Ur: The Great Biblical City Abandoned by the Gods
Ur was a city in the region of Sumer, in southern Mesopotamia, and its ruins lie in what is modern-day Tell el-Muqayyar, Iraq. According to biblical tradition, the city is named after the man who founded the first settlement there, Ur, though this has been challenged. The city is famous for its biblical associations and as an ancient trade center.
The city's other biblical link is to the patriarch Abraham, who left Ur to settle in the land of Canaan. This claim has also been contested by scholars who believe that Abraham's home was further north in Mesopotamia in a place called Ura, near the city of Harran, and that the writers of the biblical narrative in the book of Genesis confused the two.
Whatever its biblical connections may have been, Ur was a significant port city on the Persian Gulf, which began, most likely, as a small village in the Ubaid period of Mesopotamian history (6500-4000 BCE) and was an established city by 3800 BCE, continually inhabited until 450 BCE. Ur's biblical associations have made it famous in the modern day, but it was a significant urban center long before those narratives were written, and it was highly respected in its time.
The Early Period & Excavation
The site became famous in the modern era in 1922 when Sir Leonard Wooley excavated the ruins and discovered what he called The Great Death Pit (an elaborate grave complex), the Royal Tombs, and, more significantly to him, claimed to have found evidence of the Great Flood described in the book of Genesis. This claim was later discredited but continues to find supporters.
In its time, Ur was a city of enormous size, scope, and opulence, which drew its vast wealth from its position on the Persian Gulf and the trade this allowed with regions as far away as the Indus Valley Civilization. The present site of the ruins of Ur is much further inland than it was at the time when the city flourished, owing to silting of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.
From the beginning, Ur was an important trade center, owing to its location at a pivotal point where the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers run into the Persian Gulf. Archaeological excavations have substantiated that, early on, Ur possessed great wealth and the citizens enjoyed a level of comfort unknown in other Mesopotamian cities.
As with other great urban complexes in the region, the city began as a small village, which was most likely led by a priest or priest-king. The king of the First Dynasty, Mesannepadda, is only known through the Sumerian King List and from inscriptions on artifacts found in the graves of Ur.
The Second Dynasty is known to have had four kings, but about them, their accomplishments, or the history during this time, nothing is known. The early Mesopotamian writers did not consider it worthwhile to record the deeds of mortals and preferred to link human achievements to the work and will of the gods. Ancient hero-kings, such as Gilgamesh of Uruk, or those who performed amazing feats, such as Etana or those recorded in the Myth of Adapa, were worthy of record, but mortal kings were not afforded that same level of concern regarding the details of their reigns.
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