Near East Kingdoms

Urua / Uru'aza (Tepe Musiyan?) (City) (Western Iran)

Ancient Mesopotamia (Intro) Canaanite States & Groups Islamic Empire Israelites & Israel Mesopotamian States & Groups Rome Syrian States & Groups

The city states of Sumer formed one of the first great civilisations in human history (see feature link). This Near Eastern civilisation emerged a little way ahead of that of Africa's ancient Egypt, and up to a millennium before that of the Indus Valley culture.

Southern Mesopotamia (modern Iraq and the western edge of Iran) was subjected to permanent settlement during the Pottery Neolithic and, by the late fourth millennium BC, Sumer was divided into approximately a dozen city states, by which time other regions were emerging as population centres in their own right. Elam was located to the east of Sumer, with its own selection of city states at its core (and see feature link).

This region was located on an alluvial plan below the Zagros mountains, and its remoteness meant that it took some time for it to assimilate Sumer's groundbreaking social, agricultural, and administrative inventions. Access to Sumer was in the Zagros foothills, circling the marshes, but this meant difficulties in communication, and a feeling in Sumer of there being comparative barbarians on their eastern flank.

Culturally, 'Old Elamite' kingdoms achieved less than their more advanced neighbours, and imported much of what they needed, including writing from Sumer and architecture from the later city and empire of Babylon. Elamite records are also extremely sparse in recording local events, and large areas of its history are almost totally unknown except through Sumerian records.

Urua was a city (and possible city state at certain times) in western Elam. The name is usually attached to the cuneiform translation of URUxA which is generally rendered as Uru'aza. The shortened form of the name should not be confused with a lesser Urua settlement which was also located somewhere in the same region.

The city's location is unknown, although Sumerian texts make it clear that it was located in western Elam. Best guesses place it relatively close to Susa and to the north-west of Anshan, based on the line of advance shown in the campaigns of Eannatum in the twenty-fifth century BC and those of Sargon and his successors in the twenty-fourth and twenty-third centuries BC.

Principal author(s): Page created: Page last updated:

(Information by Peter Kessler, with additional information from Encyclopaedia Britannica (Eleventh Edition, Cambridge (England), 1910), from The Sumerians: Their History, Culture, and Character, Samuel Noah Kramer ('List 1' of Sumerian rulers, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1963), from Historical Atlas of the Ancient World, 4,000,000 to 500 BC, John Heywood (Barnes & Noble, 2000), from The Ancient Near East, c.3000-330 BC, Amélie Kuhrt (Routledge, 2000, Vol I & II), from Cultural Atlas of Mesopotamia and the Ancient Near East, Michael Road (Facts on File, 2000), from Mesopotamia: Assyrians, Sumerians, Babylonians, Enrico Ascalone (Dictionaries of Civilizations 1, University of California Press, 2007), from The Archaeology of Elam, D T Potts (Cambridge University Press, 1999), from The Elamite World, Javier Álvarez-Mon, Gian Pietro Basello, & Yasmina Wick (Eds, Routledge, 2018), and from External Links: Some Thoughts in Neo-Elamite Chronology, Jan Tavernier (PDF), and the Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature, and Early Kings of Kish, Albrecht Goetze (Journal of Cuneiform Studies, Vol 15, No 3, 1961, pp 105-111 and available to read via University of Chicago Press Journals), and Archaeology.org.)

c.2440s BC

Eannatum of Lagash annexes virtually all of 'Post-Diluvian' Sumer, including Kish, Nippur, Umma, Uruk (briefly), Ur, and Larsa. In addition, he extends his realm to parts of Elam and along the Persian Gulf, apparently using terror as a matter of policy.

This terracotta foundation peg of Entemena of Lagash is dated between 2404-2375 BC, and mentions a treaty with the king of Uruk

'Elam "the high mountain" was smitten with weapons; mounds of corpses were piled up. Arawa, whose ensi had raised its standard, was smitten with weapons, mounds of corpses were piled up. Umma was smitten with weapons, twenty mounds of corpses were piled up. Uruk was smitten with weapons. Uru'aza was destroyed. Mishime was destroyed.'

fl c.2440s BC

Unnamed ensi of Urua. Killed by Lagash.

