The Third Dynasty of Ur and Abraham's Homeland

The event

After the chaos following Akkad's collapse, a new dynasty of kings arose in the ancient city of Ur, on the lower Euphrates, and built one of the best-organized states the ancient world had yet seen. Ur-Nammu, the dynasty's founder, is remembered for an early law code — predating Hammurabi's by roughly three centuries — and for raising Ur's Great Ziggurat, a massive stepped temple-tower dedicated to the moon god Nanna that still stands, partially restored, in southern Iraq today.

This is the Ur that Genesis calls "Ur of the Chaldeans," the city Terah, Abram, Sarai, and Lot left behind to journey toward Canaan (Genesis 11:27-31). By the traditional evangelical chronology, Abraham's family departed Ur right around the end of this very dynasty or shortly after its collapse — meaning the wealthy, sophisticated, moon-god-worshiping city archaeologists have uncovered at Ur is very plausibly the actual streets and temples Abraham knew before God called him out to become the father of a people set apart to worship the one true God.

Ur's excavated royal tombs, with their gold jewelry, musical instruments, and attendants buried alongside their kings, give a vivid, sobering picture of just how much Abraham gave up in obedience to God's call — leaving established wealth, a settled city, and an entire polytheistic religious system behind for the uncertain promise of a land he had not yet seen (Hebrews 11:8).

Dating

Ur III dates come from Mesopotamian king lists and are well fixed relative to one another, though their correlation with an absolute calendar carries the same small margin of error as the rest of third-millennium chronology.

Scripture references

• Genesis 11:27-31
• Hebrews 11:8