Where it All Began

I have set foot on the place where civilization began.  Where the Sumerians and Babylonian ruled.  Where Hammurabi’s Code was written, and where the wheel was invented.  The place is known as Ur, and you can even find it in the Bible.  I might have mentioned this before, but I love history, especially practical history and anthropology.  Screw the dates, show me the how.  So you can imagine what a great experience this was for me, even in ACUs.

Before we get started I should mention the site is Iraqi Controlled, but actually inside the Coalition “wire” for protection.  That way the enemy can’t lob mortars at us from there and force us to retaliate against such a sacred place to all humanity.  You have to make a special appointment to see the place as part of a “group tour.”  The tour is by donations after the fact, and you can climb on and in most of the ruin.  Something you would never be able to do in the U.S.  All they ask is that you take nothing and leave nothing behind.

The tour starts with some basic facts given to us by the curator while standing at the foot of the Ziggurat.  Some of the Ziggurat was rebuilt from the ruins of what the archaeologists found.  Its easy to tell the old from the new because in this region, everything was held together with tar at that time, not mortar.  Anyway, the first stop was a temple next to the Ziggurat.  It has the oldest known arch anywhere. Then we went over to the ruins of the royal palace of King Ur-Nammu/King Shulgi (and probably a few others).  After that we walked a bit and got to travel down into the Royal tombs and see the tombs of King Shulgi, one of the first kings of modern civilization.  It is not much more than brick chambers about two stories underground, now with salt deposits and old beams from the 1920’s holding them up.  The most interesting part of the Tombs is all the cuneiform writing on the bricks.  The curator said it was stories of some of the kings buried there, but we all joked that they were advertisements for the construction firm and masons – “Shekies Bricks,” or maybe “Tomb Construction Inc.”  You get the gist.

Next we walked down a path strewn with old pottery and sand mounds.  In fact, the entire site is layered in ancient pottery shards.  The early Sumerians, et al, used broken pottery to help stabilize the mud walls, so as the walls collapsed an entire city’s worth of broken pottery was deposited.  I kept thinking to myself as we walked that great ancient peoples used the same roads thousands of years ago when the land was green and lush, the Euphrates was less than a mile away and the Persian Gulf was close enough that this was considered coastal. Ur actually survived for hundreds of years until the Euphrates shifted.  Then the land dried up and the people moved to a city about 15 miles away.  That city still exists to this day.

At the end of the path was the rebuilt ruin of Abraham’s house.  The Abraham of Bible fame.  That very man used to live in that very house.  Supposedly the archaeologists found tablets with his name and even a blueprint of the structure.  There is some controversy though about wether the 27 room, 4 courtyard house (rivaling the royal palace) was actually all his or if it was actually a series of row houses combined by common walls.  The tour guide pointed out the kitchen, the stairs to the old second floor, and even the bathroom where the great prophet did his business in a pot.  I got a bit of a laugh at the thought of Abraham doing his prophet thing while doing his private business.

Anyway, you leave Abraham’s house and then travel up the street to the first museum.  It was a temple that a king used to collect different pieces from through out his past.  Its the first known collection of historical objects kept by one person.  Here is where the tour ends.  You can donate a couple bucks to the tour guide/curator if you like, or not, but the man had a wealth of information so a couple bucks is worth it. 

After you leave the stop, you are free to wander about the site, climb up the Ziggurat, shop at the “souvenir store” or just hang around till you feel like leaving.  The Ziggurat is actually one of the oldest things on the site and was dedicated to the Moon God, Sin.  I believe that is where the modern day concept/word “sin” was born, which is interesting probably only to me. Anyway, the tour was a great experience for me.  I actually got to walk in the streets and buildings that the first men in modern history used and where some of the greatest achievements of civilization were born. 

I created a Gallery for the tour, if you want to look for yourself.