https://arsartisticadventureofmankind.wordpress.com/2013/07/18/the-neo-sumerian-period-or-third-dynasty-of-ur/
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The Neo-Sumerian period or Third Dynasty of UR
Around 21-20 centuries BC Ur was restored as the Sumerian capital and the III Dynasty of Ur begun under the rule of the king Ur-Nammu. However, Akkadian influence is clearly detectable in the art of this period: although force and power returned to the forefront of artistic creation, a softening of the ancestral rigidity in the Sumerian art reflected the influence that Akkadian dominance had left.
King Ur-Nammu must have reigned 18 years and was succeeded by his son Dungi who reigned nearly half a century. Countless monuments whose bricks were sealed with the names of these two sovereigns showed the construction power of both kings. The first concern of Ur-Nammu was to fortify the capital so that it could withstand any attack. The walls of Ur built during this time were almost 25 mt. wide at the base. But this formidable work is by no means the most important building of the Neo-Sumerians. The ruins of the temple of Sin, the moon-god, was a ziggurat or stepped tower constructed so that the deity could descend from heaven to earth. Most Sumerian cities had similar constructions. These monuments had three to seven stories, each with a smaller base than the preceding, and corresponded to the type of building that the Bible describes as the “Tower of Babel”.
The ziggurat of Ur, started by Ur-Nammu, was a three-story tower. The first story was completely solid and was 65 mt. long by 43 mt. wide with a height of 22 mt. Its walls were slightly inclined. The first floor platform could be reached by three monumental stairs: two laterals attached to the front and a third facing the front. These three stairs had 100 steps. Above this giant pedestal stood other two overlapping platforms on top of which was the temple for the god. Another temple at the base conditioned as home for the divinity transformed this building as a monumental stair to ascend or descend from heaven. The prophet Jacob, after visiting the land from where his father had came, must had remembered the religious ceremonies and processions that circulated in these giant stairs of the Ur’s ziggurat. Today is still amazing to think that these gigantic architectures were made of bricks none of which reaches 40 cm. Such constructions should required millions of these handmade pieces and overcome enormous difficulties to engage the whole building.
