The oldest portions of the city-state of Ur were equal in age to that of Uruk, but it became an important state only around 2,600 BC. Originally Ur was located at the mouth of the Euphrates River, on the coast of the Persian Gulf; today its ruins are well inland of the Gulf, near a US military base. Its central feature, as in all Sumerian cities, is the massive eighty-foot tall brick ziggurat, built over time for Su'en, the Sumerian moon-god. By 2,300 BC, Ur may have been the largest city in the world, with a population of 65,000 people. In the Bible, the city is known as Ur of the Chaldees, and is reputed to have been the birthplace of the prophet Abraham.
A Drawing of the Ur Ziggurat [from The Last Two Million Years, Reader's Digest Association, 1973, p. 50
Remains of the Ziggurat in 2004--People are climbing the stairway, and can be seen on top of the platform. [Wikipedia Commons, Public Domain]
Ur is the site of one of the most famous archaeological excavations in history, that of the British archaeologist Sir Leonard Woolley. Working for the British Museum and the University of Pennsylvania, Woolley and his crew excavated Ur between 1922 and 1934. Though that was a time when the life of the upper class was of much more concern to archaeology than that of the lower class, Woolley conducted a precise and well-recorded excavation that enormously added to information on Sumer.
Among other things, Woolley excavated some 2,500 burials, of which perhaps 16 were labeled as "royal". These royal burials were individuals who were placed in private, large chambers of stone blocks and mud-brick. They were surrounded by objects indicative of the wealth and power that they had on earth, and were accompanied by people, presumably their retainers, and animals. One famous burial was thought to be that of a royal woman,Shub-ad or Pua-bi, dating from 2600-2500 BC. Her body was found on a bed, together with 59 bodies of mostly female attendants. Two wagons, with oxen accompanied by male servants, were also found. Woolley, noting that there was no sign of violence about the bodies, believed that everyone went alive into the burial chamber, where the male servants killed the oxen and then everyone took poison. Enormous quatities of gold, silver, lapis lazuli and other semi-precious stones were found with the Shub-ad, as well as on some of the retainers. Woolley found countless other burials in tiny chambers where no grave goods were included at all, evidence of marked class stratification.
Left-Headress and Ear Rings of Queen Shub-ad, mostly of gold. [from The Epic of Man, Time Inc., 1961 p. 79]; Right-Gold Fluted Cup from Queen's tomb [from The Epic of Man, p. 71]
Decorated Harp's Head from a burial at Ur, Gold and Lapis Lazuli over Wood [from The Age of God-Kings, Time-Life Books,1987 p. 25]
Golden Helmet from Rich Citizen's burial, hammered from a single sheet of gold. Holes at bottom indicated where a quilted lining was once attached. [from The Epic of Man, Time Inc., 1961 p. 79]
Portion of a mosaic depicting military activities of Ur, ca. 2,500 BC, including chariots driven over dead enemy at the bottom, killing of captives in the middle panel and captives being brought before a king-like figure at the top. [from The Age of God-Kings, p. 30]
Portion of mosaic of Shell, lapis lazuli, and limestone: Leisured class at the top, drinking wine; herdsmen and fishermen at bottom, perhaps bringing tribute. [from The Last Two Million Years, p. 52]
Both mosaics depicted above are on the same artifact, a wooden box some 18 inches long. Click here for more photos and information on what is sometimes called the Royal Standard of Ur.
Ur was conquered in about 2,340 BC by Sargon of Akkad (possible founder of the city of Akkad far to the north in Mesopotamia.) Sargon was the first to temporarily unite all of Mesopotamia, but his empire collapsed at his death. Ur again grew as an independent state, though it underwent more than one period of conquest by outside forces. By 1700 BC the northern city of Babylon had become the most important state in Mesopotamia. Ur as a city and as a state was in decline by 550 BC, and was totally abandoned in 500 BC, probably because of prolonged drought and continued silting of the mouth of the Euphrates River as it drained into the Persian Gulf.
