The Third Dynasty of Ur
A bureaucratic state so thorough it leaves tens of thousands of receipts.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 108 years
- Known to
- ± 50 years
- Era
- Bronze Age, Holocene
The Ur III state, from around 2112 BCE, runs southern Mesopotamia through an administration of extraordinary detail — standardised measures, a calendar, provincial taxation, and accounting records so voluminous that more tablets survive from this century than from most later millennia. It is a high point of Sumerian culture and the last time Sumerian is a living political language. It falls to Elamite invasion and internal collapse around 2004 BCE.