Terah's Family of Abraham in Ur of the Chaldees AND Things You May Not Know About Them

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                  

People in Babylonia and Mesopotamia's religion revolved around Baal, an idol.  The world was full of many gods, idols in those days.  Humans were also sacrificed to appease these gods.  Among the Canaaniate people, Baal meant lord, which was the main god of the sky and fertility, first used for the various local gods, generally represented in the form of a bull or even a man with the main common characteristic of being worshiped as gods of fertility, both of the field and of the womb;  these attributes were absorbed by the central deity. After the Israelites entered Canaan, they tended to adopt the deities of the locals, even though their prophets protested.  (Think of how many Jews today have joined their gentile friends at their churches on a Sunday and just for prayers).  The conflict then was one of the principal themes of the historical accounts of the Book of Kings.  Baal was later identified with the Greek Zeus.   The "abomination  of Desolation" set up in the Temple by Antiochus was that of Baal, called the "Lord of Heaven."  Today, baal is a Hebrew word meaning "husband."  

Abram/Abraham, born about 1948 BCE,  came from a family in Mesopotamia of shepherds.  His father was Terah who belonged to an ancient clan originating thousands of years ago we refer to today calling it J1 (dna haplotype). Terah's father was Nahor I. and mother   was Iyoska. 

 Nahor I's father was Seroh or Serug and mother was Milkah A;  Serug's father was Reu and mother was Ora.  Reu's father was Peleg and his father was Eber and his father was Shelah, and his father was Arpachshad, and his father, finally was the well known SHEM, SON OF NOAH.  

 Terah had left the city of Ur of the Chaldees group with his oldest son, Abraham and his family;  Haran, his other son, and the rest of the family that included his nephew, Lot, son of Abram's brother, Haran,  and his family. 

         Terah, dying at 205  and Abram dying at 175. What I have found is that from Methuselah onwards, each person dies sooner than the last till they get to Moses who died at age 120; quite possible today.  Perhaps they are looking at the Euphrates River where Ur, their city, stood nearby.    

                 

                     Abram and Sarai, his niece as well as wife.  Sarai gave birth to Isaac at age 90.(Time was different back then, I believe with the planet expanding out in space more making revolutions around the sun faster???) To be Abram's niece means that her father was Haran, Abram's brother.  In those days it did not matter that they were marrying relatives;  it just strengthened their DNA.  The law has come down to us in that we are not to marry our siblings or our parents, of course.  2nd cousins have often married, and often have no issue.    

They married into their families as they did not "know" the other people they ran into, nor did they trust them.  Others had strange practices and spoke strange languages.  

What is phenomenal is that our history about Terah and his family comes to us through Moses, a descendant of them who led them all out of Egypt after a 400 year period and back to Canaan.  Moses was a scribe, learned by Egyptian teachers as one of the Princes of Egypt, who asked the men responsible for the oral history of the group of 603,000 and wrote it all down.  G-d is said to have helped them.  This is part of the 5 Books of Moses, the opening of the Bible (Tanakh).  The Exodus with Moses took place more likely from 1579 to 1700 BCE. Some Rabbis have said it took place 480 years before the 1st Temple of Solomon.  

The Babylonian Empire was from 1750 BCE, while the Chaldean Empire was later from 600 BCE.  

The Chaldees or Chaldea or Chaldeans in Hebrew is Kasdim.  It was a Semitic tribe which migrated to Southern Babylonia and adopted the ancient Babylonian culture.  They gradually gained supremacy over the native inhabitants and gave their name to the entire area.  The fame of the Chaldeans as astrologers made the terms synonymous long after their empire had vanished. 

