volume=10 |issue=2 |pages=108–123 |doi=10.1093/ml/X.2.108 |jstor=726035 |issn=0027-4224}}

{{multiple image |align=left |direction=vertical |header=Standard of Ur mosaic (c. 2600 BC) |total_width=235

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|footer=The Standard of Ur mosaic, from the royal tombs of Ur, is made of red limestone, bitumen, lapis lazuli, and shell. The "peace" side shows comfort, music, and prosperity. The "war" side shows the king, his armies, and chariots trampling on enemies.

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The site consists of a mound, roughly 1200 by 800 metres with a height of about 20 metres above the plain. The mound is split by the remnants of an ancient canal into north and south portions.Jacobsen, Thorkild, "The Waters of Ur", Iraq, vol. 22, pp. 174–85, 1960

The remains of a city wall are visible surrounding the site. The occupation size ranged from about 15 hectares in the Jemdet Nasr period to 90 hectares in the Early Dynastic period and then peaking in the Ur III period at 108 hectares and the Isin-Larsa period at 140 hectares, extending beyond the city walls. Subsequent period had varying lesser degrees of occupation.[https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdf/10.1086/725907] Hammer, Emily, and Angelo Di Michele, "The Suburbs of the Early Mesopotamian City of Ur (Tell al-Muqayyar, Iraq)", American Journal of Archaeology 127.4, pp. 449-479, 2023

When Ur was founded, the Persian Gulf's water level was two-and-a-half metres higher than today. Ur is thought, therefore, to have had marshy surroundings; irrigation would have been unnecessary, and the city's evident canals likely were used for transportation. Fish, birds, tubers, and reeds might have supported Ur economically without the need for an agricultural revolution sometimes hypothesized as a prerequisite to urbanization.Jennifer R. Pournelle, "[https://www.researchgate.net/publication/257139948_From_KLM_to_Corona_A_Bird%27s_Eye_View_of_Cultural_Ecology_and_Early_Mesopotamian_Urbanization KLM to CORONA: A Bird's Eye View of Cultural Ecology and Early Mesopotamian Urbanization]"; in Settlement and Society: Essays Dedicated to Robert McCormick Adams ed. Elizabeth C. Stone; Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, UCLA, and Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, 2007.Crawford 2015, p. 5.

Archaeologists have discovered evidence of early occupation at Ur during the Ubaid period (c. 5500–3700 BC), a prehistoric period of Mesopotamia.[https://isac.uchicago.edu/sites/default/files/uploads/shared/docs/saoc63.pdf] Carter, Robert A. and Philip, Graham, "Beyond the Ubaid: Transformation and Integration in the Late Prehistoric Societies of the Middle East", Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilization 63, The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, 2010 {{ISBN|978-1-885923-66-0}} The name derives from Tell al-'Ubaid where the earliest large excavation of Ubaid period material was conducted initially in 1919 by Henry Hall and later by Leonard Woolley.Henry R.H. Hall, C.L. Woolley, et al., [http://digital.library.stonybrook.edu/cdm/ref/collection/amar/id/13075 "Al 'Ubaid", 1927]Hall, Henry R. and Woolley, C. Leonard. 1927. Al-'Ubaid. Ur Excavations 1. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Later, a layer of soil covered the occupation levels from the Ubaid period. Excavators of the 1920s interpreted the layer of soil as evidence for the Great Flood of the Epic of Gilgamesh and Book of Genesis. It is now understood that the South Mesopotamian plain was exposed to regular floods from the Euphrates and the Tigris rivers, with heavy erosion from water and wind, which may have given rise to the Mesopotamian and derivative Biblical Great Flood stories.{{cite web |title=Secrets of Noah's Ark – Transcript |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/video/secrets-of-noahs-ark |website=Nova |publisher=PBS |access-date=27 May 2019 |date=7 October 2015}}

There are various main sources informing scholars about the importance of Ur during the Early Bronze Age.

Proto-cuneiform tablets from the Early Dynastic period, c. 2900 BC, have been recovered.Lecompte, Camille. "Observations on Diplomatics, Tablet Layout and Cultural Evolution of the Early Third Millennium: The Archaic Texts from Ur". Materiality of Writing in Early Mesopotamia, edited by Thomas E. Balke and Christina Tsouparopoulou, Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, pp. 133-164, 2016Denise Schmandt-Besserat, "An Archaic Recording System and the Origin of Writing." Syro Mesopotamian Studies, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 1–32, 1977

{{main|First Dynasty of Ur}}

The First Dynasty of Ur seems to have had great wealth and power, as shown by the lavish remains of the Royal Cemetery at Ur. The Sumerian King List provides a tentative political history of ancient Sumer and mentions, among others, several rulers of Ur. Mesannepada is the first king mentioned in the Sumerian King List, and appears to have lived in the 26th century BC. That Ur was an important urban centre already then seems to be indicated by a type of cylinder seal called the City Seals. These seals contain a set of Proto-Cuneiform signs which appear to be writings or symbols of the name of city-states in ancient Mesopotamia. Many of these seals have been found in Ur, and the name of Ur is prominent on them.Matthews, R.J. (1993). Cities, Seals and Writing: Archaic Seal Impressions from Jemdet Nasr and Ur, Berlin.

File:Map of Ur III.svg|Empire of the Third Dynasty of Ur. West is at top, north at right.

File:Meskalamdug helmet British Museum electrotype copy original is in the Iraq Museum, Bagdad.jpg|Gold helmet of King of Ur I Meskalamdug, c. 2600–2500 BC

File:Mesopotamian female deity seating on a chair, Old-Babylonian fired clay plaque from Ur, Iraq.jpg|Mesopotamian female deity seated on a chair, Old-Babylonian fired clay plaque from Ur

File:Umma2350.svg|Sumer and Elam {{Circa|2350 BC}}. Ur was located close to the coastline near the mouth of the Euphrates.

Ur came under the control of the Semitic-speaking Akkadian Empire (c. 2334-2154 BC) founded by Sargon the Great between the 24th and 22nd centuries BC. This was a period when the Semitic-speaking Akkadians, who had entered Mesopotamia in approximately 3000 BC, gained ascendancy over the Sumerians, and indeed much of the ancient Near East.

{{Main|Third Dynasty of Ur}}

File:World in 2000 BC.svg

After a short period of chaos following the fall of the Akkadian Empire the third Ur dynasty was established when the king Ur-Nammu came to power, ruling between c. 2047 BC and 2030 BC. During his rule, temples, including the Ziggurat of Ur, were built, and agriculture was improved through irrigation. His code of laws, the Code of Ur-Nammu (a fragment was identified in Istanbul in 1952) is one of the oldest such documents known, preceding the Code of Hammurabi by 300 years. He and his successor Shulgi were both deified during their reigns, and after his death he continued as a hero-figure: one of the surviving works of Sumerian literature describes the death of Ur-Nammu and his journey to the underworld.Amélie Kuhrt (1995). The Ancient Near East: C.3000-330 B.C. Routledge. {{ISBN|0-415-16762-0}}.

