Nadene Goldfoot
The man who started us in monotheism was Abram, later called Abraham after certain events had happened to him-showing the change. He was born in Ur in about 1948 BCE, a bustling city on the Euphrates River in today's Iraq. He was the son of Terah, an idol-maker, who had a thriving business.
Ur was in lower Mesopotamia, the Sumer of the ancient world. It was really the river-valley of the Tigris and the Euphrates Rivers. It lies about half-way between Bagdad and the head of the Gulf, about 10 miles west of the present course of the Euphrates River. Ur is in ruins, now, of course. 1 and1/2 miles to the east is a line of railway which joins Basra to the capital of Iraq. Basra is an Iraqi city located on the Shatt al-Arab. It had an estimated population of 1.4 million in 2018. Basra is also Iraq's main port, although it does not have deep water access, which is handled at the port of Umm Qasr. The city is one of the ports from which the fictional Sinbad the Sailor journeyed.
The Babylonian Nebuchadnezzar II (604 BCE inherited the Assyrian Empire and after his conquest of Judah in 597 BCE and again in 586 BCE, exiled many Jews to Babylon. Members of the 10 Tribes of Jacob, taken by the Assyrians in 721 BCE, were probably still living there and now were united with this new group of Jewish captives. The Babylonian Talmud was written here by former captives that was an outstanding work.
Located along the Tigris River and at the junction of historic trade roads, Baghdad is the capital of Iraq and the country's largest city being home to more than 7.6 million inhabitants. Had large Jewish community by 763 CE. It had originally been a Persian village called Baghdad, and was selected by al-Manṣūr, the second caliph of the Abbasid dynasty, for his capital.
The people of Sumer's most ancient city was Eridu, which lie 11 miles south of Ur. Eridu has been excavated by the Iraqi government in 1947-1949. Eridu was revered as the oldest city in Sumer according to the king lists, and its patron god was Enki (Ea), “lord of the sweet waters that flow under the earth.” The site, located at a mound called Abū Shahrayn, was excavated principally between 1946 and 1949 by the Iraq Antiquities Department; it proved to be one of the most important of the prehistoric urban centres in southern Babylonia.
In 1854, Mr. Joe E. Taylor of the British Consul at Basra was hired by the British Museum to check out sites of southern Mesopotamia so he first tackled the MOUND OF PITCH (Bitumen). He unearthed inscriptions that revealed that this nameless ruin was the site of the ancient UR, mentioned in the Torah. After 2 seasons, this site was closed down. Evidently the museum found it too dangerous a place to work in, and wanted to get back there.
Harry Reginald Holland Hall born in 1873 or Dr. Hall died unexpectedly on 13 October, 1930 in prime of life at 57. At age 16, he wrote a history on ancient Persia.
The first serious excavations at Ur were made after World War I by H.R. Hall of the British Museum, and as a result a joint expedition was formed by the British Museum and the University of Pennsylvania that carried on the excavations under Leonard Woolley’s directorship from 1922 until 1934. Almost every period of the city’s lifetime has been illustrated by the discoveries, and knowledge of Mesopotamian history has been greatly enlarged.
It was found that the shoreline may have run from 80 to 175 miles northwest of its present line. Ancient texts were found to mention Eridu and Ur "on the sea," which could have been quite true.
Sir Leonard Woolley was the main archaeologist of Ur. He was the son of a clergyman and when young thought of going into the church himself as a profession, and was probably the main reason why he was so interested in Ur. He wrote many books with this in mind. By 1914 (when my mother was born) reviewers were negative about his biblical references, saying they were inappropriate. So by 1936, Woolley wrote a whole book called ABRAHAM, to UR and the patriarchal narratives. As a Christian, he opened the door of vetting the truth about Ur in the Torah.
Woolley mentioned a bowl they found, carved with a demon and animal figures, in a style possibly by Elamites or others in SW Iran. The temples in Ur were held in highest regard by kings of the Akkadian dynasty. A copy was made by a later scribe recorded the inscription on the base of a statue set up by manishtushu, Rimush's successor, at Ur and dedicated to the god Enlil. Even the last great king of the dynasty, Naram-Sin, is only evidenced at UR by similar later copies of statue inscriptions, and by vessel and mace-head fragments bearing his name.
His UR of the Chaldees was done in 1982.
