Ur-Namma
c. 2112 BCE–c. 2095 BCE · Ur
Ur-Namma founded the Third Dynasty of Ur (Ur III) and ruled c. 2112–2095 BCE (Middle Chronology), reunifying southern Mesopotamia and inaugurating the 'Sumerian Renaissance.' He is celebrated as a great builder — the monumental ziggurat of Ur is his work — and the earliest surviving law collection, the Laws of Ur-Namma, is associated with his reign, opening with a royal prologue declaring the king's establishment of justice (some scholars attribute the laws to his son Šulgi).
Did you know?
The oldest law code isn't Hammurabi's
The earliest known law code is not Hammurabi's but one attributed to Ur-Namma of Ur (possibly issued by his son Shulgi), written around 2100 BCE — roughly three centuries earlier. Its surviving clauses already set fixed penalties, making it about 4,100 years old.
How we know
Code of Ur-Nammu c. 2100 BCE (Middle Chronology; Ur-Namma reign c. 2112–2094 BCE), ~3 centuries before Hammurabi's code c. 1754 BCE.
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Ur
We know they were here, but the specifics of what they did at this stop aren’t recorded yet in our corpus.
About Ur
A great southern city sacred to the moon-god Nanna (modern Tell el-Muqayyar), capital of the Third Dynasty of Ur. The pin marks the tablet's findspot; the small adjacent mounds of Diqdiqqah are grouped here.
Works
No works attributed in the corpus yet.