Ur
Topic: Bronze Age Civilisations: Mesopotamia, Egypt, China · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 1 "Writing and City Life"
Meaning
Ur was an early city in southern Mesopotamia, known for the temple of its Moon God. In the 1930s archaeologists dug up its ordinary houses, which show how common people lived. The nuclear family (parents and children) was the usual household, and sons inherited the property. The city had no town planning. Its streets were narrow and winding and its house plots were irregular. Goods arrived on donkeys, not on wheeled carts.
Example
Ur had no street drains. Drains and clay pipes ran inward, into sumps (pits) in house courtyards. People threw rubbish into the streets, so the street level rose and house doorsteps had to be raised too. Rooms got light from doorways, not windows, which kept homes private. Ur's town cemetery held both royal and ordinary graves. The royal graves were full of jewellery, gold vessels, musical instruments inlaid with shell and lapis lazuli, and gold daggers. This shows that a small ruling group held much of the wealth.
Don't confuse with
- Mohenjo-daro: a planned Harappan city with street drains. Ur had neither planning nor street drains.
Related concepts
- Mesopotamian temple
- Ziggurat
- Uruk
- Cylinder seal
- Abu Salabikh
- Mari
- Amorites
- Pastoralists in Mesopotamia