Ur-Nammu was succeeded by Shulgi, the greatest king of the Third Dynasty of Ur, who solidified the hegemony of Ur and reformed the empire into a highly centralized bureaucratic state. Shulgi ruled for a long time (at least 42 years) and deified himself halfway through his rule.{{cite book|last1=Potts|first1=D. T.|author-link=Daniel T. Potts|title=The Archaeology of Elam|date=1999|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge, United Kingdom|isbn=0-521-56496-4|page=132|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mc4cfzkRVj4C&pg=PA132|access-date=16 May 2015}}

File:Ziggurat of UrInbound1427286134917083377.jpg]]

The Ur empire continued through the reigns of three more kings with Akkadian names, Amar-Sin, Shu-Sin, and Ibbi-Sin. It fell around 1940 BC to the Elamites in the 24th regnal year of Ibbi-Sin, an event commemorated by the Lament for Ur.Ur III Period (2112–2004 BC) by Douglas Frayne, University of Toronto Press, 1997, {{ISBN|0-8020-4198-1}}{{cite book |url=http://cdli.ucla.edu/staff/dahl/dissertation.pdf |title=The ruling family of Ur III Umma. A Prosopographical Analysis of an Elite Family in Southern Iraq 4000 Years ago |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060512183750/http://cdli.ucla.edu/staff/dahl/dissertation.pdf |archive-date=2006-05-12 |first=Jacob Lebovitch |last=Dahl |publisher=UCLA dissertation |year=2003}}

According to one estimate, Ur was the largest city in the world from c. 2030 to 1980 BC. Its population was approximately 65,000 (or 0.1 per cent share of global population then).{{citation needed|date=March 2023}}

The site was occupied in the Isin-Larsa and Old Babylonian periods. The city of Ur lost its political power after the demise of the Third Dynasty of Ur. Nevertheless, its important position which kept on providing access to the Persian Gulf ensured the ongoing economic importance of the city during the second millennium BC. The city came to be ruled by the Amorite first dynasty of Babylon which rose to prominence in southern Mesopotamia in the 19th century BC. During the Old Babylonian Empire, in the reign of Samsu-iluna, Ur was abandoned. It later became a part of the native Sealand Dynasty for several centuries.

It then came under the control of the Kassites in the 16th century BC, and sporadically under the control of the Middle Assyrian Empire between the 14th and 11th centuries BC.Brinkman, J. A., "Review of 'Ur: The Kassite Period and the Period of the Assyrian Kings'", Orientalia, vol. 38, no. 2, pp. 310–48, 1969

The city, along with the rest of southern Mesopotamia and much of the Near East, Asia Minor, North Africa and southern Caucasus, fell to the north Mesopotamian Neo-Assyrian Empire from the 10th to late 7th centuries BC. From the end of the 7th century BC Ur was ruled by the so-called Chaldean Dynasty of Babylon. In the 6th century BC there was new construction in Ur under the rule of Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon. The last Babylonian king, Nabonidus, improved the ziggurat. However, the city started to decline from around 530 BC after Babylonia fell to the Persian Achaemenid Empire, and was no longer inhabited by the early 5th century BC. The demise of Ur was perhaps owing to drought, changing river patterns, and the silting of the outlet to the Persian Gulf.{{clear left}}

{{further|Ur of the Chaldees}}

File:20160105-Abraham house in Ur Iraq.jpg

Ur is possibly the city of Ur Kasdim mentioned in the Book of Genesis as the birthplace of the Jewish and Muslim patriarch Abraham (Avraham in Hebrew, Ibrahim in Arabic), traditionally believed to have lived some time in the 2nd millennium BC.{{cite news |first=Sinan |last=Salaheddin |date=April 4, 2013 |url=http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2013/0404/Home-of-Abraham-Ur-unearthed-by-archaeologists-in-Iraq |title=Home of Abraham, Ur, unearthed by archaeologists in Iraq |work=The Christian Science Monitor |access-date=July 15, 2017}}{{cite journal |url=http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/features/world/asia/israel/abraham-text/2 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080318094722/http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/features/world/asia/israel/abraham-text/2 |url-status=dead |archive-date=March 18, 2008 |title=Journey of Faith |journal=National Geographic Magazine |date=May 15, 2012 |access-date=July 15, 2017}} There are, however, conflicting traditions and scholarly opinions identifying Ur Kasdim with the sites of Şanlıurfa, Urkesh, Urartu, or Kutha.

The biblical Ur is mentioned four times in the Torah or Hebrew Bible (Tanakh in Hebrew), with the distinction "of the Kasdim"—traditionally rendered in English as "Ur of the Chaldees". The Chaldeans had settled in the vicinity by around 850 BC, but were not extant anywhere in Mesopotamia during the 2nd millennium BC period when Abraham is traditionally held to have lived. The Chaldean dynasty did not rule Babylonia (and thus become the rulers of Ur) until the late 7th century BC, and held power only until the mid 6th century BC. The name is found in Genesis 11:28, Genesis 11:31, and Genesis 15:7. In Nehemiah 9:7, a single passage mentioning Ur is a paraphrase of Genesis.{{Citation needed|date=December 2023}}

Pope John Paul II wanted to visit the city according to the biblical tradition as part of his trip to Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian territories but the visit was cancelled due to a dispute between the Government of Saddam Hussein and representatives of the Holy See.{{Cite news |last=Pullella |first=Philip |date=2020-12-07 |title=Pope Francis to make risky trip to Iraq in early March |language=en |work=Reuters |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/pope-iraq-int-idUSKBN28H17P |access-date=2021-03-14}}

In March 2021, Pope Francis visited Ur during his journey through Iraq.{{Cite news|last=Lowen|first=Mark|author-link=Mark Lowen|date=2021-03-05|title=Pope Francis on Iraq visit calls for end to violence and extremism|language=en-GB|work=BBC News|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-56282598|access-date=2021-10-28}}

File:Rawlinson's March 1854 letter to The Athenaeum announcing his reading of the Nabonidus cylinders which connected Muqeyer or "Um Qeer" with Ur of the Chaldees.jpg's March 1854 letter to The Athenaeum announcing his reading of the Nabonidus cylinders which connected Muqeyer or "Um Qeer" with the name Ur{{cite book | last1=Frame | first1=G. | last2=Jeffers | first2=J. | last3=Pittman | first3=H. | title=Ur in the Twenty-First Century CE: Proceedings of the 62nd Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale at Philadelphia, July 11–15, 2016 | publisher=Penn State University Press | year=2021 | isbn=978-1-64602-151-2 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ipmYEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA35 | access-date=2024-01-05|page=37}}]]

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|image1=OLD tar (like our cement or mortar) but 2500 - 6000 y.o..JPG |caption1=Bitumen "mortar" among Ur's mudbricks

|image2=Ur excavations (1900) (14767185992).jpg |caption2=Circular groups of bricks excavated in 1900

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In 1625, the site was visited by Pietro Della Valle, who recorded the presence of ancient bricks stamped with strange symbols, cemented together with bitumen, as well as inscribed pieces of black marble that appeared to be seals. He retrieved several inscribed bricks.P. Delia Valle, "Les fameux voyages de Pietro Delia Valle, gentil-homme Romain, surnomm? l'illustre voyageur", Vol. 4, Paris, 1663-1665 European archaeologists did not identify Tell el-Muqayyar as the site of Ur until Henry Rawlinson successfully deciphered some bricks from that location, brought to England by William Loftus in 1849.William Loftus, [https://archive.org/download/travelsresearche00loft/travelsresearche00loft.pdf Travels and researches in Chaldæa and Susiana; with an account of excavations at Warka, the Erech of Nimrod, and Shúsh, Shushan the Palace of Esther, in 1849-52], J. Nisbet and Co., 1857Crawford 2015, p. 3.

