an ancient city-state on the site of the ruins of the fortified town of Tallal-Muqayyar, 20 km southwest of the modern city of al-Nasiriyah in Iraq. The first settlement on the site of Ur appeared in the late fifth millennium B.C., when painted pottery of the Ubaid (Ubayd or Obeid) culture was widespread here. In the fourth millennium, during the Uruk period, Ur developed into a city. By the 25th century B.C., during the First Dynasty of Ur, whose rulers included Mesannepada and Aannepada, it became a powerful state. During the 24th to 22nd centuries, except for brief intervals, it was first under the rule of the neighboring city-states of Lagash, Umma, and Uruk (better known as Erech) and then under the rule of the kingdom of Akkad and the Guti tribe.
Circa the 21st century, Ur became the capital of the Kingdom of Sumer and Akkad (the Third Dynasty of Ur). During the reign of King Ur-Nammu (21st century B.C.), a law code was compiled, believed to be the most ancient law code in Mesopotamia. The period of the Third Dynasty is characterized by the existence of vast royal domains where the slavelike exploitation of the laborers prevailed. The ideological bases of despotic royal rule were created; for example, a unified pantheon was introduced, and the idea of the immortality of the kings was disseminated. The four subsequent kings of the Third Dynasty of Ur—Shulgi Amar-sin, Shu-sin, and Ibbi-sin—were deified in their own lifetimes. The dynasty fell circa 2000 B.C., in the course of a war with the Amorites and Elamites. Ur remained an important trade and artisan center subject to first the Babylonians (from the 18th to sixth centuries B.C.) and then the Achaemenids (from the sixth century B.C.). By the late fourth century B.C., Ur had fallen into a decline.
Ur was excavated by the Britons J. E. Taylor in 1854, R. Campbell Thompson in 1918, and H. R. Hall from 1919 to 1922; particularly extensive excavations were conducted from 1922 to 1934 by an Anglo-American expedition headed by C. L. Woolley. The most numerous and interesting remains date from the First and Second dynasties of Ur. Sixteen “royal” tombs, dating from the First Dynasty (25th century B.C.), yielded numerous luxurious articles made of gold, silver, alabaster, lapis-lazuli, obsidian, and other materials, sometimes exhibiting mosaic techniques.
During the period of the Third Dynasty (21st century B.C.), the city had an irregular oval plan and was surrounded by brick walls. The fragmented brick buildings dating from this period include the ruins of a palace and a temple complex dominated by a fourtiered ziggurat. (For additional information on the artistic culture of Ur, seeBABYLONIAN AND ASSYRIAN CULTURE.)
I. M. D’IAKONOV