Dawn under Nanna's moon
The people of Ur wake with the ziggurat in view. It is the house of Nanna, the moon god who protects their city, with his shrine at the top.
SourceA new ziggurat
King Ur-Nammu began the ziggurat and his son Shulgi completed it. Millions of bricks rose layer upon layer, some stamped with the king's name.
SourceIn the tablet house
At school, the 'tablet house', boys learn cuneiform by copying signs onto soft clay. Those who succeed become scribes.
SourceBarley and date rations
The Ur III state records everything. Workers receive rations of barley, oil and wool, and dates are part of everyday food.
SourceBoats on the Euphrates
Ur stood near the Euphrates and had harbours. Boats arrived laden with goods, and trade went out towards the Gulf and the land of Dilmun.
SourceJustice in the king's name
Tablets credit Ur-Nammu with the oldest known law code. It sets fixed fines for many wrongs and protects the orphan and the widow.
SourceAn old game in the evening
On a board of inlaid squares, players throw dice and move their pieces. The same game had been placed in Ur's royal tombs about five centuries earlier.
SourceHouses around a courtyard
Centuries later, in the Old Babylonian period (about 1800 BCE), people in Ur built brick houses around an inner courtyard, which Woolley uncovered in the city's lanes.
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