It is with the last ruler of Ur III, Ibbi-Sîn, that the state began to collapse. A food
shortage combined with sky-rocketing food prices during the reign of Ibbi-Sîn indicate
the beginning collapse of the centralised administration (Sallaberger 1999 : 174 – 178 ).
Unfortunately, much of our information regarding the collapse of the Ur III state
comes from the Royal Correspondence of Ur (Michalowski 2011 b), a literary corres-
pondence that is only known from Old Babylonian copies. Whether the correspon-
dence is historically accurate cannot be established at this point.
It appears that one of Ibbi-Sîn’s generals, Isˇbi-Erra, decided to defect from Ibbi-Sîn
and established a new dynasty in the northern Babylonian city of Isin. The dynasties
of Isin and Larsa belong to a new era, the Old Babylonian period (c. 2003 – 1595 BC).
Some scholars refer to this period as the ‘Amorite age’ (Charpin 2004 ), because many
of the Old Babylonian kings were presumably of Amorite origin; the overwhelming
majority of Old Babylonian literature and royal inscriptions as well as year names
continued to be written in Sumerian. Scholars are still debating whether Sumerian had
died out as a spoken language in the Old Babylonian period. In fact, the majority of
Sumerian literature is known from tablets dating to the Old Babylonian period.
Nevertheless, Sumerian began a new life as a sacred language and continued to be used
for sacred texts until the end of the cuneiform tradition.
CONCLUSION
Writing about history and chronology of the late fourth and third millennia in
Mesopotamia shows that one cannot write one history but several histories that
together form a patchwork of information with varying degrees of certainty. Because
of these uncertainties, most scholars write cultural histories of early Mesopotamia that
focus on socio-economic, religious, or other aspects of early Mesopotamian history.
Here I have attempted to write a more linear history, whether successful or not is
unclear. A few general tendencies may be observed: because of the lack of reliable
information, historians frequently have to fill the gaps with suggestions, and often it
is not easy to separate fact from ‘fiction’. While this contribution has focused on
written sources, the archaeology may offer a different picture, and it is not always clear
what impact changes in political governance had on people that were not members of
the elites. But this has to remain subject to another study.FURTHER READING
General introductions into the early history and culture of Mesopotamia can be found
in Bauer et al. 1998 ; Crawford 1991 ; Nissen 1988 ; Pollock 1999 ; Postgate 1992 ; Sallaberger
and A. Westenholz 1999 ; Van De Mieroop 2007 ; Yoffee 2004.REFERENCES
Bauer, J. 1998. “Der Vorsargonische Abschnitt der Mesopotamischen Geschichte.” In Bauer et al.,
pp. 429 – 585.
Bauer, J., Englund, R.K., Krebernik, M. 1998. Mesopotamien. Späturuk-Zeit und Frühdynastische Zeit.
Annäherungen, 1. Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis, 160 / 1. Freiburg, Schweiz: Universitätsverlag.
Beld, S.G. 2002. “The Queen of Lagash: Ritual Economy in a Sumerian State.” Ph.D. dissertation,
University of Michigan. Ann Arbor: UMI.–– Nicole Brisch ––