The site was first excavated in 1853 and 1854, on behalf of the British Museum and with instructions from the Foreign Office, by John George Taylor, British vice consul at Basra from 1851 to 1859.[https://ia801907.us.archive.org/15/items/jstor-25228658/25228658.pdf] J.E. Taylor, "Notes on the Ruins of Muqeyer", Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, vol. 15, pp. 260–276, 1855.[https://archive.org/download/jstor-25228662/25228662.pdf] JE Taylor, "Notes on Abu Shahrein and Tel-el-Lahm", Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, vol. 15, pp. 404–415, 1855. [In the relevant publications he is erroneously listed as J. E. Taylor].E. Sollberger, "Mr. Taylor in Chaldaea", Anatolian Studies, vol. 22, pp. 129–139, 1972. Taylor uncovered the Ziggurat of Ur and a structure with an arch later identified as part of the "Gate of Judgment".Crawford 2015, p. 4. Among the finds were copies of a standard cylinder of Nabonidus, Neo-Babylonian ruler, mentioning the prince regent Belshar-uzur, usually thought to be the Belshazzar of the Book of Daniel in the Hebrew Bible.Langdon, S., "New Inscriptions of Nabuna’id", The American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures, vol. 32, no. 2, pp. 102–17, 1916 Between 1854 and 1918 locals excavated over two hundred tablets from the site, mostly from the temple Ê-nun-maḫ, of the moon god Sin.Grice, E. M., "Records from Ur and Larsa Dated in the Larsa Dynasty", YOS 5, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1919 Built by the Ur III ruler Ur-Nammu, the ziggurat was later repaired by Isin ruler Ishme-Dagan early in the 2nd millennium BC.Clayden, Tim, "Ur in the Kassite Period", Babylonia under the Sealand and Kassite Dynasties, edited by Susanne Paulus and Tim Clayden, Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, pp. 88-124, 2020 Stamped bricks on the ziggurat detail the rebuilding of the temple of Ningal by 14th century BC Kassite ruler Kurigalzu I.T. Clayden, "The Date of the Foundation Deposit in the Temple of Ningal at Ur", Iraq, vol. 57, pp. 61–70, 1995

Some cuneiform tablets were found. Thirty four of these tablets were inadvertently mixed in with those excavated at Kutalla. Only in recent years has this error been recognized.Charpin, Dominique, "Archives familiales et propriéte privée en Babylonie ancienne: étude des documents de" Tell Sifr", Vol. 12, Librairie Droz, 1980 Typical of the era, his excavations destroyed information and exposed the tell. Natives used the now loosened, 4,000-year-old bricks and tile for construction for the next 75 years, while the site lay unexplored, the British Museum having decided to prioritize archaeology in Assyria.

The site was considered rich in remains, and relatively easy to explore. After some soundings were made during a week in 1918 by Reginald Campbell Thompson, H. R. Hall worked the site for one season (using 70 Turkish prisoners of war) for the British Museum in 1919, laying the groundwork for more extensive efforts to follow. Some cuneiform tablets from the Isin-Larsa period were found, including omen and medical texts. They are now in the British Museum.H. R. Hall, "The Excavations of 1919 at Ur, el-'Obeid, and Eridu, and the History of Early Babylonia", Man, Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. 25, pp. 1–7, 1925.H. R. Hall, "Ur and Eridu: The British Museum Excavations of 1919", Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, vol. 9, no. 3/4, pp. 177–195, 1923.Hall, H. R., "A Season’s Work at Ur, Al-‘Ubaid, Abu Sharain (Eridu), and Elsewhere Being an Unofficial Account of the British Museum Archaeological Mission to Babylonia, 1919", London: Methuen Co. Ltd., 1930

File:Ur from the Air.jpg

Excavations from 1922 to 1934 were funded by the British Museum and the University of Pennsylvania and led by the archaeologist Sir Charles Leonard Woolley.Woolley, C. L., "Excavations at Ur of the Chaldees", Antiquaries Journal, 3, pp. 312–333 and pl. XXIV, 1923 The last two seasons focused on closing the site properly.Leonard Woolley, Ur: The First Phases, Penguin, 1946.Leonard Woolley, Excavations at Ur: A Record of Twelve Years' Work, Apollo, 1965, {{ISBN|0-8152-0110-9}}.Leonard Woolley and P. R. S. Moorey, Ur of the Chaldees: A Revised and Updated Edition of Sir Leonard Woolley's Excavations at Ur, Cornell University Press, 1982, {{ISBN|0-8014-1518-7}}. A total of about 1,850 burials were uncovered, including 16 that were described as "royal tombs" containing many valuable artifacts, including the Standard of Ur. Most of the royal tombs were dated to about 2600 BC. The finds included the unlooted tomb of a queen thought to be Queen Puabi (formerly transcribed as Shub-ab), known from a cylinder seal found in the tomb, although there were two other different and unnamed seals found in the tomb. Many other people had been buried with her, in a form of human sacrifice.{{cite book |chapter-url=https://oi.uchicago.edu/sites/oi.uchicago.edu/files/uploads/shared/docs/Publications/SAOC/saoc71.pdf |first=Paul C. |last=Zimmerman |chapter=Two Tombs or Three? PG 789 and PG 800 Again! |editor-first=Mark |editor-last=Altaweel |title=From sherds to landscapes |pages=283–296 |series=Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilization |volume=71 |location=Chicago |publisher=Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures |year=2021 |isbn=978-1-61491-063-3 }} Near the ziggurat were uncovered the temple E-nun-mah and buildings E-dub-lal-mah (built for a king), E-gi-par (residence of the high priestess) and E-hur-sag (a temple building).

Outside the temple area, many houses used in everyday life were found. Excavations were also made below the royal tombs layer: a {{convert|3.5|m|ft|adj=mid|-thick}} layer of alluvial clay covered the remains of earlier habitation, including pottery from the Ubaid period, the first stage of settlement in southern Mesopotamia. Woolley later wrote many articles and books about the discoveries.{{cite book | last = Beck | first = Roger B. |author2=Linda Black |author3=Larry S. Krieger |author4=Phillip C. Naylor |author5=Dahia Ibo Shabaka | title = World History: Patterns of Interaction | publisher = McDougal Littell | year = 1999 | location = Evanston, IL | url =https://archive.org/details/mcdougallittellw00beck| url-access = registration | isbn = 0-395-87274-X }} One of Woolley's assistants on the site was the British archaeologist Max Mallowan.Mallowan, M. E. L., "Memories of Ur", Iraq 22, pp. 1–19, 1960