 They lived after the days of hunting for food, before agriculture came about.  Those older were the Hunter-Gatherers (Mesolithic and Neolithic Eras)  The Mesolithic era, roughly spanning from 10,000 to 8,000 BCE, followed the Paleolithic era, while the Neolithic era, or the New Stone Age, generally began around 8,000 BCE and saw the rise of agriculture and settled communities. The Neolithic Period, also known as the New Stone Age, was a period in human history marked by the transition from nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyles to settled, agricultural societies, starting around 10,000 BCE and ending around 3,000 BCE.  

So the history of Abram/Abraham is well within our period of farming as beingwell developed as Babylonia was certainly well developed technically, but people still believed in human sacrifice.

Rabbis figure that the creation of the world we know was 6,000 years ago. 

                                                                 

 

Stopped by Divine intervention on Mt. Moriah when Abraham was about 

to offer ISAAC as a sacrifice.  Isaac at the age of 40 married Rebekah and at

60 had his twin sons, Jacob and Esau. So the history of Abram/Abraham is well within our

 period of farming as being well developed as Babylonia was certainly well developed 

technically, but people still believed in human sacrifice. Stopping the sacrifice of Isaac 

was the stopping of all sacrifices done by the Israelite people.    

 They had heard of the land of Canaan and were traveling, hoping to be going the right way.  On this trek they came to the town of Haran where Terah died. It was a trading town.     Terah's 2nd son was Haran.                                                                                                                         Haran below

And Terah took Abram . . . and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram’s wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees.’ The city Abraham left behind him - a city with good claims to being the oldest in the world - was rediscovered in 1854 by the then British Consul at Basra. But not until the end of World War I was serious excavation undertaken there. The results were so encouraging that four years later a joint British-American expedition, directed by the author of this book, worked on the site. The story of their discoveries    made during years of work and covering the successive cities which were built on the site from days far beyond the flood until Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon, is here told, and the daily life of the peoples who lived through more than four millennia beside the Euphrates recreated in word and picture.                                                                                         

Terah had been an idolmaker.  He made a good living.  Ur was like a New York City, big and leading in every way.  In our day it has been excavated by  Sir Leonard Woolley.   When Woolley began work at Dr, little was known about the early civilizations of Mesopotamia. His work at Dr over twelve years, which included the excavation of royal tombs, the discovery of the gold jewelry of Queen PuAbi and the excavation of the famous ziggurat, allowed scholars to reconstruct the civilization of Sumer in the 3rd century B.C.E.  

 "Excavations at Ur: a Record of Twelve Years' Work". First published in 2010. Sir Leonard Woolley was an archaeologist and this book is about his dig at Ur, which is the subject of this classic work, inspired Agatha Christie's Murder in Mesopotamia.  When Woolley began work at Dr, little was known about the early civilizations of Mesopotamia. His work at Dr over twelve years, which included the excavation of royal tombs, the discovery of the gold jewelry of Queen PuAbi and the excavation of the famous ziggurat, allowed scholars to reconstruct the civilization of Sumer in the 3rd century B.C.E. 

The Jewish aggadah (part of the oral law, a sequel of stories and chronicles, sayings  of the wise and moral instructions) which depicts Terah as a devout idolator challenged in his beliefs by Abraham.  Abraham knew that there was nothing to the idols his father made.  They held no magic.  One day he had knocked over one that broke and his father had a fit when he arrived home.  Abraham had told him that the other idol had knocked this one over, and Terah had laughed and retorted that it had no power;  was just created out of clay and wood.  

                                  Ur of the Chaldees by Sir Leonard Woolley

Abram and Sarai had no children so Abram took her handmaid, Hagar and had a son, Ishmael.  Hagar was probably Egyptian; not of the family.  Later, Sarai conceived and bore Isaac.  Abram, being a shepherd, certainly knew how babies were created, having lived with and observed the ways of sheep;   and realized that Ishmael would bear characteristics of another man besides Sarai's family characteristics.  They came to the point where this showed up in the attitude of Ishmael towards Isaac, which was jealousy, and so to keep the family line pure, sent Ishmael and Hagar back to Egypt.  No intermarrying anymore with Hagar and his family.  Which makes me wonder if the handmaids of Leah and Rachel; Zilpah and Bilhah, weren't sisters who were connected somehow to the family line;  or were not of Egyptian heritage but one of the more friendly neighboring countries.  

