Abraham’s first home (Gen 11:28, Gen 11:31; Gen 15:7; Neh 9:7), located in southern Mesopotamia, about 140 miles southeast of the site of ancient Babylon. Education was well developed at Ur, as a school with its collection of clay tablets has been found there. Pupils learned to read, write and various forms of arithmetic. Trade was well developed. The moon god, Nanna, was worshiped there. The temple, ziggurat, and other buildings used in connection with the worship of this pagan deity have been found; on the walls of the houses there were idols in private niches.
Source: Hispanic World Bible Dictionary
tip, ARQU PUEM CITY
sit, a4, 511, 297
vet, Abraham’s hometown (Gen. 11:28, 31; 15:7; Neh. 9:7), located in Sumer, a country later called Babylon, which would finally be dominated by the Chaldeans, At present it receives the name from Tell al Muqayyar (ar.: “bitumen hill”), in Lower Babylonia, on the western bank of the Euphrates. To the northeast, not far away, was Uruk, and to the southwest Eridu. Excavations began in 1854, led by JE Taylor, who was the first to identify the ruins as Ur. Sponsored by the British Museum, investigations were resumed in 1918 by HR Hall. Sir Leonard Woolley followed the explorations from 1922 to 1934, leading a joint British Museum and Philadelphia University Museum expedition. When Abraham departed from it (Gen. 11:28; Acts 7:2) it was a large and prosperous city, a great commercial center and a seaport on the Persian Gulf. Since then, the deposition of materials in the gulf has pushed the coastline forward, leaving Ur far inland. The famous royal tombs (circa 2500 BC) contained admirable treasures of gold and jewelry, weapons laboriously adorned with precious stones, harps with various ornamentations of precious metals. The headdress that adorned the head of Queen Shubad is particularly famous. Other finds were more grim: the remains of many servants and servants, who had been ritually killed to accompany their masters to the other world, including nine court ladies, guard soldiers, servants, musicians, etc. This gives an indication of the sorry state in which the idolatrous world of Ur was plunged, and which Abraham was called to leave. Ur has become one of the best known places in the southern part of Babylon. Woolley gives a detailed description of the cult of Nannar, the patron moon god of the city, and of Ningal (“Abraham”, 1949; “Ur of the Chaldees”, 1952). Excavations have also documented the high degree of culture in that civilization, at the time of Abraham, with a very complex socio-religious structure, a developed script, and advanced mathematics; In addition to multiplication and division tables, exercises on square and cube roots and practical geometry were found. Based on the chronology of the Masoretic text, Abraham’s life was spent, at least in part, at the time of the Sumero-Akkadian New Empire of Ur-Nammu, the founder of the mighty Third Dynasty of Ur (circa 2070-1960 BC). ). These famous kings assumed the new title of “Kings of Sumer and Akkad.” The most considerable work of Ur-Nammu was the erection of the great ziggurat of Ur which Abraham surely knew, as did Joseph later the pyramids of Egypt. This ziggurat is the best preserved example of this type of architecture from early Babylon. In the light of these discoveries, it is possible to better understand what it meant for Abraham to leave such a sophisticated and luxurious civilization, with its securities and material means, to embark, humanly speaking, at random, to take the step of faith following the call of God, who separated him from that religiously and morally depraved place, to make him the repository of His revelation and the promises of redemption. Bibliography: Cram, CW: “Gods, tombs and wise men” (Ed. Orbis, Barcelona, 1985); Free, JP: “Archaeology and Bible History” (Van Kampen Press, Wheaton, 1950); Frymer-Kensky, T., McPherson, W., and Zettler, RL: “Sumer”, Biblical Archeology Review, vol. X, No. 5, Sept./Oct. 1984, pp. 56-64; Vos, HF: “Genesis and Archaeology” (Moody Press, Chicago, 1963).
Source: New Illustrated Bible Dictionary
The city from where Terah and Abram left to go to Haran (Gn. 11.28, 31; 15.7; Neh. 9.7). Esteban considered that he was in Mesopotamia (Acts 7.2, 4). An ancient identification of the Heb. ˒ûr with Urfa (Edessa), 32 km NW of Haran, is unlikely for philological reasons, and Ura˓ is the name of several well-known places in Asia Minor. Furthermore, that identification would require Abraham to retrace his steps to E before heading W toward Canaan. This equating requires that the “Chaldea” that identifies the place be equated with Haldai (part of ancient Armenia). The *Chaldeans were known Semites in Babylon from at least the late 2nd millennium BC, but there are no references to their presence in N Mesopotamia. The LXX has “the land (jora) of the Chaldeans”, perhaps due to lack of familiarity with the place. However, Eupolemus (ca. 150 BC) refers to Ur as a Babylonian city called Camarina (“the moon”) or Ouria. The Talmudic interpretation of Ur as Erech is unlikely since the latter place is distinguished in Gen. 10.10.
The most generally accepted identification is with the ancient site of Ur (uri), present-day Tell el-Muqayyar, 14 km W of Nasiriyeh on the Euphrates River in S Iraq. Excavations at this site in 1922–34 by the joint expedition of the British Museum and the Philadelphia University Museum, under the direction of Sir CL Woolley followed the history of the site from the Al Ubaid period (5th millennium BC) until it was abandoned around 300 BC Many spectacular discoveries were made, especially in the royal cemeteries of the early 3rd Dynastic period (ca. 2500 BC). Beneath these a layer of sediment was initially identified with the flood of the Gilgamesh epic and of Genesis (see now Iraq 26, 1964, pp. 65ff). The ruins of the temple tower (ziggurat) built by Ur-Nammu, founder of the prosperous 3rd dynasty (ca. 2150–2050 BC) still dominate the site (* Babel). The history and economy of the city are well known on the basis of thousands of inscribed tablets and the many buildings found on the site. The main deity was Nannar (Semitic Sin or Suen), who was also worshiped in Haran. The city was later ruled by the Neo-Babylonian (Chaldean) kings of Babylon.
Bibliography. °L. Woolley, Ur of the Chaldeans, 1929; W. Keller, And the Bible Was Right, 1958, pp. 23–37; S. Moscati, Ancient Semitic Civilizations, 1960, pp. 33; CF Pfeiffer, “Ur”, °DBA, pp. 696–705; G. Goossens, “Ur”, °EBDM, t
CL Woolley, Excavations at Ur, 1954; HWF Saggs, “Ur of the Chaldees,” Iraq 22, 1960; CJ Gadd; “Ur”, AOTS, 1967, pp. 87–101; CAH, 1/2, 1971, p. 595–617; Orientalia 38, 1969, p. 310–348.
DJW
Douglas, J. (2000). New Biblical Dictionary: First Edition. Miami: United Bible Societies.
Source: New Bible Dictionary