A number of royal inscriptions were found during the Woolley excavations.[https://archive.org/details/ur-excavation-texts-i.-royal-inscriptions.-text] C. J. Gadd & L. Legrain, with contributions by Sidney Smith and E. R. Burrows, "Royal Inscriptions", UET 1, London, 1928E. Sollberger, "Royal Inscriptions Part II", UET 8, London, 1965 Numerous cuneiform tablets were also recovered. These included archives, temple and domestic, from the Early Dynastic and Sargonic periods,[https://archive.org/details/ur-excavation-texts-ii.-archaic-texts] E. Burrows, "Archaic Texts", UET 2, London, 1935Alberti, A./F. Pomponio, "Pre-Sargonic and Sargonic Texts from Ur Edited in UET 2, Supplement", Studia Pohl Series Minor 13, Rome, 1986Visicato, G./A. Westenholz, "An Early Dynastic Archive from Ur Involving the Lugal", Kaskal 2, pp. 55–7, 2005Saadoon, Abather and Kraus, Nicholas, "The Lost Months of Ur: New Early Dynastic and Sargonic Tablets from the British Museum", Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und vorderasiatische Archäologie, vol. 114, no. 1, pp. 1-11, 2024 the Ur III period,L. Legrain, "Business Documents of the Third Dynasty of Ur. Plates", UET 3, London, 1937[https://archive.org/details/economic-texts-from-the-third-dynasty] D. Loding, "Economic Texts from the Third Dynasty", UET 9, Philadelphia, 1976 Old and Middle Babylonian period,H. H. Figulla & W. J. Martin, "Letters and Documents of the Old-Babylonian Period", UET 5, London, 1953O. R. Gurney, "Middle Babylonian Legal Documents and Other Texts", UET 7, London, 1974 and the Neo-Babylonian and Persian periods.H. Figulla, "Business Documents of the New Babylonian Period", UET 4, London, 1949 Many literary and religious texts were also recovered.C. J. Gadd & S. N. Kramer, "Literary and Religious Texts. First Part", UET 6/1, London, 1963C. J. Gadd & S. N. Kramer, "Literary and Religious Texts. Second Part", UET 6/2, London, 1966A. Shaffer, "Literary and Religious Texts. Third Part", UET 6/3, London, 2006

The discoveries at the site reached the headlines in mainstream media in the world with the discoveries of the Royal Tombs. As a result, the ruins of the ancient city attracted many visitors. One of these visitors was the already famous Agatha Christie, who as a result of this visit ended up marrying Max Mallowan.{{cite book |last1=Brunsdale |first1=Mitzi M. |title=Icons of Mystery and Crime Detection: From Sleuths to Superheroes [2 volumes] |date=26 July 2010 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=978-0-313-34531-9 |page=143 |language=en}}{{cite news |title=The World This Weekend - Sir Max Mallowan |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/the-world-this-weekend--sir-max-mallowan/zh27rj6 |access-date=25 February 2022 |work=BBC Archive |language=en}} During this time the site was accessible from the Baghdad–Basra railway, from a stop called "Ur Junction".Crawford 2015. p. 5. "It used to be close to the Basra to Baghdad railway, part of the proposed Berlin to Basra line that was never completed. It was possible to get off the train from Baghdad at the grandly named Ur Junction, where a branch line turned off to Nasariyah, and drive a mere two miles across the desert to the site itself, but the station was closed sometime after the Second World War, leaving a long, hot journey in a four-wheeled vehicle as the only option."

In 2009, an agreement was reached for a joint University of Pennsylvania and Iraqi team to resume archaeological work at the site of Ur.[http://www.rferl.org/content/American_Archeologists_To_Excavate_In_Iraq/1604648.html Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty – Free Media in Unfree Societies] U.S. Archaeologists To Excavate In Iraq Excavations began in 2015 under the direction of Elizabeth C Stone and Paul Zimansky of the State University of New York.Hammer, Emily, "The City and Landscape of UR: An Aerial, Satellite, and Ground Reassessment", Iraq. Journal of the British Institute for the Study of Iraq, vol. 81, pp. 173–206, 2019 The first excavation season was primarily to re-excavate Woolley's work in an Old Babylonian housing area with two new trenches for confirmation. Among the finds were a cylinder seal and balance pan weights. A number of cuneiform tablets were unearthed, a few Ur III period, a few Old Babylonian period, and a number of Old Akkadian period.Charpin, Dominique, "Epigraphy of Ur: Past, Present, and Future", Ur in the Twenty-First Century CE: Proceedings of the 62nd Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale at Philadelphia, July 11–15, 2016, edited by Grant Frame, Joshua Jeffers and Holly Pittman, University Park, USA: Penn State University Press, pp. 181-194, 2021 A similar though smaller dig was made in a Neo-Babylonian housing area.

Stone, Elizabeth C; Zimansky, Paul, Archaeology Returns to Ur: A New Dialog with Old Houses, Near Eastern Archaeology; Chicago, vol. 79, iss. 4, pp. 246–259 Dec 2016Grant Frame, Joshua Jeffers and Holly Pittman ed., "Ur in the Twenty-First Century CE", "Proceedings of the 62nd Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale at Philadelphia, July 11–15, 2016", Penn State University Press, 2021 {{ISBN|9781646021512}} In the 2017 season an urban area adjacent to Wooleys very large AH area was excavated. The burial vault of a Babylonian general Abisum was found. Abisum is known from year 36 of Hammurabi into the reign of Samsu-iluna. Thirty cuneiform tablets were found around the vault and another 12 inside the tomb itself. Some distance south of Area AH a German team of Munich University directed by Adelheid Otto excavated an Old Babylonian home. In levels below the final occupation were found tablets dating to Sin-Eribam and Silli-Adad, rulers of Larsa. They included a new copy of the Lament for Sumer and Ur.[https://hal-college-de-france.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-03022888/file/Charpin_JANER_19_HAL.pdf] Charpin, Dominique, "Priests of Ur in the Old Babylonian Period: a Reappraisal in Light of the 2017 Discoveries at Ur/Tell Muqayyar", Journal of ancient near eastern religions 19.1-2, pp. 18-34, 2019D. Charpin, "Les tablettes retrouvées dans les tombes de maisons à Ur à l'époque paléo-babylonienne", in: D. Charpin (ed.), Archibab 4. Nouvelles recherches sur la ville d'Ur à l'époque paléo-babylonienne, Mémoires de NABU 22, Paris, 2019Stone, Elizabeth, et al., "Two Great Households of Old Babylonian Ur", Near Eastern Archaeology 84.3, pp. 182-191, 2021

When the Royal Tombs at Ur were discovered, their size was unknown. Excavators started digging two trenches in the middle of the desert to see if they could find anything that would allow them to keep digging. They split into two teams – A and team B. Both teams spent the first few months digging a trench and found evidence of burial grounds by collecting small pieces of golden jewelry and pottery. This was called the "gold trench". After the first season of digging finished, Woolley returned to England. In Autumn, Woolley returned and started the second season. By the end of the second season, he had uncovered a courtyard surrounded by many rooms.{{Cite web|url=http://www.mesopotamia.co.uk/tombs/story/sto_set.html|title=The Royal Tombs of Ur – Story|website=Mesopotamia.co.uk|access-date=2016-12-04}} In their third season of digging archaeologists had uncovered their biggest find yet, a building that was believed to have been constructed by order of the king, and a second building thought to be where the high priestess lived. As the fourth and fifth season came to a close, they had discovered so many items that most of their time was now spent recording the objects they found instead of actually digging objects.Hauptmann, Andreas, Klein, Sabine, Paoletti, Paola, Zettler, Richard L. and Jansen, Moritz. "Types of Gold, Types of Silver: The Composition of Precious Metal Artifacts Found in the Royal Tombs of Ur, Mesopotamia" Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und vorderasiatische Archäologie, vol. 108, no. 1, 2018, pp. 100–131 Items included gold jewelry, clay pots and stones. One of the most significant objects was the Standard of Ur. By the end of their sixth season they had excavated 1850 burial sites and deemed 17 of them to be "Royal Tombs". Some clay sealings and cuneiform tablet fragment were found in an underlying layer.Benati, Giacomo and Lecompte, Camille. "From Field Cards to Cuneiform Archives: Two Inscribed Artifacts from Archaic Ur and Their Archaeological Context" Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und vorderasiatische Archäologie, vol. 106, no. 1, 2016, pp. 1–15

