Enthroned King Ur-Nammu, founder of the Third Dynasty of Ur, on a cylinder seal. Inscription of the upper segment: "Ur-Nammu, the Great man, King of Ur".[1] The name of King Ur-Nammu (𒌨𒀭𒇉) appears vertically in the upper right corner.[2]
According to the Sumerian King List, Ur-Nammu reigned for 18 years.[4] Year-names are known for 17 of these years, but their order is uncertain. One year-name of his reign records the devastation of Gutium, while two years seem to commemorate his legal reforms ("Year in which Ur-Nammu the king put in order the ways (of the people in the country) from below to above", "Year Ur-Nammu made justice in the land").[5]
Among his military exploits were the conquest of Lagash and the defeat of his former masters at Uruk. He was eventually recognized as a significant regional ruler (of Ur, Eridu, and Uruk) at a coronation in Nippur, and is believed to have constructed buildings at Nippur, Larsa, Kish, Adab, and Umma.[6] He was known for restoring the roads and general order after the Gutian period.[7] It is now known that the reign of Puzur-Inshushinak in Elam overlapped with that of Ur-Nammu.[8][citation needed] Ur-Nammu, who styled himself "King of Sumer and Akkad" is probably the one who, in his reign, reconquered the territories of central and northern Mesopotamia that had been occupied by Puzur-Inshushinak, possibly at the expense of the Gutians, and conquered Susa.[9][10]
He was killed in a battle against the Gutians after he had been abandoned by his army.[7] Ur-Nammu's death in battle was commemorated in a long Sumerian elegiac composition, "The Death of Ur-Nammu".[7][12][13] He was succeeded by his son Shulgi.[4] One daughter was consecrated as the en-priestess of Nanna in Ur, taking the clerical name En-nir-gal-an-na (En-nirgal-ana). The remaining known daughter, Ama-barag, married a local man.[14]
A Sumerian literary composition known variously as "The Coronation of Ur-Nammu" and "Ur-Namma D" lists canals built by Ur-Nammu. It is known in three Old Babylonian Period recensions, from Nippur, Ur, and of an unknown provenance.[15][16]
Ur-Nammu is notable for having been one of the few Mesopotamian kings of the third millennium BC who was not deified after his death.[14] This is testified by the posthumous Sumerian literature which never includes the divine determinative before Ur-Nammu's name (this can be seen on the transliterations for the texts on ETCSL), the themes of divine abandonment in "The Death of Ur-Nammu", and the fact that Shulgi promoted his lineage to members of the legendary Uruk dynasty as opposed to Ur-Nammu.[17] While some translations of Sumerian texts had included the divine determinative before Ur-Nammu's name[4] more recent evidence indicates this was a mistaken addition.[17] Despite this, the belief that the king was deified after death has been expressed just as recently, demonstrating a lack of certainty on this issue (though these were written during the same year as the new interpretations of the evidence and thus could not refer to them).[18] Sharlach has more recently noted that favour for Ur-Nammu not having been deified has been accepted by many scholars.[14]
Whatever the current state of the deification debate, Ur-Nammu was clearly worshiped after his death. The palace at Tummal included funerary chapels for Ur-Nammu (e Tum-ma-al Ur-dNamma) and his wife. His wife is known to have been named SI . A.tum, read as Watartum.[19] Building materials came from as far away as Babylon, Kutha, and Adab.[20] The ki-a-nag, or funerary offerings for Ur III ruler Ur-Nammu were carried out at Tummal. As his grave was not found in Ur this has sparked speculation he was buried in Tummal.[21][22]
A portion of the stela fragements were found during excavations at Ur in the 1920s, primarily in 1925, by Leonard Woolley under the auspices of the Joint Expedition of The University Museum and The British Museum in the temple precinct of Nanna.
"But our main discovery was made in the courtyard of E-dublal-mah and in the gate-chamber leading to it, Here there were scattered over the pavement quantities of limestone fragments, large and small, which proved to be parts of one, or possibly two, huge stelae measuring five feet across and perhaps fifteen feet high, covered on both sides with finely executed reliefs. On some pieces the stone is astonishingly well preserved, on others its surface has suffered greatly by flaking and the action of salts; the reliefs had been intentionally smashed, and the fragments scattered all over the site ..."[26]
The first publisher of the stela called it the "Stela of the Flying Angels".[27] Most fragments were found near the base.[28] Some fragments had been moved and used for other purposes, including door sockets, and found on the Kassite period (c. 1595-1155 BC) levels, over half a millennium later. One side was noticeably better preserved than the other. One large fragment was recovered in the 1932-1933 season.[29] As a few fragments were found in the level from fall of the Ur III Empire the excavator indicated that the stela had been shattered at the end of the reign of the final Ur III ruler Ibbi-Sin (c. 2028–2004 BC) and the pieces later used as convenient construction material by the Kassites.[30]
The limestone slab measures 3 meters high and 1.52 meters across, assuming it has been re-assembled properly. The stela fragments have been assembled several times, beginning in 1927, each time differently. When the stela was disassembled in 1989 for study mineralogical analysis showed that several fragments did not in fact belong to the stela.[31] At the same time more fragments then in storage were identified as belonging to the stela of Ur-Nammu. This brought the fragment total to 106 including one fragment held at the British Museum (two others there are suspected as also belonging to the Ur-Nammu stela). This stela and the Utuhegal Stela were excavated at the same time and the finds divided between the sponsors. The issue of what fragments belong to this stela is still open.[32] It is currently held at the University Museum of the University of Pennsylvania.[33][34][35]
Stele of Ur-Nammu, University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archeology and Anthropology.
