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]
Ur-Nammu built the great Ziggurat of Ur.Ur-Nammu dedication tablet for the Temple of Inanna in Uruk.[3] Inscription "For his lady Inanna, Ur-Nammu the mighty man, King of Ur and King of Sumer and Akkad": 𒀭𒈹Dinanna.... "For Inanna-" 𒎏𒂍𒀭𒈾 Nin-e-an-na.... "Ninanna," 𒎏𒀀𒉌 NIN-a-ni.... "his Lady" 𒌨𒀭𒇉 UR-NAMMU.... "Ur-Nammu" 𒍑𒆗𒂵 NITAH KALAG ga.... "the mighty man" 𒈗𒋀𒀊𒆠𒈠 LUGAL URIM KI ma.... "King of Ur" 𒈗𒆠𒂗𒄀𒆠𒌵𒆤 LUGAL ki en gi ki URI ke.... "King of Sumer and Akkad"
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]
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.[15] 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.[16] 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).[17] Sharlach has more recently noted that favour for Ur-Nammu not having been deified has been accepted by many scholars.[14]
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. Many fragments had been moved and used for other purposes, including door sockets, and most were found on the Kassite period 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.[21] The first publisher of the stela called it "Stela of the Flying Angels". 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.[22] 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.[23] It is currently held at the University Museum of the University of Pennsylvania.[24][25][26]
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
^Michalowski, Piotr (2008). Brisch, Nicole (ed.). "The Mortal Kings of Ur: A Short Century of Divine Rule in Ancient Mesopotamia". Religion and Power: Divine Kingship in the Ancient World and Beyond: 36–7.
^Michalowski, Piotr (2008). Brisch, Nicole (ed.). "The Mortal Kings of Ur: A Short Century of Divine Rule in Ancient Mesopotamia". Religion and Power: Divine Kingship in the Ancient World and Beyond: 35.
^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.
^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)
^[1]"Year names of Ur-Nammu", Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative
^C. L. Woolley, "The Excavations at Ur, 1923–1924", Antiquaries Journal 5, pp. 1–20, 1925
^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
^[2]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
^Legrain, L., "'Restauration de la Stèle d'Ur-Nammu", Revue d’Assyriologie et d’archéologie Orientale, vol. 30, no. 3, pp. 111–15, 1933
Badamchi, Hossein, "Usurpation of Agricultural Land and Codex Ur-Namma, 39", Akkadica 138.2, pp. 81-188, 2017
Civil, Miguel, "On Some Texts Mentioning Ur-Namma", Orientalia, vol. 54, no. 1/2, pp. 27–45, 1985
Finkelstein, Jacob J., "The Laws of Ur-Nammu", Journal of cuneiform studies 22.3-4, pp. 66-82, 1968
Gurney, Oliver R., "A Gate Socket of Ur-Nammu", Iraq 44.2, pp. 143-144, 1982
Kramer, Samuel Noah, "Ur-Nammu law code", Orientalia 23.1, pp. 40-51, 1954
Kramer, Samuel Noah, "The Ur-Nammu Law Code: Who Was Its Author?", Orientalia 52.4, pp. 453-456, 1983
Szlechter, Émile, "Le Code d’Ur-nammu", Revue d’Assyriologie et d’archéologie Orientale, vol. 49, no. 4, pp. 169–77, 1955
Szlechter, Émile, "A propos du Code d'Ur-Nammu", Revue d’Assyriologie et d’archéologie Orientale, vol. 47, no. 1, pp. 1–10, 1953
Yaron, Reuven, "Quelques Remarques Sur Les Nouveaux Fragments Des Lois d’Ur-Nammu", Revue Historique de Droit Français et Étranger (1922-), vol. 63, no. 2, pp. 131–42, 1985
Yildiz, Fatma, "A Tablet of Codex Ur-Nammu from Sippar", Orientalia, vol. 50, no. 1, pp. 87–97, 1981