Editing Ur (section)

== History ==
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.<ref>Jacobsen, Thorkild, "The Waters of Ur", Iraq, vol. 22, pp. 174–85, 1960</ref> 
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.<ref>[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</ref>

=== Prehistory ===
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 [[marsh]]y surroundings; irrigation would have been unnecessary, and the city's evident [[canal]]s likely were used for [[transportation]]. Fish, birds, tubers, and reeds might have supported Ur economically without the need for an [[Neolithic Revolution|agricultural revolution]] sometimes hypothesized as a prerequisite to urbanization.<ref>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.</ref><ref>Crawford 2015, p. 5.</ref>

==== Prehistoric Ubaid period ====
Archaeologists have discovered evidence of early occupation at Ur during the [[Ubaid period]] (c. 5500–3700 BC), a [[prehistory|prehistoric]] period of [[Mesopotamia]].<ref>[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}}</ref> The name derives from [[Tell al-'Ubaid]] where the earliest large excavation of Ubaid period material was conducted initially in 1919 by [[Henry Hall (Egyptologist)|Henry Hall]] and later by [[Leonard Woolley]].<ref>Henry R.H. Hall, C.L. Woolley, et al., [http://digital.library.stonybrook.edu/cdm/ref/collection/amar/id/13075 "Al 'Ubaid", 1927]</ref><ref>Hall, Henry R. and Woolley, C. Leonard. 1927. ''Al-'Ubaid. Ur Excavations 1''. Oxford: Oxford University Press.</ref>

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 [[Flood myth|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.<ref name="Nova">{{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}}</ref>

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

====Early Dynastic period II====
[[Proto-cuneiform]] tablets from the Early Dynastic period, c. 2900 BC, have been recovered.<ref>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, 2016</ref><ref>Denise Schmandt-Besserat, "An Archaic Recording System and the Origin of Writing." Syro Mesopotamian Studies, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 1–32, 1977</ref>

====Early Dynastic period III====
{{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.<ref>Matthews, R.J. (1993). ''Cities, Seals and Writing: Archaic Seal Impressions from Jemdet Nasr and Ur'', Berlin.</ref>

<gallery>
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]].
</gallery>

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

==== Ur III period====
{{Main|Third Dynasty of Ur}}
[[File:World in 2000 BC.svg|thumb|270px|Map of the world around 2000 BC showing the Third Dynasty of Ur]]
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&nbsp;BC and 2030&nbsp;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&nbsp;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.<ref>[[Amélie Kuhrt]] (1995). ''The Ancient Near East: C.3000-330&nbsp;B.C.'' Routledge. {{ISBN|0-415-16762-0}}.</ref>

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&nbsp;years) and deified himself halfway through his rule.<ref name=DTPotts132>{{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}}</ref>

[[File:Ziggurat of UrInbound1427286134917083377.jpg|thumb|[[Ziggurat of Ur]]]]
The Ur empire continued through the reigns of three more kings with [[Akkadian language|Akkadian]] names, [[Amar-Sin]], [[Shu-Sin]], and [[Ibbi-Sin]]. It fell around 1940&nbsp;BC to the [[Elam]]ites in the 24th [[regnal year]] of Ibbi-Sin, an event commemorated by the [[Lament for Ur]].<ref>Ur III Period (2112–2004&nbsp;BC) by Douglas Frayne, University of Toronto Press, 1997, {{ISBN|0-8020-4198-1}}</ref><ref>{{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}}</ref>

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

=== Middle Bronze Age ===
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.

=== Late Bronze Age ===
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.<ref>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</ref>

===Iron Age===
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 [[Neo-Babylonian Empire|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&nbsp;BC after Babylonia fell to the [[Persia]]n [[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}}