|
 |
||||||||||||||
| Ur was a city in ancient Sumer. Once a coastal city near the mouth of the then Euphrates river on the Persian Gulf, Ur is now well inland. When the city was on the coast and mouth of the Euphrates, its location was favourable for trade, by both sea and land routes, into Arabia. | |||||||||||||||
The site is marked by the ruins of a ziggurat, still largely intact, and by settlement mounds. The temple stands 70 feet (21 m) high. |
|||||||||||||||
| The ziggurat of Ur was a temple of Nanna, the moon deity in Sumerian mythology, and has two stages constructed from brick: in the lower stage the bricks are joined together with bitumen, in the upper stage they are joined with mortar. The temple was built in 2100 B.C. during the reign of Ur-Nammu. | |||||||||||||||
| 1st phases of Ur | |||||||||||||||
| Ur was inhabited in the earliest stage of village settlement in southern Mesopotamia, the Ubaid period. It later appears to have been abandoned for a time as the climate changed from relatively damp to drought in the early 3rd millennium BC. | |||||||||||||||
| However, the city was reconstituted no later than 2600 BCE in in the Sumerian Early Dynastic Period III. Ur by this time was considered sacred to the god called Nanna (Sumerian) and Sin (Akkadian) | |||||||||||||||
| The earliest known use of a pentagram in any culture was found in Ur during this time, making this city as the likely source of its origin as a religious symbol. In the Sumerian language, the pentagram (always inverted with two points up and one point down) served as a pictograph of the word "UB" meaning "corner, angle, nook; a small room, cavity, hole; pitfall". | |||||||||||||||
| In turn, the word UB (original name for pentagram) literally signified the most important religious ceremony of the various Sumer cities at which they sacrificed people to their most important female goddess, the "Queen of Heaven". | |||||||||||||||
| The Sumerians would dig a great pit and depending on the type of ceremony, would either place a large fire at the base of the pit into which people would be thrown, or bound and tossed (as in the case of the death of a king). As a result, the pentagram has always been an official symbol of the "Queen of Heaven" from the beginning of time. | |||||||||||||||
| After the city was reconstructed, the UB (Pentagram) additional meaning of representing the five major gods of key Akkadian/Sumerian mythology, with each god representing a point and the whole star representing Ishtar as "Queen of Heaven". The pentagram and god association also had an astrological connection as the star represented the five brightest celestial bodies in the night sky- the planets of Jupiter, Mercury, Mars, Saturn and Venus- the brightest. | |||||||||||||||
| During this period the kings of Ur became the effective rulers of Sumer, in the first dynasty of Ur established by the king Mesannepada (or Mesanepada, Mes-Anni-Padda), who is on the king list and is named as a son of Meskalamdug on recovered artifacts. | |||||||||||||||
| The third dynasty period | |||||||||||||||
| The third dynasty was established when the king Ur-Nammu (or Urnammu) came to power, ruling between ca. 2112 BC and 2094 BC. During his rule, temples, including the ziggurat, were built, and agriculture was improved through irrigation. | |||||||||||||||
| During this period, Ur reached its zenith with a population of approximately 50,000 to 60,000. However, when the third dynasty fell around 1950 BC to the Elamites the population plummeted. The Lament for Ur commemorates this event. | |||||||||||||||
| The end of Ur | |||||||||||||||
| By the 12th century BCE Ur was no longer inhabited as a functioning city with a civilian population--instead Ur had become the largest Necropolis in the ancient world. | |||||||||||||||
| Owing to its sanctity, Ur became a favorite place of sepulchres, so that even after it had ceased to be inhabited, it continued to be used as a necropolis. Significantly, the cult of Nanna and Sin had transformed into an extreme cult of the dead with the attendants known as Galla (similar to Galli of Cybele) oversaw elaborate funeral rites for those who were wealthy enough to be buried at Ur. | |||||||||||||||
| The Galla, all eunichs -- and their special powers in being able to command spirits --is the origin of the perverse obsession of the Roman Cult in enforcing celibacy on all its priests. | |||||||||||||||
| The last recorded major construction at Ur was in the sixth century BC under the rule of Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon. The last Babylonian king, Nabonidus, improved the ziggurat. | |||||||||||||||
| The importance of Ur in religion | |||||||||||||||
| Ur is considered by many to be the city of Ur Kasdim mentioned in the Book of Genesis as the birthplace of the patriarch Abram (Abraham). | |||||||||||||||
| The first excavation was made by British consul J.E. Taylor, who partly uncovered the ziggurat. Clay cylinders found in the four corners of the top stage of the ziggurat bore an inscription of Nabonidus (Nabuna`id), the last king of Babylon (539 BC), closing with a prayer for his son Belshar-uzur (Bel-sarra-Uzur), the Belshazzar of the Book of Daniel. | |||||||||||||||
| Evidence was found of prior restorations of the ziggurat by Ishme-Dagan of Isin and Gimil-Sin of Ur, and by Kuri-galzu, a Kassite king of Babylon in the fourteenth century BC. | |||||||||||||||
Copyright © One-Evil.org 2011. All Rights Reserved |
|||||||||||||||
 |
|
|
 |
|
|
 |
|
|
|
||
|
||
|
|
|
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
|
|
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
||
|
||
|