Woolley finished his work excavating the Royal Tombs in 1934, uncovering a series of burials. Many servants were killed and buried with the royals, who he believed went to their deaths willingly. Computerized tomography scans on some of the surviving skulls have shown signs that they were killed by blows to the head that could be from the spiked end of a copper axe, which showed Woolley's initial theory of mass suicide via poison to be incorrect.{{Cite book|last=McCorriston Joy, Field Julie|title=World Prehistory and the Anthropocene An Introduction to Human History|publisher=Thames & Hudson Inc.|year=2019|isbn=978-0-500-843185|location=New York|pages=286–287}}

File:Reconstructed sumerian headgear necklaces british museum.JPG in the "Royal tombs" of Ur]]

Inside Puabi's tomb there was a chest in the middle of the room. Underneath that chest was a hole in the ground that led to what was called the "King's Grave": PG-789. It was believed to be the king's grave because it was buried next to the queen. In this grave, there were 63 attendants who were all equipped with copper helmets and swords. It is thought to be his army buried with him. Another large room was uncovered, PG-1237, called the "Great death pit". This large room had 74 bodies, 68 of which were women. This was based on artifacts found with the bodies, weapons and whetstones in the case of males and simple, non-gold, jewelry in the case of females. There is some debate about the gender of one body. Two large ram statues were found in PG-1237 which are believed to be the remains of lyres. Several lyres were found just outside the entrance. The bodies were found to have perimortem blunt force injuries which caused their death. They also had skeleton markers for long term manual labor.Vidale, Massimo, "PG 1237, Royal Cemetery of Ur: Patterns in Death", Cambridge Archaeological Journal 21.3, pp. 427-451, 2011Molleson, Theya, and Dawn Hodgson, "The Human Remains from Woolley's Excavations at Ur", Iraq, vol. 65, pp. 91-129, 2003Marchesi, Gianni, "Who was Buried in the Royal Tombs of Ur? the Epigraphic and Textual Data", Orientalia (Roma), vol. 73, no. 2, pp. 153-197, 2004

Most of the treasures excavated at Ur are in the British Museum, the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology and the Baghdad Museum. At the Penn Museum the exhibition "Iraq's Ancient Past",{{cite web|url=http://www.penn.museum/sites/iraq/|title=Iraq's Ancient Past: Rediscovering Ur's Royal Cemetery|website=Penn.museum|access-date=11 August 2017}} which includes many of the most famous pieces from the Royal Tombs, opened to visitors in late Spring 2011. Previously, the Penn Museum had sent many of its best pieces from Ur on tour in an exhibition called "Treasures From the Royal Tombs of Ur." It traveled to eight American museums, including those in Cleveland, Washington and Dallas, ending the tour at the Detroit Institute of Art in May 2011.{{Citation needed|date=November 2021}}

Samples from two stratigraphic layers in the royal cemetery area, from before the royal burials, have been radiocarbon dated. The ED Ia layer dated to c. 2900 BC and the ED Ic layer to c. 2679 BC.Camille Lecompte, and Giacomo Benati, "Nonadministrative Documents from Archaic Ur and from Early Dynastic I–II Mesopotamia: A New Textual and Archaeological Analysis", Journal of Cuneiform Studies, vol. 69, pp. 3–31, 2017Wencel, M. M., "Radiocarbon Dating of Early Dynastic Mesopotamia: Results, Limitations, and Prospects", Radiocarbon 59, pp. 635–45, 2017

Though some of the areas that were cleared during modern excavations have sanded over again, the Great Ziggurat is fully cleared and stands as the best-preserved and most visible landmark at the site."Soldiers visit historical ruins of Ur", Nov 18, 2009, by 13th Sustainment Command Expeditionary Public Affairs, web: [https://www.army.mil/-news/2009/11/18/30595-soldiers-visit-historical-ruins-of-ur/ Army-595]. The famous Royal tombs, also called the Neo-Sumerian Mausolea, located about {{convert|250|m}} south-east of the Great Ziggurat in the corner of the wall that surrounds the city, are nearly totally cleared. Parts of the tomb area appear to be in need of structural consolidation or stabilization.{{Citation needed|date=November 2021}}

There are cuneiform (Sumerian writing) on many walls, some entirely covered in script stamped into the mud-bricks. The text is sometimes difficult to read, but it covers most surfaces. Modern graffiti has also found its way to the graves, usually in the form of names made with coloured pens (sometimes they are carved).{{Citation needed|date=April 2025}}

The Great Ziggurat itself has far more graffiti, mostly lightly carved into the bricks. The graves are completely empty. A small number of the tombs are accessible. Most of them have been cordoned off. The whole site is covered with pottery debris, to the extent that it is virtually impossible to set foot anywhere without stepping on some. Some have colours and paintings on them. Some of the "mountains" of broken pottery are debris that has been removed from excavations.

Pottery debris and human remains form many of the walls of the royal tombs area. In May 2009, the United States Army returned the Ur site to the Iraqi authorities, who hope to develop it as a tourist destination.{{cite web|title= US returns Ur, birthplace of Abraham, to Iraq|publisher=AFP|date=2009-05-14|url= http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/05/14/2569969.htm|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090515001750/http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/05/14/2569969.htm|url-status= dead|archive-date= May 15, 2009|access-date=2009-09-12}}

File:Wall plaque showing libation scene from Ur, Iraq, 2500 BCE. British Museum.jpg]]

Since 2009, the non-profit organization Global Heritage Fund (GHF) has been working to protect and preserve Ur against the problems of erosion, neglect, inappropriate restoration, war and conflict. GHF's stated goal for the project is to create an informed and scientifically grounded Master Plan to guide the long-term conservation and management of the site, and to serve as a model for the stewardship of other sites.[http://globalheritagefund.org/images/uploads/projects/ur_2pager.pdf Ur preservation project at the Global Heritage Fund]

Since 2013, the institution for Development Cooperation of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs DGCS[http://openaid.aics.gov.it/it/iati-activities?q=ur Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs DGCS Ur funding] and the SBAH, the State Board of Antiquities and Heritage of the Iraqi Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, have started a cooperation project for "The Conservation and Maintenance of Archaeological site of UR". In the framework of this cooperation agreement, the executive plan, with detailed drawings, is in progress for the maintenance of the Dublamah Temple (design concluded, works starting), the Royal Tombs—Mausolea 3rd Dynasty (in progress)—and the Ziqqurat (in progress). The first updated survey in 2013 has produced a new aerial map derived by the flight of a UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) operated in March 2014. This is the first high-resolution map, derived from more than 100 aerial photograms, with an accuracy of 20 cm or less. A preview of the ortho-photomap of Archaeological Site of Ur is available online.{{Cite web |url=http://archeoguide.it/ur/2014/05/16/prima-orto-foto-mappa-di-ur-da-fotogrammi-ripresi-con-lausilio-di-sistemi-uav/ |title=UAV aerial Ur Photograph |access-date=2016-12-10 |archive-date=2016-12-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161220081802/http://archeoguide.it/ur/2014/05/16/prima-orto-foto-mappa-di-ur-da-fotogrammi-ripresi-con-lausilio-di-sistemi-uav/ |url-status=dead }}

