Ur (Sumerian: Urim; Akkadian: Uru) was an important Sumerian city-state in ancient Mesopotamia, located at the site of modern Tell el-Muqayyar in South Iraq's Dhi Qar Governorate. The site was known and excavated by Leonard Woolley and others during the 1920s and 1930s as one of the most important in the region. In the bible, it was said to be the home town of Abraham.

Although Ur was once a coastal city near the mouth of the Euphrates on the Persian Gulf, the coastline has shifted and the city is now well inland, south of the Euphrates on its right bank, 16 kilometres (9.9 miles) from Nasiriyah.



Occupation at Ur began during 'Ubaid' times, in the 6th-5th Millennia BC,when the town covered up to 10 ha (25 acres); it grew size and importance during the 3rd millennium, reaching 50 ha (124 acres) by the late early dynastic period when the city was an important factor in regional affairs. Its first record being stated as a City State in written history was from the 26th Century BC, its king being Mesh-Ane-pada. The city's patron deity was Nanna (in Akkadian, Sin), the Sumerian and Akkadian (Assyrian-Babylonian) moon god, and the name of the city is in origin derived from the god's name, URIM (2KI) being the classical Sumerian spelling of LAK-32.UNUG(KI), litterally "the abode (UNUG) of Nanna (LAK-32)".



In the last century of the 3rd millennium BC the city was the ceremonial centre of the Ur III empire, which briefly controlled much of Mesopotamia and the adjacent zones of the Zagros. The city lost its political importance in the following centuries, though it remained an important trading centre of the Persian Gulf Trade and grew slightly in size (to 60 ha - 148 acres). The place continued to be inhabited until the late 1st millennium, but at reduced scale and prosperity.

Notable features include: the evidence for early settlement in southern Mesopotamia; the extreme wealth of royal and other elite burials, as well as the differences in wealth seen in other graves in the Royal Cemetery; the 3rd millennium religious architecture, principally the ziggurat of Nanna/Sin the moon god; the layout of early Mesopotamian cities and the residential architecture and street plans; and a rich body of texts that range from the early 3rd millennium to the late 1st millennium BC.

The Medes /midz/^{[N 1]} (Hebrew: מָדַי, Old Persian Māda-) were an ancient Iranian people who lived in an area known as Media (North-western Iran and south-east Turkey) and who spoke a northwestern Iranian language (Indo-European speaking) referred to as the Median language. Their arrival to the region is associated with the first wave of Aryans tribes in the late 2nd millennium BCE (the Bronze Age collapse) through the beginning of the 1st millennium BCE.

Mesopotamia (Gk '[the land] between the rivers')

This region of the Near East is defined by the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers together with their tributaries (especially the Khabur and Balik for the Euphrates, the Diyala/Hamrin and Upper Zab for the Tigris). Although both rivers have their headwaters in Anatolian mountains to the north, these highlands are normally excluded from Mesopotamia proper. The latter is further divided into the northern piedmont, where rainfall agriculture is widely possible Assyria to the Syrian middle Euphrates) and the southern Alluvial zones where irrigation is required for farming (Babylonia or Sumer or Akkad); the Karun drainage of southwestern Iran (see Susa, Elam) might also be considered a part of Mesopotamia.

Aceramic Neolithic village life appeared in Syrian Mesopotamia (e.g. Abu Hureyra) somewhat earlier than in northeastern Mesopotamia (e.g. Maghzaliya, Qermez Dere); the latter area is still poorly known during this period. Development of irrigation techniques by the late (ceramic) Neolithic (beginning c.6000 BC) permitted farming communities to colonize central and southern Mesopotamia (Samarran and Ubaid cultures respectively; see also Choga Mami); the parallel northern Mesopotamian sequence includes Hassuna and Halaf cultures, with 'Ubaid material culture supplanting the Halaf around 4500 BC. Already in the 6th millennium BC at least some communities were using tokens and seals to record transactions (Sabi Abyad).

During the 4th millennium BC the Uruk culture of southern Mesopotamia marked the emergence of cities (Warka), writing (Cuneiform), sophisticated administrative technologies (Bulla, Cylinder seal), massive buildings (Eanna), and social complexity - the foundation of the Mesopotamian tradition of civilization.

