The Kingdom of Ur

Abstract

AbstractThe kingdom of Ur ruled over southern Mesopotamia for a little over a century at the end of the third millennium BC. The kings of Ur followed in the footsteps of the earlier kingdom of Akkad and united the city-states of Babylonia, creating a new larger state. These kings also oversaw an expansion in administrative record keeping that makes this century one of the most richly documented eras in all of antiquity, and an important case study in early complex state formation. This chapter provides a survey of the background and history of the kingdom of Ur, and it explores key topics related to the growth of the state in early antiquity. The kingdom of Ur fell as spectacularly as it rose, and it occupies a significant place both in our modern reconstructions of the history of the ancient Middle East and in the ancient Mesopotamian conceptions of that same history. This chapter examines the sources that provide evidence for these reconstructions, as well as providing critical reassessments of the state’s political economy and strategic goals. The kings of Ur presided over a short-lived experiment in complex state formation during which they established ideological and administrative precedents for Mesopotamian rule for centuries to come, and helped nurture an enduring notion of Babylonian community. The state’s success relied on a tributary economy and a system of patronage that foundered when the later kings of the dynasty could no longer sustain it.