Nadene Goldfoot
Ur was the largest city in the world from about the year 2030 BCE to 1980 BCE, a 50 year period. The population at that time was about 65,000 or 0.1% of the world population. So there should have been many people already in the world, they didn't live in this large a city.
The Torah(Bible) tells us that Abram, as he was first called, was born in the 2nd millennium or about 1948 BCE, shortly after the Ur of the Chaldees' highest populated period. His city of birth was also called Ur Kasdim. Archaeologists estimate that there were approximately 24,000 people living in the city of Ur during the time of Abraham which took place after Ur's largest population period. People had died or left. The Torah says they left Ur because Abram had an epiphany that idols were not gods but pieces of clay that his father made, and the family left this polytheistic city to rid themselves of such idol worship, understanding now the one G-d. They could have been persuaded to also leave because of attacks on Ur by Elam. For them, it was a period of enlightenment.
What's unusual is that Abram and his father Terah left Ur and ended in Canaan. Then in 597 BCE and 586 BCE the Jews of Judah were attacked by the Babylonians and taken to Babylonia, which was a city in the vicinity of Ur, their original homeland. It was the Assyrians who had attacked and taken the best of the 10 northern Israel tribes earlier to Assyria in 721 BCE.
Even before Abram's day back in about 2600 BCE, the royal tombs were buried and the unlooted tomb of Queen Puabi was found. other people had been buried with her, in a form of human sacrifice, and human sacrifice was going on in Abram's day after in about 1910 BCE.
Ur lost its political power but kept its important position which kept on providing access to the Persian Gulf. This ensured the ongoing economic importance of the city during the 2nd millennium BCE. when Abram was born. The splendour of the city, the might of the empire, the greatness of King Shulgi, and the efficient propaganda of the state endured throughout Mesopotamian history. The king, Shulgi, was a well-known historical figure for at least another 2,000 years, while historical narratives of the Mesopotamian societies of Assyria and Babylonia kept names, events, and mythologies in remembrance. He solidified the hegemony ( political, economic, or military predominance or control of one state over others.) of Ur and reformed the empire into a highly centralized bureaucratic state. He ruled for at least 42 years and deified himself halfway through his rule. A large body of cuneiform ducuments, mostly from the empire of the so-called 3rd Dynasty of Ur, appear at the very end of the 3rd millennium. This was the most centralized bureaucratic state the world had yet known.
It is thought that Ur had a stratified social system including slaves (captured foreigners), farmers, artisans, doctors, scribes, and priests. High-ranking priests apparently enjoyed great luxury and lived in mansions.
Tens of thousands of cuneiform texts, including contracts, business records, and court documents, record the city's complex economic and legal systems. These texts have been recovered from temples, the palace, and individual houses.
Excavation in the old city of Ur in 1929 revealed lyres, instruments similar to the modern harp but in the shape of a bull and with eleven strings.
Below is the Standard of Ur from the royal tombs of Ur, made of red limestone, bitumen, lapis lazuli, and shell. The "Peace side" shows comfort, music and prosperity. The "War side" shows the king, his armies and chariots tramping on enemies.
The city of Ur was in the state of Sumer. The southernmost portion of ancient Sumer was called Chaldea, and the most important Sumerian city was located on the western portion of the Euphrates River and it was called Ur. The land of Chaldea contain riches beyond imagination, and Ur was the wealthiest city. The history in this region exceeds that of the land of Egypt and its pyramids. Ur of the Chaldees was the home of Abram.
We must remember that it was the Assyrians who attacked northern Israel and took away the 10 tribes of Israel in 721 BCE, and then the Babylonians did the same thing to the Israelites of Judea in 597 and 586 BCE.
It's considered to be UR III or the 3rd dynasty or Neo-Sumerian Empire that was established by king Ur-Nammu when he came to power and ruled from 2047 BCE and 2030BCE. Nammu built temples and the Ziggurat of Ur. Agriculture was improved through irrigation. His code of laws, the CODE OF UR-NAMMU is one of the oldest such documents known, and precedes THE CODE OF HAMMURABI by 300 years. Our 10 Commandments by Moses reflects parts of Hammurabi's but is greatly improved.
It was in this period that the city came to be ruled by the 1st dynasty, the Amorites of Babylonia, which rose to prominence in southern Mesopotamia in the 18th century BCE. The Amorites lived in Canaan before the Israelite conquest. They were either annihilated or assimilated by the Israelites, and I would guess they were assimilated. Jews of today bear the Y haplogroup of several lines, not just the line of Moses and Aaron, the J1, and that could be from others in the surrounding areas, taken as slaves by Egyptians like the Israelites. From the middle of the 2nd millennium CE, there was an Amorite state in central and southern Syria incorporating the Lebanese Mountains and important harbor towns. It was the link between Egypt and Mesopotamia, and the Hittite kingdom. They lived on both sides of the Jordan River. Moses overtook the 2 Amorite kingdoms of Heshbon and Bashan. Later it was a part of Babylonia by the successors of the Amorites, and the Kassites in the 16th century BCE.
Though Ur was the main city in the state of Sumer, its neighbor, the state of Elam, reached its height of power in about 2700 BCE. They were the city who attacked Ur. This later was a part of Persia, now called IRAN. Susa was their main city and under Elamite control. Susa was an ancient city in the lower Zagros Mountains about 250 km east of the Tigris River, between the Karkheh and Dez Rivers. Shushan was its name later on, where Queen Esther and her king Ahasueros lived when the land was named Persia.
This dynasty of Elam was contemporary with but younger than by 60 years of the Akkadian-speaking Old Assyrian Empire in Upper Mesopotamia and 75 years older than the Old Babylonian period in Mesopotamia. Abram was born in about 1948 BCE. This Sukkalmah Dynasty lasted from 1970 BCE to about 1770 BCE. It's also called the Epartid Dynasty after the name of its founder, Ebarat/Eparti. Other Mesopotamian cities such as Larsa and Isin continually tried to retake the city. Around 1850 BCE, Kudur-mabuk, another king of the Akkadian state in the north of Larsa, managed to install his son, Warad-Sin, on the throne of Larsa, and much of southern Mesopotamia was conquered for Larsa. The point of knowing about this is that the area was in constant battle. Elamite influence in southern Mesopotamia did not lastl. Around 1760 BCE, Hammurabi drove out the Elamites, overthrew King Rimsin of Larsa, and had a short lived Babylonian Empire in Mesopotamia. Sources became sparse with the Kassite rule of Babylon from about 1595 BCE.
In 9 years will be the 4,000 anniversary of the birth of Ur. Wouldn't it be wonderful if all the Jews and Muslims of the Abraham Accords of peace be involved in a celebration for Abraham involving Ur? Let's hope it will be a time of seeing peace in the Middle East for Abraham's sake.
Resource:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ur
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