This was the most centralized bureaucratic state the world had yet known. The first is a large body of cuneiform documents, mostly from the empire of the so-called Third Dynasty of Ur at the very end of the third millennium. There are two main sources which inform scholars about the importance of Ur during the Early Bronze Age. (Some cities are shown with French spellings, e.g. The third millennium BC is generally described as the Early Bronze Age of Mesopotamia, which ends approximately after the demise of the Third Dynasty of Ur. The further occupation of Ur only becomes clear again during its florescence in the third millennium BC (although it must already have been a growing urban center during the fourth millennium).

However it is now understood that the South Mesopotamian plain was exposed to regular floods from the Euphrates and the Tigris and that it was subjected to heavy erosion from water and wind. These early levels were sealed off with a sterile deposit which was quickly interpreted as evidence for the Great Flood of the Bible by the excavators in the 1920s. The ruins cover an area of 1,200 metres (3,900 ft) northwest to southeast by 800 metres (2,600 ft) northeast to southwest and rise up to about 20 metres (66 ft) above the present plain level.Īrchaeologists have discovered evidence of an early occupation at Ur during the Ubaid period. The temple was built in the 21st century BC (short chronology), during the reign of Ur-Nammu and was reconstructed in the 6th century BC by Nabonidus. The site is marked by the ruins of the Great Ziggurat of Ur, which contained the shrine of Nanna, excavated in the 1930s. The city’s patron deity was Nanna, the Sumerian moon god, and the name of the city is in origin derived from the god’s name, URIM2KI being the classical Sumerian spelling of LAK-32.UNUGKI, literally 'the abode (UNUG) of Nanna (LAK-32)'. Once a coastal city near the mouth of the Euphrates on the Persian Gulf, Ur is now well inland, south of the Euphrates on its right bank, 16 kilometres (9.9 mi) from Nasiriyah.

Ur (Sumerian: Urim Akkadian: Uru) was an important city-state in ancient Sumer located at the site of modern Tell el-Muqayyar, Dhi Qar Governorate, Iraq.

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