What was found: In the next (Early Dynastic) period(29th-24th centuries) Ur became the capital of the whole of southern Mesopotamia under the Sumerian kings of the 1st dynasty of Ur (25th century BCE). Excavation of a vast cemetery from the period preceding that dynasty (26th century) produced royal tombs containing almost incredible treasures in gold, silver, bronze, and semiprecious stones, showing not only the wealth of the people of Ur but also their highly developed civilization and art. Not the least remarkable discovery was that of the custom whereby kings were buried along with a whole retinue of their court officials, servants, and women, privileged to continue their service in the next world. Musical instruments from the royal tombs, golden weapons, engraved shell plaques and mosaic pictures, statuary and carved cylinder seals, all are a collection of unique importance, illustrating a civilization previously unknown to the historian.
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A few personal inscriptions confirmed the real existence of the almost legendary ruler Sargon I, king of Akkad, who reigned in the 24th century BCE, and a cemetery illustrated the material culture of his time.
From the 22nd century, To the next period, that of the 3rd dynasty of Ur, when Ur was again the capital of an empire, belong some of the most important architectural monuments preserved on the site. Foremost among these is the ziggurat, a three-storied solid mass of mud brick faced with burnt bricks set in bitumen, rather like a stepped pyramid; on its summit was a small shrine, the bedchamber of the moon god Nanna (Sin), the patron deity and divine king of Ur. The lowest stage measures at its foot some 210 by 150 feet (64 by 46 metres), and its height was about 40 feet. On three sides the walls, relieved by shallow buttresses, rose sheer. On the northeast face were three great staircases, each of 100 steps, one projecting at right angles from the centre of the building, two leaning against its wall, and all three converging in a gateway between the first and the second terrace. From this a single flight of steps led upward to the top terrace and to the door of the god’s little shrine. The lower part of the ziggurat, built by Ur-Nammu, the founder of the dynasty, was astonishingly well preserved; enough of the upper part survived to make the restoration certain.
From the 21st to 6th century: Elamite states were among the leading political forces of the Ancient Near East. In classical literature, Elam was also known as Susiana , a name derived from its capital Susa, actually in Iran.
The emergence of written records from around 3000 BCE also parallels Sumerian history, where slightly earlier records have been found. In the Old Elamite period (Middle Bronze Age), Elam consisted of kingdoms on the Iranian plateau, centered in Anshan, and from the mid-2nd millennium BCE, it was centered in Susa in the Khuzestan lowlands. Its culture played a crucial role during the Persian Achaemenid dynasty that succeeded Elam, when the Elamite language remained among those in official use. Elamite is generally considered a language isolate unrelated to any other languages. In accordance with geographical and archaeological matches, some historians argue that the Elamites comprise a large portion of the ancestors of the modern day Lurs whose language, Luri, split from Middle Persian.
The great brick mausoleums of the 3rd-dynasty kings and the temples they built were sacked and destroyed by the Elamites, but the temples at least were restored by the kings of the succeeding dynasties of Isin and Larsa, and, though it ceased to be the capital, Ur retained its religious and commercial importance. Having access by river and canal to the Persian Gulf, it was the natural headquarters of foreign trade.
As early as the reign of Sargon of Akkad, it had been in touch with India, at least indirectly. Personal seals of the Indus valley type from the 3rd dynasty and the Larsa period have been found at Ur, while many hundreds of clay tablets show how the foreign trade was organized. The “sea kings” of Ur carried goods for export to the entrepôt at Dilmun (Bahrain) and there picked up the copper and ivory that came from the east.
Sumerians believed in anthropomorphic polytheism, or of many gods in human form, which were specific to each city-state. The core pantheon consisted of An (heaven), Enki (a healer and friend to humans), Enlil (gave spells spirits must obey), Inanna (love and war), Utu (sun-god), and Sin (moon-god).
Abram left all this as the people were idol worshippers and he wanted his future descendants to believe in ONE G-d as he now did.
Resource:
Book: UR "of the Chaldees" updated Edition of Sir Leonard Woolley's Excavations at UR, by PRS Mooney
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
https://www.britannica.com/place/Ur
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eridu
https://www.britannica.com/place/Eridu
https://www.britannica.com/place/Baghdad/History
https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1455/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elam#:~:text=Elamite%20states%20were%20among%20the,derived%20from%20its%20capital%20Susa.
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