The site (30º 58’ 33.84” N by 46º 08’ 28.36” E) was first noted, as Tell Abu Ba’arura Shimal ("Father of Sheep Droppings, North"), as a Kassite period occupation (300 NE X 150 X 2.5. Cassite: 3.5 ha) during an archaeological survey of the region in the 1960s.[https://isac.uchicago.edu/sites/default/files/uploads/shared/docs/heartland_of_cities.pdf] Wright, H.T., "The southern margins of Sumer: archaeological survey of the area of Eridu and Ur", in R.M. Adams (ed.) Heartland of Cities: Surveys of Ancient Settlement and Land Use on the Central Floodplain of the Euphrates. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, pp. 323–45, 1981 The site, which lies 6.45 kilometers northeast of Ur, was excavated in a five week season from December to January 2011 – 2012 by a joint Iraqi State Board of Antiquities and Heritage and the State University of New York at Stony Brook team led by Elizabeth Stone and Paul Zimansky. It was measured at about 250 meters by 200 meters with two high points, about 3.5 meters above the plain, separated by a saddle. Seven trenches were dug, some small, and three yielded simple slope wash.[https://news.stonybrook.edu/newsroom/press-release/general/031212archaeologicalexcavations/ SBU Faculty Conduct Archaeological Excavations in Iraq - Stony Brook University - March 12, 2012] On the surface were found Kassite and Old Babylonian period ceramics and satellite imagery suggested the presence of a large square building and a number of other walls but the excavators found no building remains in surface or magnetic gradiometry surveys, or in the later trenches. Three occupational levels were determined. The top layer contained Kassite pottery fragments, a late Kassite kiln, and a number of late Kassite burials. The second held Sealand Dynasty ceramics along with lithic (grinding stones, cuboids and one balance weight), metal, floral and faunal (primarily cattle, sheep, and goats) remains.Wolfhagen, Jesse, and Max D. Price, "A probabilistic model for distinguishing between sheep and goat postcranial remains", Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 12, pp. 625-631, 2017 The excavators deemed the occupations to be repeated but transient. Neither level showed signs of formal or residential architecture.

The final, earliest level also lacked notable architecture but featured a very large mud or clay platform, made from clean material, devoid of sherds, bones, or other living debris. Coring to a depth of 4 meters (1 meter below the plain) failed to find the bottom of the platform. Part of the platform is underlain by a square baked brick pavement and remains of a fish pond were found. Two 5 meter by 10 meter trenches, 55 meters apart, were excavated in this platform. An inscribed brick of the first Ur III ruler Ur-Nammu (c. 2112-2094 BC) "describing the construction of a barag - a pedestal or podium and a garden" was found out of context. Also found were four fragmentary inscribed bricks (surface finds), three inscribed cones (one datable to Larsa ruler Rim-Sîn I (c. 1822-1763 BC) year 15), and two Sumerian language cuneiform tablets. One tablet was from the early Kassite period and the other tablet was a receipt for copper utensils is dated to year 28 of Ur III ruler Shulgi (c. 2094-2046 BC). After this

excavation season a nearby prison was expanded by the Iraqi government blocking access to the site and precluding further campaigns. It has been proposed as the site of Ur III Ga’eš. The ziggurat at Ur can be seen from the summit of the site.Twiss, Katheryn C., "Animals of the Sealands: Ceremonial Activities in the Southern Mesopotamian “Dark Age”", Iraq 79, pp. 257-267, 2017Zimansky, Paul, et al., "Tell Sakhariya and Gaeš", Proceedings of the 9th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East, Vol. 3, pp. 57-66, 2016Al-Hamdani, A., "Excavation at Tell Sakhariya in Dhiqar Province in Southern Iraq", Taarii Newsletter 7.1, pp. 17-19, 2012Zimansky, Paul, and Elizabeth C. Stone, "Excavations at Tell Sakhariya: A Sealand Site near Ur", 58e Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale, Leiden, July 2012

Based on the archaeology the site of Tell Sakhariya has been proposed as the Ur III period city of Ga’eš (ga-eš^ki and ga-eš₅^ki), site of the Akiti festival of Nanna/Sin, held every year for 11 days in the seventh month of the year and 7 days in the first month of the year. The festival began at Nanna’s temple in Ur and ended in Ga’eš, possibly traveling via a canal.Falkenstein, A., "akiti-Fest und akiti-Festhaus", R. von Kienle et a!. (eds.), Festschrift Johannes Friedrich. Heidelberg, pp. 147-182, 1959 The temple of Nanna/Sin there was called the Karzida (kar-zi-da) was located at Ga’eš (the names Karzida and Ga’eš appear to have been used interchangeably for the city). The 36th year name of Ur III ruler Shulgi read "Year Nanna of Ga’eš was brought into his temple" and the 9th year name of Ur III ruler Amar-Sin read "Year En-Nanna-Amar-Sin-kiagra, was installed for the third time as en-priestess of Nanna of Ga’eš / of Karzida". Amar-Sin established a Giparu (nunnery) for the en-priestess of Nanna at Karzida saying "he caused En-aga-zi-ana, his beloved priestess (en), to enter there".Nett, Seraina, "The Office and Responsibilities of the En Priestess of Nanna: Evidence from Votive Inscriptions and Documentary Texts", Women and Religion in the Ancient Near East and Asia, edited by Nicole Maria Brisch and Fumi Karahashi, Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, pp. 93-120, 2023 When the en-priestess died she was buried a with "golden crown (aga), which is followed by five other golden objects".[https://cdli-gh.github.io/year-names/E_GLOSSARINDEX/R579.htm Ga’eš year names at CDLI]Sallaberger, W., "Der Kultische Kalender der Ur ril-Zeit Teill", Untersuchungen zur Assyriologie und Vorderasiatischen Archaologie 7/1, Berlin, 1993Stol, Marten, "Priestesses", Women in the Ancient Near East, Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, pp. 555-583, 2016 From tablets found at Ur it is known that wrestling competitions were held at Ga’eš reading "for the ‘house of wrestling’ in the Akiti (building), issued in Ga’eš, during the Akiti month" and "100 liters of ordinary beer, the beer for the ‘house of wrestling’ … issued in Ga’eš", for example.Steinkeller, Piotr, "The Reluctant En of Inana — or the Persona of Gilgameš in the Perspective of Babylonian Political Philosophy", Journal of Ancient Near Eastern History, vol. 5, no. 1-2, pp. 149-177, 2018 All that is known with certainty about its location is that it lay one days journey from Ur and was on a canal. A sketch in a 1990's paper concerning the Iturungal Canal placed Ga’eš in a location corresponding to Tell Sakhariya.Carroue, F., "Etudes de Geographie et de Topographie Sumeriennes III. L'lturungal et le Sud Sumerien", Acta Sumerologica 15, pp. 11-69, 1993 It has been suggested that Ga’eš was mentioned in Early Dynastic II period administrative texts.Sallaberger, W., Schrakamp, I., "History and Philology", ARCANE III, Turnhout, 2015 The final textual mention of was from the time of Larsa ruler Sin-Iddinam (c. 1849-1843 BC) a cone reading "Sm-i[ddinam], mighty man, [s]on [born] in Ga’eš provider of U[r], king of Lars[a], king of the land of S[umer] and Akkad] ...".Douglas Frayne, "Larsa", Old Babylonian Period (2003-1595 B.C.): Early Periods, Volume 4, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, pp. 107-322, 1990 Apparently Ga’eš had a gate tower based on a text from Drehem "1 fattened sheep for the great gate tower in Ga’eš" dating to the reign of Su-Sin.Owen, David I., "Transliterations, Translations, and Brief Comments", The Nesbit Tablets, University Park, USA: Penn State University Press, pp. 13-110, 2016