Isaac at maturity married  Rebekah, daughter of Bethuel.  Bethuel in the Hebrew Bible, was an Aramean man, the youngest son of Nahor and Milcah, the nephew of Abraham, and the father of Laban and Rebecca. So he was part of the family, too.  Nahor II (Hebrew: נָחוֹר – Nāḥōr) is listed as the son of Terah, amongst two other brothers, Abram and Haran (v.26,27). His grandfather was Nahor I, son of Serug. Serug was the son of Reu and the father of Nahor, according to Genesis 11:20–23. He is also the great-grandfather of Abraham, thus the ancestor of the  Ishmaelites and  the Israelites....                           

In my records, Isaac and Rebekah were the parents of Jacob (changed his name to Israel, later)  and Esau. who were fraternal twins, and were very different from each other in appearance and actions.  Jacob became the father of the 12 tribes of Israel and Esau, though born first, was cheated out of his birthright and blessing by Jacob and his mother, became the leader of the Arab nation.   At that point he became Jacob's enemy! 

Along the way, Abram had a name alteration addition, Ham, making Abraham, verifying overcoming a great decision.We have the history of not carrying through with the sacrificing of his son, Isaac on the coals, ending human sacrifice. This goes along with the additions Moses gives the people making 613 laws they are to abide by that will make their people different from other people culturally to last till the end of days.  The testing they are to go through will depend on the strength of following these laws designed to tide them through all the pain and suffering they will experience.  

There might be hope for us today as Jacob had fled to the town of Haran and on returning 20 years later,  was received affectionately by Esau.  Was that real love for his brother or was it a put on?

Israel has been denied their homeland ever since the year 70 CE by the burning down by the Romans who denied them their presence seemingly forever until May 14, 1948 CE. when Israel was born again. The Abrahamic Accords has been created joining some Arabs and Jews together again.                               

King David was King of Israel from 1,000 to 960 BCE, known by several religions for his Psalms that he wrote.  He was the youngest son of Jesse and was born in Bethlehem.  Jesse's father was Obed/Oved; and his father was Boaz, cousin of Naomi, and his father was Salmon with mother Milkah; and Salmon was the father of Boaz and Naomi's father, whose father was Nashone, and his father was Amminadab, whose father was Ram whose father was Hezron, whose father was Perez; whose father was Judah (4th son of Jacob and Leah) whose father was Jacob of the 12 TRIBES !!!

Resource:

edited at 4:11pm 3/25/25

Ur of the Chaldees

Tanakh, the Stone Edition

genealogy I gathered

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

The Man Who Dug Up Abraham's UR, Sir Leonard Woolley and His Excavations at Ur

 Nadene Goldfoot                                               

     Ur of the Chaldees (Kasdim in Hebrew), in its heyday.  before Abram in 3rd millennium BCE. Abram was born in about 1948 BCE (2nd millennium) The Chaldeans were a Semitic tribe that migrated in S. Babylonia and adopted the ancient Babylonian culture.  Gradually, they gained  supremacy over the native people their name, Chaldees, was used for the entire area.  Their astrologers became famous, even after they were gone. The Assyrians' Nebuchadnezzar in 7th century BCE came along and established an empire. This is the group evidently that Abram was originally from.   

Sir Charles Leonard Woolley (17 April 1880 – 20 February 1960) was a British archaeologist best known for his excavations at Ur in Mesopotamia. He is recognized as one of the first "modern" archaeologists who excavated in a methodical way, keeping careful records, and using them to reconstruct ancient life and history.  He was the son of a clergyman, so should have wondered about Abraham's city that he was born and raised in by Terah.  Abraham is mentioned in the Editor's preface, p. 8 &9.  Woolley has written a whole book about him called "Abraham."  