Some translations of the Eannatum texts state that 'Uru'aza was destroyed, its governor killed'. That position of city governor would have been ensi, which in late third millennium BC Sumer is indeed seen that way. The early centuries of the millennium would have classed him more as a ruler in his own right, while this point in the middle of the millennium is less clear in its usage of ensi.

Elamite cities on the plain to the east of Sumer benefited from direct contact, but cities with more easterly locations also swiftly caught up, connected into a network of trading routes which stretched east to the Indus and north to Hissar and the BMAC (click or tap on map to view at an intermediate size)

In time, Urur of Akshak leads a northern coalition against Eannatum but that is destroyed, with Akshak, along with Mari, recognising Lagash's supremacy. Only after Eannatum's reign, and a century later, is Lagash eclipsed by Umma under Lugalzaggesi, never again to be a great power.

c.2300 BC

Marhashi appears to become a dominant force to the east of Elam, but it is conquered by Sargon 'the Great' of Akkad after he has destroyed Urua (URUxA) and rampaged through Elamite lands. An inscription hails Sargon as 'king of the totality, slayer of Elam and Barahshum [Marhashi]'.

Elam appears to remain tributary to Akkad for the subsequent century, so it seems likely that Marhashi does too. Two inscriptions mention what would appear to be consecutive rulers of Awan, and therefore dominant rulers in Elam, while another probably places Akkad's governor in Susa: 'Sanamshimut, ensi (governor) of Elam', and 'Luhishan, son of Hishibrashini, lugal (king) of Elam'.

Sargon 'the Great', the warrior king of apparently humble origins, unified Sumer for (perhaps) the first time in recorded history through a series of campaigns and the defeat of the current holder of Sumer's equivalent of a high kingship

c.2094 BC

Shulgi of Ur extends his father's empire to include all of the Assyrian city states and their at-present non-Assyrian neighbours such as the Lullubi. He also re-conquers Susa (and Urua) from Elam and its Simashki rulers, and may be responsible for finishing off rebuilding work at Nippur.

In his twenty-sixth year, around 2068 BC, Shulgi attempts to forge an alliance between himself and the king of Marhashi. Perhaps this is to renew forty year-old ties of peace, but perhaps it is also to ward off a decline in relations. He gives his daughter, Nialimmidashu, in marriage to the king.

fl c.2080s/70s BC

Ensi (governor). Unnamed vassal of Shulgi of Ur.

Urua becomes a tax-paying province of Ur, with an appointed governor. Shulgi's wife, Nin-kalla, holds large estates there, while the couple's son, Etel-pū-Dagān, is known to be sent there to supervise sheep-sheering work. The city is a wool-production centre at this time.

The modern archaeological site of Tell Musiyan on the Deh Luran (or Dehloran) plain shown here in Khuzestan province, offers perhaps the best - and certainly most highly-favoured - option for identification as Urua

fl c.2030s BC

Ensi (governor). A vassal of Shu-Sin of Ur.

In the seventh year of the reign of Shulgi's grandson, Shu-Sin, an Ur text mentions 'tribute of Urua delivered by Sulgi-adamu, ensi of Urua'. This is two generations after the establishment of Ur's first ensi at Urua but the names of intervening ensi are unknown.

c.2004 BC

The waning Sumerian civilisation which has at its centre the city of Ur collapses entirely when the Elamite ruler, Kindattu, together with Simashki and the people of Susa, sacks the city and captures Ibbi-Sin.

Various regional cities soon establish themselves as petty states - including Ashur - and a good deal of regional chaos takes place over the next century or so. Urua disappears from history, apparently abandoned during this unsettled period.

The Zagros mountains in the vicinity of the modern city of Istfahan and the ancient city state of Simashki offer a wide variety of living environments