The third dynasty of Ur was also known as the (Sumerian Renaissance), coming after several centuries of Akkadian and Gutian kings. It controlled the cities of Isin, Larsa and Eshnunna.
Though documents again began to be written in Sumerian, the dynasty may actually have been Semitic; Sumerian was already becoming a dead language, much as Latin later would be in Medieval Europe. The power of these kings extended to the Mediterranean, and there have been found a large number of inscriptions of their reigns in the form of contracts and similar business documents, as well as chronological tables.
Ur-Nammu (originally a general) founded the dynasty. He had supplanted the king of Uruk, Utu-khegal, who himself had unseated the Gutian king Tirigan. Shulgi (2047 BC short chronology) received the throne of Ur from Ur-Nammu, and the succession of kings is documented down to Ibbi-Sin.
After the fall of the Ur III dynasty owing to an Elamite invasion in 2004 BC, Babylonia passed under foreign influence.
See also Sumerian king list.
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