Ur III

Description:

The Ur III Period, or Third Dynsaty of Ur arose after the Guti Dynasty of Sumer, and the following power struggle among the city-states. Ur-Nammu expanded the empire to the modern day border with Turkey. This period is also known as the Neo-Sumerian Empire, because of the resurgence of Sumerian art, language, and literature. Shulgi centralized and standardized procedures of the empire, the administrative processes, and tax systems. The dynasty fell to the Elamites, and then to the Amorites.

Ultra Low Chronology: 2018-1911 BCE

Short/Low Chronology: 2048-1940 BCE

Middle Chronology: 2112-2004 BCE

Long/High Chronology: 2161-2054 BCE

Objects: Ur III Export: JSON - XML - CSV

U Number	Museum Number (UPM Date Reg Number)	Museum Number (BM Registration Number)	Museum Number (UPM B-number)	Description (Catalog Card)
17853	32-40-435, 32-40-435	(none)	(none)	Limestone fragment. Flaked off from a curved drum with inscription (nearly completed). --To Amurru; His God; (for) life; Warad-Sin; King of Larsa
246	(none)	(none)	B14939	Limestone fragment. Inscribed with a dedication by Ur-Engur. [Annotated] Placed in IN/No. 1
16528	31-43-249, 31-43-249	(none)	(none)	Limestone Foundation-tablet. Ur^d(...); dedication to Nin-shaggi-(pad)da. H.C. 30/III,1. [CARD MISSING Typed Transcription from British Museum Card]
6366	(none)	(none)	(none)	Large oolite plate. To Ningal, his lady Ur-Nammu, the mighty man, king of Ur, king of Sumer and Akkad, for his life has presented. Type XXX. B. H.C.
719	(none)	(none)	(none)	Large fragment of large Sumerian account tablet, top left. Date, if any, broken. Placed in Packing Case D.
3036	(none)	1948,0423.381	(none)	Large clay tablet. Only part of one face preserved. Much broken. Comptability: list of various kinds of cloth and name of the workman or merchant. Time of Ibi-Sin.
3204	47-29-229	(none)	(none)	Large clay tablet. 9 columns. Time of Ibi-Sin. Entering wool in the temple and palace.
3051	(none)	(none)	(none)	Large clay tablet. 6 columns. Fragment. Comptability. Time of Gungunu.
6719	(none)	1948,0423.360	(none)	Large clay tablet. 12 columns (6 face, 6 reverse) Total of goods of the craftsmen (smith, cobblers, carpenters, tailors, etc.) Received by Abuwagar the diviner: authority of Warad ilNannar - From month Segurkud - to month Ezen dUnugal. Year when for Ibi-Sin king of Ur, beloved of the heart of Nannar, the Euphrates over flood. H.C. Baghdad. Text:9H(2)
640	(none)	1923,1110.8	(none)	Large clay cone. On base, 2 column inscription, 2nd column nearly all broken away. 1st col. 14 lines. On shaft, single column 28 lines. Inscription of Rim-Sin of Larsa. Recording his building of a temple? Called E-erim-kud-kud, for his own life and for that of his father Kudur-Mabug. The temple was dedicated to the war-god Nergal, to whom the king prays for success in battle.
641	(none)	1923,1110.5	(none)	Large clay cone. On base 2 column inscription, slightly damaged left top+bottom corners. 25 + 24 lines. On shaft: beginnings of 25 lines. Inscription of Arad-Sin. Recording his building of a temple to the goddess Onanna, called E-dilmun[na, on behalf of his own life. Inscription duplicate of [underlined]Clay.Miscell.Inscription no. 31. 113914 (Hall's coll.) is fragment of another duplicate.
642	(none)	1923,1110.6	(none)	Large clay cone. On base 2 col inscription, damaged top right and bottom right corners, 17+19 lines. On shafts, parts of 2 column inscription. Inscription of R-Sin of Larsa.
1515	(none)	(none)	(none)	Large clay cone. Nearly complete, but surface damaged. Inscription of Warad-Sin, king of Larsa, duplicate of U.1200, etc.
780	(none)	1923,1110.7	(none)	Large clay cone. Inscription of Rim [written above; Arab is scratched out] -Sin, dedication to Tammus. Recording the king's building of a temple called Ka'-li-sud for Tammuz, the rustic god, and praying that he may prosper and increase the flocks and herds.
781	(none)	1923,1110.10	(none)	Large clay cone, shaft broken. Inscription of [three words crossed out] Rim-Sin. Dedicated to Nannar. Commemorating the king's building of edifice [written above crossed out word 'temple'] called E-ginabtum (some sort of storehouse, cf. P.A.XV. P.18.n10) to the god, and containing laudatory epithets applied to the moon.
700	(none)	1935,1110.629	(none)	Large clay cone, nearly complete. Base 2 column inscription, top right corner damaged 25 + 25 lines. Repeated on shaft, complete. Arad-Sin. Duplicate of U.19
702	(none)	(none)	(none)	Large clay cone, base and shaft badly damageD. of base, parts of 2 column inscription. Shaft, beginnings of lines of 1st column Rim-Sin.
1191	(none)	1924,0920.22	(none)	Large black diorite gate-socket, dedicated in the cult-temple of GIMIL-SIN, king of Ur (3rd Dynasty), by a certain Lugal-magu-rri, patesi of Ur. The inscription of 16 lines is engraved on the upper surface partly surrounding the socket hole.
3053	(none)	(none)	(none)	Large 6 column tablet. Large fragmetn. Dairy products brought in Ga-nun-mah. Time of Gungunu.
18307	(none)	1933,1013.235	(none)	Jeweller's trial piece. Fragment of a large pot of of light drab clay on which is roughly scratched the design for a cylinder seal. Subject: seated god and standing god introducing a man behind whom is an ostrich (?).
6736	(none)	(none)	(none)	Inscribed steatite dish. "For the life of dShulgi, the god of his land, king of Ur, king of the 4 regions of the world-----. H.C. B
6735	(none)	(none)	(none)	Inscribed Soapstone bed. Fragments. To Nin(gal)?. And the sea, his servant, has presented IIIrd Ur Dynasty? H.C. B. [drawing]
6157	(none)	1927,0527.33	(none)	Inscribed foundation tablet. Black steatite. Inscribed rectangular, uninscribed side convex. 8 Columns. Shrine of dDim-tab-ba. Cf. U.6300, U.6302. Text: Dim-tab-ba Temple (2) E.
7825	(none)	(none)	(none)	Inscribed duck weight Diorite. A crescent. of Dungi; weight 5 mana. B Type VI. HC.37.
18176	(none)	(none)	(none)	Inscribed clay cone. Large cone of Larsa type, the head intact, the stem broken and a good deal of the text missing.

