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)
1153	(none)	(none)	(none)	Small tablet, nearly complete, slight break at lower left corner of obverse, 4 and 2 lines. Date only on reverse. Note of the weight (10 shekels) of 2 bronze ornaments for the king's door; weighd by Zezam. Dated in the 8th year of Bur-Sin I by formula mu en en-ki ba-hum.
1190	(none)	(none)	(none)	Portion of a large black diorite duck-weight, originally of 30 minas. Much broken, both on the head and across the middle. On one side of the neck, a crescent moon in low relief, on other side, part of an inscription dedicating the object for the life of a king of the 3rd Dynasty of Ur: the name is now missing. R.1. No. 84.
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.
1192	(none)	(none)	(none)	Portion of a shaft of a clay cone, with second column (13 lines) of an inscription of Lipit-Ishtar, king of Isin. Duplicate of U.4, and SAKI, p.204. 3 and clay, Miscellaneous Inscription no. 27. P.
1199	(none)	(none)	(none)	Small baked clay tablet, inscription of of obverse only with 5 lines of accounts, mostly illegible. Period of 3rd Dynasty of Ur.
1200A	(none)	(none)	(none)	[A-B] 2 Portions of large baked clay cone of Warad-Sin, king of Larsa, commemorating his building E-temen-ni-gur. (A) Consistent of the base, complete, and part of the shaft. (B) Is small piece from one side of top of shaft. Inscription duplicate of U.19 and U.700. R1 No 131
1300A	52-30-167	(none)	(none)	Clay wheel shaped rattle. Drab clay. (Broken in two.) Like U.1121.
1351	(none)	1924,0920.393	(none)	Fragment from base of large inscribed clay cone. Beginning of inscription of Warad-Sin king of Larsa: duplicate of U.19, U.700, etc.
1357	(none)	(none)	(none)	Gate socket of Ur-Nammu, with inscription duplicate of the bricks from the Ziggurat. SAKI p.186a.
1368	(none)	1924,0920.390	(none)	Fragment from base of stem of a clay cone, with the remains of a royal inscription of unknown authorship. Beginnings of 11 lines.
1455	(none)	1924,0920.395	(none)	Fragment from the rim of a mottled black and white stone vase, with the remains of an inscription of Ennapadda, priest of Nnar, and son of Ur-Nammu, King of Ur. Cf. U.18224. Cf. Ur Texts No. 25
1515	(none)	(none)	(none)	Large clay cone. Nearly complete, but surface damaged. Inscription of Warad-Sin, king of Larsa, duplicate of U.1200, etc.
1516	(none)	(none)	(none)	Clay cone. Ur-Nammu, commemorating his construction of the canal of Ur.
1519	(none)	(none)	(none)	Small account tablet tablet. Apparently undated, but of 3rd Dynasty of Ur.
1595	(none)	(none)	(none)	Base of cone of Ur-Nammu, with remains of inscription fuplicate of U.872.
1633	(none)	(none)	(none)	Part of base and stem of baked clay cone of Rim-Sin, king of Larsa, recording his building of a temple to the Moon-god. Duplicate, with small variants, of U.781.
1634	(none)	1924,0920.247	(none)	Baked clay cone(point broken) of Ur-Nammu, recording his digging of the canal called Nun, in honor of the Moon-god. Duplicate of U.918.
1697	(none)	1924,0920.392	(none)	Fragment of baked clay cone of Warad-Sin duplicate of U.19, U.700, etc. Contains beginnings of Column I lines 8-12.
1727	(none)	(none)	(none)	Black stone, of irregular shape, broken, probably part of a gate socket. On a smoothed surface is a 8 line inscription of Bur-Sin, king of Ur, recording his building of a ge-par for the goddess Nin-gal.
2520	(none)	1927,1003.36	(none)	Clay cone. greyish color. Inscribed. Fragment. Half of second column. Restoration of temple and ?? III Ur Dynasty. Ink drawing.
2548	(none)	(none)	(none)	Clay tablet. Inscribed. Dated on Libit-Ishtar the Vth king of ISIN about BC 2090. "Year when L. the king put to order in Sumer and Accad [Akkad]... Month HEN-HEN-E. Text: "60+40... maneh 2 shekels 20 grains silver 7 shekels 1/4 grain silver, from the E Dul-LA-UR-SHAR-BU-DIM; E-DUB-BA NAM-SHAG-TU GA-NUN-MAH sheep of the regular sacrifice (sattukku) of dNANNAR, of d.NINGAL, have been paid. Copy. Tablet (small abstract) of the priest of NANNAR. Ink drawing.
2553	(none)	1927,1003.44	(none)	Clay cone or nail. Inscribed. Fragment. Probably ISIN or LARSA Dynasty. Historical - Mentions E-SHU-AN-(HA?) KI-SUR-RA, URUK, the Lands? the walls. 2 columns, Column I, 12 lines, half preserved. Column II, 12 lines. H.C.
2565	(none)	(none)	(none)	Arad-Sin clay nail. Fragment. Ends of lines of Column I. Column II: e-a-ni du(-u-de) to: e-emen (-ni-il) mu (-na-du) and the last three lines. Cp. [Cf?] U.2528 (H.C.)
2576	(none)	1927,1003.35	(none)	Clay cone of Ibi-Sin. Fragment. -About BC 2190. Text: "dIbi-ilSin, god of the "country, (powerful) king, king (of Ur) "king (of Sumer and Akkad)? "- 6 or 7 lines missing - two last lines "illegible." H.C.
2578	(none)	(none)	(none)	Inscribed black clay tablet of circular form? Fragment of school exercise or litany has 2 on obverse. 3 lines on the reverse. The name; dNannar ( ) About BC 2100?

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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)