Ur-Ninurta
| Ur-Ninurta | |
|---|---|
| King of Isin | |
| Reign | c. 1859 – 1832 BC |
| Predecessor | Lipit-Ištar |
| Successor | Būr-Sīn |
| House | 1st Dynasty of Isin |
Ur-Ninurta, c. 1859 – 1832 BC (short chronology) or c. 1923 – 1896 BC (middle chronology), was the 6th king of the 1st Dynasty of Isin. A usurper, Ur-Ninurta seized the throne on the fall of Lipit-Ištar and held it until his violent death some 28 years later.
He called himself “son of Iškur,” the southern storm-god synonymous with Adad, in his adab to Iškur. His name was wholly Sumerian, in marked contrast to the Amorite names of his five predecessors. There are only two extant inscriptions, one of which is stamped on bricks in 13 lines of Sumerian from the cities of Nippur, Isin, Uruk and Išān Ḥāfudh, a small site southeast of Tell Drehem, which gives his standard inscription describing him as an “Išippum priest with clean hands for Eridu, favorite en priest of Uruk” and there is a copy of an inscription relating to the erection of a statue of the king with a votive goat.
He was contemporary with Gungunum, c. 1868 – 1841 BC (short), and his successor Abī-sarē, c. 1841 – 1830 BC (short), the resurgent kings of Larsa. His reign marks the beginning of a decline in Isin's fortunes coinciding with a rise in those of Larsa. Gungunum had wrestled Ur from Isin’s control by his 10th year and it is possible this was the cause of Lipit-Ištar’s overthrow. Indeed Ur-Ninurta made a dedicatory gift to the temple of Ningal in Ur during the 9th year of Gungunum. However, Ur-Ninurta continued to mention Ur in his titles ("herdsman of Ur") as did his successors in Isin. Gungunum went on to expand his kingdom, perhaps taking Nippur late in his reign. His death allowed Ur-Ninurta to launch a temporary counter-offensive, recapturing Nippur and several other cities on the Kishkattum canal. His year-name “year (Ur-Ninurta) set for Enlil free (of forced labor) for ever the citizens of Nippur and released (the arrears of) the taxes which they were bearing on their necks” may mark this point. His offensive was stopped at Adab, modern Bismaya, where Abī-sarē “defeated the army of Isin with his weapon,” in the 9th year-name of his reign. It may be that this battle was where he was killed, as a year A of Halium of the kingdom of Mananâ, reads “the year Ur-Ninurta was slain” and Manabalte’el of Kisurra’s year G, “the year Ur-Ninurta was killed.”
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