Sumer was humanity's first great civilization. Sumeria was a part of Babylonia that was not Semitic.  Even in today’s society you can still find traces of Sumerian inventions in agriculture, language, mathematics, religion and astronomy. Names like Nimrod and Cush  are connected to Sumerian tradition.  

Woolley (right) and T. E. Lawrence with a Hittite slab at Carchemish during excavation, between 1912 and 1914.

He gained experience by working  with TE Lawrence at the Hittite city of  Carchemish, the location of an important battle, about 605 BCE, between the Babylonians and Egyptians, mentioned in the Bible (Jer. 46:2). in Syria and Armarna in Egypt; The city was established in 1346 BC, built at the direction of the Pharaoh Akhenaten, and abandoned shortly after his death in 1332 BC. among other places.  Then he went to Ur, Abram's birth city where he lived before departing for Haran of ancient Babylonia. Woolley's finds will show Ur had a highly civilized nature of rich artwork made of gold and silver and other beautiful jewels as well as evidence of having a flood at an earlier date. "Woolley was one of the first archaeologists to propose that the flood described in the Book of Genesis was local after identifying a flood-stratum at Ur "400 miles long and 100 miles wide; but for the occupants of the valley that was the whole world". 

                         Woolley in Syria 1912

Woolley led a joint expedition of the British Museum and the University of Pennsylvania to Ur, beginning in 1922, which included his wife, the British archaeologist Katharine Woolley. There, they made important discoveries, including the Copper Bull and the Bull-Headed Lyre, 4 lyres in a pit holding a massive group of people with the queen, as if at a party, and each holding a cup as if to drink wine or poison, we don't know.  Was it a death party or were they tricked in dying with each other-including oxen and their wagons.  It was a shocking find that included all their gold and silver goods as well, a burial site unknown to the many looters of that period.                                

        Ur:  The editors say in the book's preface,  that contrary to the view consistently argued by Woolley, there is no actual proof that Tell el-Mukayyar, the Ur of his book, Ur, was identical with "Ur of the Chaldees' in Genesis 11:29-32.  Nor is there any agreed opinion on the existence of Abraham himself with these non-Jewish researchers, but we are aware of their disbeliefs. We're lucky that Wooley had a religious background and was curious.                                                                                      

Ur and its ziggurat, now in Iraq,  dedicated to the moon god , Nanna.  The city's patron deity was Nanna (in Akkadian, Sin), the Sumerian and Akkadian moon god, and the name of the city is in origin derived from the god's name, UNUG^KI, literally "the abode (UNUG) of Nanna". The site is marked by the partially restored ruins of the Ziggurat of Ur, which contained the shrine of Nanna, excavated in the 1930s. The temple was built in the 21st century BC (short chronology), during the reign of Ur-Nammu and was reconstructed in the 6th century BC by Nabonidus, the last king of Babylon. The ruins cover an area of 1,200 metres (3,900 ft) northwest to southeast by 800 metres (2,600 ft) northeast to southwest and rise up to about 20 metres (66 ft) above the present plain level.  As with many Mesopotamian gods, Nanna was incorporated into the Assyrian pantheon and, when the Neo-Assyrian Empire fell in 612 BCE, a great number of these deities lost favor. Nanna continued to be recognized, however, and was still worshiped in the region of Syria as late as the 3rd century CE when he was replaced by the Christian God.  In 637, Babylonia was conquered by the Arabs who followed Mohammad (d: 632  CE)  

These tombs, which date to the Early Dynastic IIIa period (approximately in the 25th or 24th century BCE), contained an immense treasure of luxury items made of precious metals and semi-precious stones imported from long distances (Ancient Iran, Afghanistan, India, Asia Minor, the Levant and the Persian Gulf). This wealth, unparalleled up to then, is a testimony of Ur's economic importance during the Early Bronze Age.           

