Ur

30.96222222222246.104444444444Koordinaten: 30 ° 57 ' 44 "N, 46 ° 6' 16" E

Ur, the present-day Tell el- Muqejjir, is one of the oldest Sumerian city -ups and old center in Mesopotamia ( Mesopotamia, in present-day Iraq). A ziggurat of the moon god Nanna is one of its most important buildings.

The origins of the town date back to about 4000 BC. It is an important archaeological site today. The city is located near the present city of Nasiriya.

The city

Through various excavations, it is possible to have a pretty good picture of the appearance of the town to win that once was the sea, and was an important port. In the north of the town is the district of the moon god Nanna, who was the chief god of the city. Here is the ziggurat, which was built by Ur - Nammu to 2200 BC.

To the ziggurat around are a few other important buildings. The Echursanga called palace dated to the 3rd dynasty of Ur and the Royal Palace of Ur - Nammu and Shulgi. The Egipar is another sanctuary. It was dedicated to the Ningal and dated in the 3rd dynasty of Ur.

Approximately 200 m south of the ziggurat, the oldest major structures were excavated at Ur. It is the royal tombs of Ur, dated around 2600-2500 BC, but were part of a comprehensive about 2000 graves cemetery. Some of the royal grave sites were found without robbing (see: puabi ) and contained rich grave goods. Very near this cemetery were also found the monumental grave sites of the kings of the third dynasty of Ur. In the south of the city, much of the residential town was excavated from this period. The houses were usually rather small and had an interior courtyard. There are several streets, and there are few signs of urban planning. After the 3rd dynasty of Ur, the city lost much more important.

In the Kassite period ( 14th century BC ) the Nannaheiligtum has been renovated. At the time of Assyrerherrschaft there are other renovations. One last little boom was recorded in Neo-Babylonian period. The Nanna District has been greatly expanded and received a mighty wall. North of the city, a large palace for Belschaltinanna, a daughter of King Nabonidus was built.

Excavations

In the mid- 19th century, stood on the site of the former city of Ur, a well-preserved ziggurat, who was known as Tell al - Muqayyar - the " stages hill ". This tower was a place of worship for the moon god Nanna. He was smaller than the Babylonian ziggurat. The surface area was 55 by 40 meters.

1854 was a British caravan led by the consul in Basra to Ur, to search for treasures for the British Museum in London. JE Taylor left the ziggurat from above erode and finally found some clay cylinders with inscriptions faded but at that time in view of important discoveries in Northern Mesopotamia (as in Nineveh ). Thus, the British gave up their efforts in first. After local Arabs used the bricks of the ziggurat as a building material.

Among the officers of the British troops, who marched in the First World War to Baghdad, Reginald Campbell Thompson was, in peacetime assistant in the British Museum. At his urgent report to London, given the dilapidated structure and the presumed settlement ruins the now -forgotten clay cylinders were carefully examined.

Only now it turned out that it had to be here to the biblical Ur and Babylonian ruler Nabonidus that had restored the ziggurat in the 6th century BC. Many other cuneiform texts confirmed that Ur was the most important city of the Sumerians. Among the clay tablets found there were some that were used for teaching in cuneiform. Otherwise it can be seen that the students had multiplication and division tables and calculated with square and cube roots. Many of the panels are business documents.

In 1922 an expedition of archaeologists Leonard Woolley to Ur and began systematic excavations at Tell. Wooley digging the twelve winter half-year ( 1922-1934 ). He dug out also the so-called royal cemetery at Ur. Untouched but he found only the grave chamber of the Queen puabi that had been buried with 23 richly decorated servants. The Queen had rich grave goods of gold, lapis lazuli, agate and carnelian. Mesilim King of Kish was wearing a paper-thin gold helmet and a golden dagger with a knob of a lapis lazuli. The most prominent Find of the excavations is a bull's head of beaten gold, decorated with blue lapis lazuli. He sat as an ornament on a harp.

Dynasties of Ur

Bible

According to the tradition of the Old Testament of the Bible, the patriarch Abraham is from Ur (Gen 11:27 f EU).