Fired mudbrick, stamped. The cuneiform inscription mentions the name of Ur-Nammu, and there are two presumably accidentally impressed dog's paw-marks near one edge. From the Ziggurat of Ur, Ur, Iraq. Ur III period, 21st century BC. British Museum
^García Recio, Jesús etal, "Ur-Nammá en Adab", Nomina in aqua scripta. Homenaje a Joaquín María Córdoba Zoilo, hrsg. v. Adolfo J. Domínguez Monedero, pp. 467-486, 2021
^ abcHamblin, William J., Warfare in the Ancient Near East to 1600 BC (New York: Routledge, 2006).
^Wilcke; See Encyclopedia Iranica articles AWAN, ELAM
^Marchesi, Gianni, "Ur-Nammâ (k)’s conquest of Susa", Susa and Elam. Archaeological, Philological, Historical and Geographical Perspectives. Brill, pp. 285-291, 2013
^ abcSharlach, T. M., "Historical Introduction: The Reigns of Ur-Namma and Shulgi of Ur", An Ox of One's Own: Royal Wives and Religion at the Court of the Third Dynasty of Ur, Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, pp. 3-30, 2017 ISBN978-1501514470
^Hallo, William W., "The Coronation of Ur-Nammu", Journal of Cuneiform Studies, vol. 20, no. 3/4, pp. 133–41, 1966
^Tinney, Steve, "Ur-Namma the Canal-Digger: Context, Continuity and Change in Sumerian Literature", Journal of Cuneiform Studies, vol. 51, pp. 31–54, 1999
^ ab[1]Piotr Michalowski, "The Mortal Kings of Ur: A Short Century of Divine Rule in Ancient Mesopotamia", in Religion and Power: Divine Kingship in the Ancient World and Beyond – Nicole Brisch ed., pp. 33–45, Oriental Institute Seminars 4, Chicago: The Oriental Institute, 2012 ISBN978-1-885923-55-4
^Winter, Irene (2008). Brisch, Nicole (ed.). "Touched by the Gods: Visual Evidence for the Divine Status of Rulers in the Ancient Near East". Religion and Power: Divine Kingship in the Ancient World and Beyond: 77.
^Sollberger, Edmond, and J. A. Brinkman, "Ladies of the Ur-III Empire", Revue d’Assyriologie et d’archéologie Orientale, vol. 61, no. 1, pp. 69–70, 1967
^Steinkeller, Piotr, "Corvée Labor in Ur III Times", From the 21st Century B.C. to the 21st Century A.D.: Proceedings of the International Conference on Neo-Sumerian Studies Held in Madrid, 22–24 July 2010, edited by Steven J. Garfinkle and Manuel Molina, University Park, USA: Penn State University Press, pp. 347-424, 2013
^Sharlach, T. M., "The Death of Shulgi and his Wives", An Ox of One's Own: Royal Wives and Religion at the Court of the Third Dynasty of Ur, Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, pp. 175-186, 2017 ISBN978-1501514470
^Moorey, P. R. S., "Where Did They Bury the Kings of the IIIrd Dynasty of Ur?", Iraq, vol. 46, no. 1, pp. 1–18, 1984
^F.R.Kraus, "Zur Chronologic der Konige Ur-Nammu und Sulgi von Ur", Orientalia NS 20, pp. 385-98, 1951
^E. Sollberger, "Sur la chronologic des rois d'Ur et quelques problemes connexes", AfO 17, pp. 10-14, 1954-56)
^[2]"Year names of Ur-Nammu", Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative
^[3]Dyson, Robert H., "Archival glimpses of the Ur Expedition in the years 1920 to 1926", Expedition 20.1, pp. 5-34, 1977
^Legrain, L., "'Restauration de la Stèle d'Ur-Nammu", Revue d’Assyriologie et d’archéologie Orientale, vol. 30, no. 3, pp. 111–15, 1933
^Canby, Jeanny Vorys, "More on the ‘Ur-Nammu’ Stela", Journal of the American Oriental Society, vol. 124, no. 2, pp. 323–24, 2004
^C. L. Woolley, "The Excavations at Ur, 1923–1924", Antiquaries Journal 5, pp. 1–20, 1925
^Leonard Woolley, "The Buildings of the Third Dynasty", Ur Excavations, vol VI, Philadelphia: Trustees of the British Museum and The University Museum, University of Pennsylvania, 1974 ISBN978-0686177722
^Winter, Irene J., "Review of Canby, Jeanny Vorys, "The" Ur-Nammu" Stela"", Journal of the American Oriental Society, vol. 123, no. 2, pp. 402–406, 2003
^Suter, Claudia E., "Review of Canby, Jeanny Vorys, "The" Ur-Nammu" Stela"", American Journal of Archaeology, vol. 109, no. 2, pp. 301–03, 2005
^[4]Legrain, Leon, "The stela of the flying angels", Museum Journal 18, pp. 74-98, 1927
^Canby, Jeanny Vorys, "The" Ur-Nammu" Stela", Vol. 110, UPenn Museum of Archaeology, 2006 ISBN978-1-931707-89-3
^[5]Canby, Jeanny Vorys, "A Monumental Puzzle - Reconstructing the Ur-Nammu Stela", Expedition 29.1, pp. 54-64, 1987
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