15,697
edits
Changes
no edit summary
<youtube>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBk9KywTIgk&list=RDCMUCsooa4yRKGN_zEE8iknghZA&index=25</youtube>
[[File: Mesopotamie_Ur3.png|300px|thumbnail|left|Map of Mesopotamia in the Third Millennium BC]]__NOTOC__
The Ur III Dynasty or the Third Dynasty of Ur (c. 2112-2004 BC) was an ancient Mesopotamian political dynasty that formed in the aftermath of the collapse of the Akkadian Dynasty. The kings of the Ur III Dynasty were able to unify southern Mesopotamia under one government, which is often viewed as a renaissance of Sumerian culture that had vanished centuries earlier. Besides briefly bringing back the Sumerian language, the Ur III Dynasty influenced later Mesopotamian dynasties in a number of different ways.
====The Sumerians and Ur====
More than a millennia before the Ur III Dynasty was born, the Sumerians began building cities in the region of southern Mesopotamia that would later become known as Sumer. The Sumerians are one of the most enigmatic ethnic groups from the ancient Near East because although their language has been deciphered, it is not a member of any known language family. The Sumerians are not believed to have been Semitic, unlike their many neighbors in Mesopotamia, nor were they believed to be Indo-European, such as the Hittites or later Persians. The enigma of the Sumerians’ origins has led some scholars to believe they migrated to the region, possibly from India or somewhere else to the east. <ref> Ziskind, Jonathan R. “The Sumerian Problem.” <i>History Teacher</i> 5 (1972) p. 41</ref> Although this opinion was once very popular among scholars and still is in some circles, many historians and archaeologists point out that there is no evidence that suggests they migrated to the region and that if they were not truly “indigenous” to Mesopotamia they were at least very ancient. <ref> Kuhrt, Amélie. <i>The Ancient Near East: c. 3000-330 BC.</i> (London: Routledge, 2010), p. 23</ref>
Although Ur was the capital of the Ur III Dynasty, it was a secondary city in the late fourth and early third millenniums BC. Uruk was the first and major Sumerian city, but over time as the various Mesopotamian cities battled for supremacy, Ur would emerge as the strongest. Today, the ruins of Ur are located about halfway between the modern city of Baghdad and the head of the Persian Gulf, but its location belies major differences in the ancient topography. Ur was actually located much nearer to the coast of the Persian Gulf and a few miles south of the Euphrates River. Its location near the coast along with a network of canals connected Ur to the rest of Mesopotamia and beyond as early as 6,000 BC. <ref> Mieroop, Marc van de. <i>A History of the Ancient Near East: ca. 3000-323 BC.</i> Second Edition. (London: Blackwell, 2007), p. 142</ref>