One of the Temple Hymns of Enheduanna, the daughter of Sargon of Akkad (c. 2334-2279 BC), is dedicated to Ga’eš and the Karzida temple of Nanna/Sin there.Helle, Sophus, "The Temple Hymns", Enheduana: The Complete Poems of the World's First Author, New Haven: Yale University Press, pp. 53-94, 2023

{{blockquote|text="Shrine, great sanctuary?, founded at a cattle-pen, ‘Small’ city, . . . . of Suen Karzida, your interior is a . . . . place, your foundation is holy and clean, Shrine, your Gipar is founded in purity, Your door is (of) strong copper, set up at a great place, Cattle-pen (filled with) the lowing (of the cows), like a young bull you . . . the horn,Your prince, the lord of heaven, standing in the . . . ., At noon (like the sun) radiating . . . ., O Karzida, he, Ašimbabbar, has placed the house upon your . . . . has taken his place on your dais. The house of Nanna in Ga’eš"Zimansky, Paul, "Was the Karzida of Ur’s Akītu Festival at Tell Sakhariya?", Ur in the Twenty-First Century CE: Proceedings of the 62nd Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale at Philadelphia, July 11–15, 2016, edited by Grant Frame, Joshua Jeffers and Holly Pittman, University Park, USA: Penn State University Press, pp. 525-532, 2021

}}

Ga’eš was also mentioned in the Sumerian literary composition Lament for Sumer and Ur

{{blockquote|text="... Mighty strength was set against the banks of the Id-nuna-Nanna canal. The settlements of the E-danna of Nanna, like substantial cattle-pens, were destroyed. Their refugees, like stampeding goats, were chased (?) by dogs. They destroyed Gaeš like milk poured out to dogs, and shattered its finely fashioned statues. 'Alas, the destroyed city, my destroyed house,' Its sacred Ĝipar of en priesthood was defiled. Its en priestess was snatched from the Ĝipar and carried off to enemy territory. A lament was raised at the dais that stretches out toward heaven. Its heavenly throne was not set up, was not fit to be crowned (?)."[https://cdli.earth/artifacts/469682 "CDLI Literary 000380 (Lament for Sumer and Ur) Composite Artifact Entry", (2014) 2024. Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (CDLI), July 15, 2024]Kröll, N., & Fink, S.,"How to Destroy Sanctity? Some Insights from Sumerian Cuneiform Texts", in The Human and the Divine, Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, pp. 124-147, 2025

}}

And in another composition:

{{blockquote|"O, sanctuary, big chamber built like ? a stall, mighty beaming city of Suen, Karzida, your interior is a powerful place, your foundation is holy and clean. O, sanctuary, your Ĝipar is established in purity, your door is copper, something (very) strong, established in the Underworld. O, cattle-pen, which rai[ses] the horns like a breeding bull, your prince, the lord of heaven standing in ... joy. ... at midday and ... O Karzida, Ašimbabbar, a house has established in your holy space and took (his) residence in your sanctuary!"[https://iris.uniroma1.it/bitstream/11573/1405325/1/D%27Agostino-Greco_Abu-Tbeirah_2019.pdf] D'Agostino, Franco, and Angela Greco, "Abu Tbeirah. philological and epigraphic point of view", Abu Tbeirah. Excavations I. Area 1. Last Phase and Building A – Phase 1, pp. 465-477, 2019

}}

{{One source|section|date=August 2024}}

The Sumerian King List (SKL) gives a list of only thirteen rulers from three dynasties of Ur. The once supposed second dynasty of Ur may have never existed."The so-called Second Dynasty of Ur is a phantom and is not recorded in the SKL" in {{cite book |last1=Frayne |first1=Douglas |title=Pre-Sargonic Period: Early Periods, Volume 1 (2700-2350 BC) |date=2008 |publisher=University of Toronto Press |isbn=978-1-4426-9047-9 |page=910 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8PNAnIome3AC&pg=PT910 |language=en}} The first dynasty of Ur may have been preceded by one other dynasty of Ur (the "Kalam dynasty") unnamed on the SKL—which had extensive influence over the area of Sumer and apparently led a union of south Mesopotamian polities. This predynastic period of Ur may include at least two rulers out of the first eight on this list (Meskalamdug and Akalamdug). The following list should not be considered complete:

{{contains special characters | cuneiform}}

• Correspondence of the Kings of Ur
• History of Iraq
• History of Sumer
• List of cities of the ancient Near East
• Lyres of Ur
• Ram in a Thicket
• Royal Game of Ur
• Short chronology
• Tal Abu Tbeirah