Important elements of this culture also appeared in Elam, northern Mesopotamia, and the adjoining mountains (see Uruk expansion, Proto-Elamite). The Mesopotamian tradition developed significantly during the 3rd millenium BC (Early Dynastic period) of Sumerian city-states (see also Royal Cemetry of Ur, Kish, Asmar, Kharaje, Tello). Although northern Mesopotamia lagged behind the south (see Ninevite 5), cities eventually (2600 BC) appeared here as well (see Assur, Leilan, Taya).

When the Akkadians emerged as a political force in the south (c.2300 BC) they imposed themselves on the north as well (Brak, Ebla). The Ur III kingdom (2050 BC) also controlled northern territories, although many northern cities had declined by this time. The ziggurat, a characteristic Mesopotamian architectural feature, took its final form during Ur III times, as did many pieces of classic Mesopotamian literature.





Two centuries of competing kingdoms, often under the rule of Amorite kings, followed in the south (Isin-larsa), Mari and further west (Aleppo, Qatna); merchant families of Assur operated a system of trading colonies in Anatolia (Karum, Kanesh), and the Gulf Trade was active (see Dilmun, Magan). Hammyrabi of Babylon then bested his rivals to create a large empire around 1760 BC, but the entire region soon entered a period of decline (a 'dark age'); a Hittite raid of Babylon in 1595 BC brought Hammurabi's Old Babylonian Dynasty to a close.

A Kassite dynasty then imposed itself on Babylonia (see Aqar Kuf), governing a revitalized regional kingdom for some five centuries; the region went into an extended decline after the 11th century BC. To the north, Hurrian kings assembled the Mitanni kingdom, which stretched across northern Mesopotamia to the Mediterranean (see Nuzi, Alalakh), and came into conflict with Egyptians and Hittites. 

Assur revolted and then destroyed Mitanni by the early 13th century BC, creating a small empire in northern Mesopotamia (see middle Assyrian). This empire retracted under the pressure of Aramaean incursions, but then expanded beyond its former frontiers in the 9th century BC, reaching its greatest extent in the mid 7th century BC when the Neo-Assyrian kings ruled all Mesopotamia and Elam to the Mediterranean and Egype (see also Nimrud, Khor-Sabad, Nineveh).

When the neo-Babylonian king, in alliance with the Medes, overthrew the Assyrian yoke late in the 7th century BC, Babylon established its own suzerainty over much of the former Assyrian territory. Perhaps best remembered for Nebuchadnezzar's sacking of Jerusalem and the deportation into exile of its inhabitants in 586 BC, this empire collapsed in its turn when the Achaemenid Persians conquered Babylon in 539 BC. The Achaemenids created an empire on a far vaster scale than previously attempted, controlling lands from Central Asia and northwestern India to Egypt and Thrace. 

Although Parsagadae and then Persepolis were its dynastic seats, the Persians exercised administrative rule from Susa and babylon. Mesopotamia then passed into the hands of other empires - the Seleucids, Parthians, Sassanians and Moslems. Unable to withstand these waves of foreign domination, the Mesopotamian tradition gradually dissolved, the last dated cuneiform text falling around AD 75.

Persian Gulf Trade, the active maritime trading of the 3rd and early 2nd millennia BC between Mesopotamia - especially Lagash (TELLO) and UR - and three places whose names appear at various times in the Cuneiform texts of southern Mesopotamia: Dilmun, Magan, and Meluhha.

The combination of textual evidence and archaeological analysis indicates that Dilmun corresponds to the Barbar culture area in the Persian Gulf, and that Magan probably relates to the Umm An-Nar and related cultures in South-Western Arabia (possibly extending to the southern coast of Iran); less certainly, Meluhha is usually identified in the Harappan culture area.

To Southern Mesopotamia, the Persian Gulf trade was a principal source of copper produced in Magan (see Maysar), as well as a variety of semi-precious stones and other goods shipped from the Iranian Plateau and elsewhere; the chief products exported from Mesopotamia were textiles and grain. Owing to the commercial wealth generated by this trade, and to the abundant artesian water of the place, Dilmun also held an important place in Sumerian mythology, as a sort of Eden.