KINGS OF UR.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LI, Issue 26, 31 December 1930, Page 7

KINGS OF UR.

TOMBS DISCOVERED. LONDON, Dec. 30. The British Museum-Pennsylvania University expedition has discovered the tombs of the Kings of Ur, dating 2300 B.C. _ These include Kings Uremgur, Dungi and Birsin. The buildings, unfortunately were plundered by the Elamites in 2000 B.C. Nevertheless, their structural interest and possibilities are inexhaustible.

Ur, one of the most important of ,the early Babylonian cities, represented today by the ruin mounds called Mughair, lay 140 miles south-east of Babylon, or about six miles south of the present bed of the Euphrates, half-way between that and the low, pebbly sandstone hills which form the border of the Syrian desert. It is generally assumed that two dynasties reigned at Ur, and claimed suzerainty over the other Babylonian States, though there is as yet no clear proof that there was more than one. It was probably Gun Gunu, who succeeded in transferring the capital of Babylonia from Isin to Ur, his son and successor being Dungi, whose reign lasted more than 51 years. After tho fall of the dynasty Babylonia passed under foreign influence. Sumuabi, from Southern Arabia, made himself master of the northern portion. Elamite invaders occupied the southern.