"Ur was the burial site of what may have been many Sumerian royals. The Woolleys discovered tombs of great material wealth, containing large paintings of ancient Sumerian culture at its zenith, along with gold and silver jewelry, cups and other furnishings. The most extravagant tomb was that of "Queen" Pu-Abi. Amazingly enough, Queen Pu-Abi's tomb was untouched by looters. Inside the tomb, many well-preserved items were found, including a cylindrical seal bearing her name in Sumerian. Her body was found buried along with those of two attendants, who had presumably been poisoned to continue to serve her after death. Woolley was able to reconstruct Pu-Abi's funeral ceremony from objects found in her tomb."

 Gold helmet of Meskalamdug, ruler of the First Dynasty of Ur, 26th century BCE.

"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 splendid mansions. Tens of thousands of cuneiform texts have been recovered from temples, the palace, and individual houses, recording contracts, inventories, and court documents, evidence of the city's complex economic and legal systems.

                                 

              Typical lyre of today  "The lyre has its origins in ancient history. Lyres were used in several ancient cultures surrounding the Mediterranean Sea. The earliest known examples of the lyre have been recovered at archeological sites that date to c. 2700 BCE in Mesopotamia."

I am left with Woolley's description of finding the huge party of dead people who joined the queen either willingly or by her plan of awe and shock with their deaths as well.  They all seemed to be dressed in their party clothing and jewelry, with their oxen and wagons, all dead in their natural repose.  4 lyres, their music accompanied them in death, giving us a real glimpse into their last moments.  Those people must have walked down a path to a lower level and that level gave way for the huge vaulted area below it.  Egypt had its pyramids above ground and Sumeria had theirs below ground. So shocking to me and for those poor people.  No wonder Abram wanted to leave this town of wealth.  

Abraham was originally from the Semitic tribe of Chaldea/Chaldees and settled in Ur, populated by a non-Semitic people.  They eventually became the dominant group, but by the time Abram was a young married man, of deplorable morals according to Abraham's beliefs.  The question now is--where did this tribe come from which we understand was in the East somewhere?  This is why we signify Ur as Ur of the Chaldees, different from any other Ur.  

Resource:

https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/chaldeans-kaldu-west-semitic-tribes#:~:text=CHALDEANS%20(Kaldu)%2C%20West%20Semitic,in%20the%20population%20of%20Babylonia.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEtasd52cfg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ur

Book: UR "of the Chaldees", a revised and updated edition of Sir Leonard Woolley's Excavations at Ur, by PRS Moorey.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Sumer  

  

The City of UR, Abraham's Home Town and Elam, the Enemy

 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.

  Known as an important city of ancient southern Mesopotamia (Sumer) and its ziggurat.  

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.

Human sacrifice occurred in these days.  Abram was going to sacrifice his son, Isaac, but learned that this was not to happen by being stopped by G-d.  The belief in human sacrifice continued long into Israel's history by women the Israelites took as foreign wives; beautiful but dangerous to their society.

Hanging Gardens of Babylon:  land of Shinar or of the Kasdim (Chaldees); cradle of humanity, 1st revolt against G-d with Tower of Babel,, the flood, where Ur was in the Chaldees.  Babylonia was in Mesopotamia and is another name for Iraq. Abraham, born in Ur, migrated to Canaan where he later fought Amraphel, king of Shinar (Gen.14).  

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.                                                  

Ur on Euphrates and later on, Baghdad developed on Tigris

 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 ruins of Eridu
 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.                      

                           city of Basrah

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.  

                              This copyright was in 1954.  
His UR of the Chaldees was done in 1982.

                                    King Sargon I

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. 

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. 

Susa, now an UNESCO World Heritage Center located in the south-west of Iran, in the lower Zagros Mountains, the property encompasses a group of archaeological mounds rising on the eastern side of the Shavur River, as well as Ardeshir’s palace, on the opposite bank of the river.
 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.