{{Portal bar|Iraq|History|Geography}}

{{notelist}}

{{reflist|group=note|colwidth=40em}}

{{reflist|15em}}

• [https://cdli.ucla.edu/pubs/cdlj/2015/cdlj2015_002.html%3E] Benati, Giacomo, "Re-modeling political economy in early 3rd millennium BC Mesopotamia: patterns of socio-economic organization in Archaic Ur (Tell al-Muqayyar, Iraq)", Cuneiform Digital Library Journal 2015.2, 2015
• Benati, Giacomo, "The Beginning of the Early Dynastic Period at Ur", Iraq, vol. 76, 2014, pp. 1–17, 2014
• Black, J. and Spada, G., "Texts from Ur: Kept in the Iraq Museum and the British Museum.", Nisaba 19, Messina: Dipartimento di Scienze dell’Antichitá 2008 {{ISBN|9788882680107}}
• [https://cdli.ucla.edu/pubs/cdlj/2003/cdlj2003_005.html] Chambon, Grégory "Archaic metrological systems from Ur", Cuneiform Digital Library Journal 2003.5, 2003
• D. Charpin, "Le Clergé d'Ur au siècle d'Hammurabi (XIXe-XVIIIe siècles av. J.-C.)", HEO 22, Geneva-Paris, 1986
• D. Charpin, "Le pillage d'Ur et la protection du temple de Ningal en l'an 12 de Samsu-iluna", in: D. Charpin (ed.), Archibab 4. Nouvelles recherches sur la ville d'Ur à l'époque paléo babylonienne, Mémoires de NABU 22, Paris, 2019
• Charvát, Petr, "Signs from Silence: Ur of the First Sumerians (Late Uruk Through ED I)", Ur in the Twenty-First Century CE: Proceedings of the 62nd Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale at Philadelphia, July 11–15, 2016, edited by Grant Frame, Joshua Jeffers and Holly Pittman, University Park, USA: Penn State University Press, pp. 195–204, 2021
• Crawford, Harriet, "Ur: The City of the Moon God", London: Bloomsbury, 2015. {{ISBN|978-1-47252-419-5}}
• D’Agostino, F., Pomponio, F., and Laurito, R., "Neo-Sumerian Texts from Ur in the British Museum.", Nisaba 5, Messina: Dipartimento di Scienze dell’Antichitá, 2004 {{ISBN|9788882680107}}
• C. J. Gadd, "History and monuments of Ur, Chatto & Windus", 1929 (Dutton 1980 reprint: {{ISBN|0-405-08545-1}}).
• [https://archive.org/download/ur-excavations-iii.-archaic-seal-impressions/Ur%20Excavations%20III.%20Archaic%20seal-impressions.pdf] Leon Legrain, "Archaic seal-impressions", Ur Excavations III, Publications of the Joint Expedition of the British Museum and of the University Museum, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, to Mesopotamia, Oxford University Press, 1936
• [http://hdl.handle.net/11401/88756] Leon Legrain, "Seal cylinders", Ur Excavations X, Publications of the Joint Expedition of the British Museum and of the University Museum, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, to Mesopotamia, Oxford University Press, 1951
• P. R. S. Morrey, "Where Did They Bury the Kings of the IIIrd Dynasty of Ur?", Iraq, vol. 46, no. 1, pp. 1–18, 1984.
• [https://www.penn.museum/sites/expedition/what-do-we-know-about-the-people-buried-in-the-royal-cemetery/] P.R.S. Morrey, "What Do We Know About the People Buried in the Royal Cemetery?", Expedition Magazine, Penn Museum, vol. 20, iss. 1, pp. 24–40, 1977
• J. Oates, "Ur and Eridu: The Prehistory", Iraq, vol. 22, pp. 32–50, 1960.
• Pardo Mata, Pilar, "Ur, ciudad de los sumerios". Cuenca: Alderaban, 2006. {{ISBN|978-84-95414-38-0}}.
• Susan Pollock, "Chronology of the Royal Cemetery of Ur", Iraq, vol. 47, pp. 129–158, British Institute for the Study of Iraq, 1985
• Susan Pollock, "Of Priestesses, Princes and Poor Relations: The Dead in the Royal Cemetery of Ur", Cambridge Archaeological Journal, vol. 1, iss. 2, 1991
• Wencel, M. M., "New radiocarbon dates from southern Mesopotamia (Fara and Ur)", Iraq, 80, pp. 251–261, 2018
• [https://archive.org/download/ur-excavations-ii.-the-royal-cemetery-plates/Ur%20Excavations%20II.%20The%20Royal%20Cemetery%2C%20Plates.pdf] Woolley, Leonard, "The Royal Cemetery: a report on the predynastic and Sargonid graves excavated between 1926 and 1931", Ur Excavations II, Publications of the Joint Expedition of the British Museum and of the University Museum, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, to Mesopotamia, Oxford University Press, 1927
• [http://hdl.handle.net/11401/89111] Woolley, Leonard, "The early periods: a report on the sites and objects prior in date to the third dynasty of Ur discovered in the course of the excavations", Ur excavations IV, London : Published for the Trustees of the Two Museums, Oxford University Press, 1955
• [http://hdl.handle.net/11401/89114] Woolley, Leonard, "The Ziggurat and Its Surroundings", Ur Excavations V, Oxford University Press, 1939
• [http://hdl.handle.net/11401/88613] Woolley, Leonard, "The buildings of the third dynasty", Ur Excavations VI, London : Published for the Trustees of the Two Museums, 1974
• [http://hdl.handle.net/11401/88616] Woolley, Leonard and with M.E.L. Mallowan, "The Old Babylonian Period", Ur Excavations VII, Oxford University Press, 1976
• [http://hdl.handle.net/11401/88614] Woolley, Leonard, "The Kassite period and the period of the Assyrian kings", Ur Excavations VIII, London : Published for the Trustees of the Two Museums, 1965
• [http://hdl.handle.net/11401/88615] Woolley, Leonard and M.E.L. Mallowan, "The Neo-Babylonian and Persian Periods", Ur Excavations IX, London : Published for the Trustees of the Two Museums, 1962
• [https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.175502] Woolley, Leonard, "Ur of the Chaldees: A record of seven years of excavation", Ernest Benn Limited, 1920
• C. L. Woolley, "The Excavations at Ur, 1923–1924", Antiquaries Journal 5, pp. 1–20, 1925
• C. L. Woolley, "The Excavations at Ur, 1924–1925", Antiquaries Journal 5, pp. 347–402, 1925
• C. L. Woolley, "The Excavations at Ur, 1925–1926", Antiquaries Journal 6, pp. 365–401, 1926
• C. L. Woolley, "The Excavations at Ur, 1926–1927", Antiquaries Journal 7, pp. 385–423, 1927
• C. L. Woolley, "Excavations at Ur, 1927–1928", Antiquaries Journal 8, pp. 415–448, 1928
• C. L. Woolley, "Excavations at Ur, 1928–1929", Antiquaries Journal 9, pp. 305–343, 1929
• C. L. Woolley, "Excavations at Ur, 1929–1930", Antiquaries Journal 10, pp. 315–343 and pl. XXVIII, 1930
• C. L. Woolley, "Excavations at Ur, 1930–1931", Antiquaries Journal 11, pp. 343–381, 1931
• C. L. Woolley, "Excavations at Ur, 1931–1932", Antiquaries Journal 12, pp. 355–392 and pl. LVIII, 1932

{{sister project links|d=Q5699|c=Category:Ur|n=no|b=no|v=no|voy=no|s=no|m=no|mw=no|species=no}}

• [https://www.penn.museum/sites/expedition/city-of-the-moon/ City of the Moon New Excavations at Ur – Penn Museum – 2017]
• [http://sumerianshakespeare.com/117701/index.html An exploration of the Royal Tombs of Ur, with a comprehensive selection of high-resolution photographs detailing the treasures found in the tombs]
• [http://www.mesopotamia.co.uk/tombs/explore/exp_set.html Explore some of the Royal Tombs], Mesopotamia website from the British Museum
• [http://www.museum.upenn.edu/new/exhibits/ur/index.shtml Treasures from the Royal Tombs of Ur] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081217150512/http://www.museum.upenn.edu/new/exhibits/ur/index.shtml |date=2008-12-17 }}
• [http://www.ur-online.org/ British Museum and Penn Museum Ur site – has field reports]
• [http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=40&letter=U Jewish Encyclopedia:] Ur
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20090326004326/http://cojs.org/cojswiki/Woolley%E2%80%99s_Ur_Revisited%2C_Richard_L._Zettler%2C_BAR_10:05%2C_Sep/Oct_1984. Woolley’s Ur Revisited, Richard L. Zettler, BAR 10:05, September/October 1984.]
• [http://www.sas.upenn.edu/aamw/resources/fieldwork/#Ur%20%28Iraq%29 Ur Excavations of the University of Pennsylvania Museum]
• [https://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/27/science/27ur.html At Ur, Ritual Deaths That Were Anything but Serene] on The New York Times

{{Early Rulers of Mesopotamia}}

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Category:Sumerian cities

Category:Archaeological sites in Iraq

Category:History of Dhi Qar Governorate

Category:Former populated places in Iraq

Category:Populated places established in the 4th millennium BC

Category:Ubaid period

Category:City-states