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)
783	(none)	1923,1110.13	(none)	Fragment from shaft of large clay cone. Parts of 2 col inscription, of [Arad-Sin crossed out] Rim-Sin, dedication to Enlil (?) Inscr. contains substance of the date formula for 15th. year of Rim-Sin.
838	(none)	1923,1110.1	(none)	Basalt hinge-stone. In bad condition. Inscribed with the name of GIMILSIN.
861	(none)	(none)	(none)	Base of large clay cone. Two col. inscription, complete, of Kudor-Mabug, dup. of 188.
862	(none)	(none)	(none)	Broken base and shaft of large clay cone. On shaft, beginnings of 25 lines. On base, first col nearly complete, 2nd col, 8 lines and parts of lines Kudur-Mabug, duplicate of U188.
863	(none)	(none)	(none)	Half of shaft of large clay cone. Half-lines of Kurur-Mabug's cone inscription. Dup. of U188. See U866 for fragments of same cone.
864	(none)	(none)	(none)	Fragment from base of large clay cone. 1st column, last 8 lines; 2nd column, beginnings 6 lines. Kudur-Mabug, duplicate of U.188.
865	(none)	(none)	(none)	Fragment from base of large clay cone. Beginning of 19 lines from middle of Column I, of Kudur-Mabug cone. Duplicate of U.188.
867	(none)	(none)	(none)	Fragment from base of large clay cone. Beginnings of 1st 14 lines of 1st column of Kudur-Mabug inscription. Duplicate of U.188.
868	(none)	(none)	(none)	Fragment from shaft of clay cone. Fragment of 9 lines from Kudur-Mabug inscription. Duplicate of U.188.
869	(none)	(none)	(none)	Small fragment from shaft of clay cone. 4 lines from lst column of Kudur-Mabug inscription. Duplicate of U.188.
874	(none)	1923,1110.39	(none)	Fragment of Diorite vessel. Ends of 4 lines of a longer inscription. Unintelligible.
876	(none)	(none)	(none)	Fragment of small clay cone. On base first 5 lines of Nur-Adad's dedication to Nannar. IN/No. 6
881	(none)	1923,1110.25	(none)	Alabaster vase fragment of slightly carinated cylindrical jar in white-veined mackeral alabaster. Inscribed: portions of 2 lines. Probably a dedication to 'Nin'-(gal?) by... [king] 'of Ur' Type RC.5
908	(none)	1923,1110.22	(none)	Broken alabaster jar. 9 line inscription containing a [ins: 8ft of] [crossed out: dedication to or for (possibly) a] a king of the 3rd Dynasty of Ur by Utti... of Ninni his beloved son.
917	(none)	(none)	(none)	Fragment of small clay cone. Duplicate of Ur-Engur's inscription concerning the canal of Ur, U.169. Placed in IN/No. 4
918	(none)	(none)	(none)	Small clay cone, base and side slightly damaged. Inscription of Ur-Engur recording his digging of a canal called ID-UN. Placed in IN/No. 4.
919	(none)	(none)	(none)	Fragment from base of large clay cone. Beginnings of 18 lines of 1st column of Kudur-Mabug inscription, duplicate of U.188.
920	(none)	(none)	(none)	Portion of base of large clay cone. Inscription of Kudur-Mabug, duplicate of U.919. Portions of first 4 lines of 1st column and just 15 lines, 2nd column.
951	(none)	(none)	(none)	Tablet. Complete. 4 + 4 lines. Dated. 3rd year Gimil-Sin, King of Ur.
960	(none)	(none)	(none)	Complete tablet, one corner broken, 6 + 5 lines and seal impressions. Two dates 5th year of Bur-Sin I. See U.958.
973	(none)	1935,0113.3	(none)	Fragment of mud-brick. With portion of Kudur-Mabug's brick inscription.
975	(none)	1935,0113.4	(none)	Fragment of Mud-brick. With portion of Bur-Sin inscription.
983B	(none)	(none)	(none)	Fragment of base of large clay cone, showing ends of 12 lines of 1st column and whole of second column, 24 lines or parts of lines. Either Arad-Sin or Rim-Sin.
988	(none)	(none)	(none)	Stone fragment. Portions of 3 line inscription.
1119	(none)	1935,0113.821	(none)	Clay Box-lid.. About 1/3 broken off. Adorned with snakes in relief: snake-headed and boss handle. Reddish clay. [drawing 1:5]

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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)
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)
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)
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)