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Locations: Ur III Export: JSON - XML - CSV

Context Title	Context Description	Description (Modern)
DP	The excavation area abbreviation DP probably stands for Dungi's Palace; Woolley believed the building with bricks marked e-hur-sag (thought to refer to Shulgi's palace) was too small to be what should be a grandiose building. Thus, he explored the area southeast of the giparu extensively looking for it. Most of his abbreviations for excavations in this area refer to the potential palace. When he found cylinders inscribed with the name of Shulgi beneath a partly ruined floor (excavation area abbreviation DT in the northwestern portion of area EH), he thought he might have found it or at least indications of it. This building turned out to be a temple dedicated to Dimtabba (now read Nimintabba) and its very partial remains extended beyond the line of the Neo-Babylonian temenos wall to the west. Woolley continued to dig into this western area under a new excavation abbreviation, DP. This area did not reveal a palace or additional ruins of the Nimintabba temple, but instead it showed denuded domestic space related to Hall's Area A excavations. Area DP became the northern portion of area EM, but only partial houses are shown here along what Woolley termed Quality Lane. The houses here were never published in great detail, but many of the DP graves appear on the area EM map as falling along Quality Lane.	(none)
Mausolea of Amar-Sin \| AD	Amar-Sin annex to Shugli Mausoleum, The excavation area abbreviation AD was apparently duplicated by accident and thus refers to two different areas of the site. Legrain reported the abbreviation as "Annex of Dungi's Tomb," but he was not on site the year that the context was excavated. He placed the abbreviation with this meaning on cards he created for inscribed material that came to him in the museum. Some tablets and cylinder seals were found in the filling of the tomb annex and some even have a note that they are from Seal Impression Strata against the tomb or its foundational fill. These artifacts are clearly from the BC area, that of the Mausoleum of the Ur III kings built by Shulgi and his son Amar-Sin (Amar-Suen). Amar-Sin built two annexes onto the Shulgi building (See area BC), one to the northwest and the other to the southeast. It is not clear which of the two annexes Legrain was referring to with the abbreviation AD, probably either or both. Essentially artifacts from this use of AD can only be located generally to the overall BC area at the eastern edge of the Royal Cemetery (PG). On the excavation site the abbreviation AD was being used for the so-called Palace of Bel-Shalti-Nannar. Artifacts from the two separate AD contexts have been divided in the digital data wherever possible.	(none)
Mausoleum Site \| BC	Woolley called the east corner of the Neo-Babylonian temenos the Bur-Sin Corner (area BC) because he found bricks of Bur-Sin (now read Amar-Sin or Amar-Suen) there in early season explorations. Area BC is particularly complex because it consists of substantial building in many periods. The largest building was of the Ur III period, and it is this building to which the abbreviation BC typically refers in field notes. It sits at the northeastern edge of the Royal Cemetery. The main Ur III building was 35 x 27m and its southwest wall was preserved two meters in height, while its northeast wall was largely destroyed. Its walls were built with inscribed bricks of Shulgi. The overall layout of the building is much like a courtyard house but on a large scale and with more ritual furnishings. Attached to this building were two annexes, one northwest and the other southeast, built with bricks of Shulgi's son, Amar-Sin (see context AD). Beneath the entire building were three very large vaults. All of them had been plundered in antiquity and only scattered fragments of artifacts and bones were discovered inside. Nonetheless, Woolley believed that these vaults originally held the remains of the Ur III kings. For this reason, area BC is sometimes referred to as the Mausoleum Site. The building was destroyed by Elamites, according to Woolley, and sometime thereafter houses of the Isin-Larsa/Old Babylonian period were constructed in the area (see House 30). Finally, the Neo-Babylonian Temenos wall was constructed over and through parts of the remains.	(none)
Nimintabba Temple \| DT	The abbreviation DT stands for Dungi's Temple or Dimtabba Temple and this abbreviation is found within the larger EH excavation area; Woolley discovered cylinders inscribed with the name of Shulgi beneath a partly ruined floor in area EH and assigned the building it was associated with an excavation abbreviation of its own. The building's walls were almost completely destroyed, however, and thus were difficult to follow. They lay in the northwestern portion of area EH and originally defined a temple dedicated to the god Nimintabba (Woolley initially read the name as Dim-Tab-Ba). The ephemeral remains of the temple stretched underneath and beyond the Neo-Babylonian temenos wall and Woolley expanded excavation in search of the rest, but little more of the temple was found. The westward expansion of the excavation beyond the temenos wall became excavation area abbreviation DP.	(none)