Abstract

Few periods of human history can be understood in isolation, nor is it easy to understand the causes of historical change when using a microhistoical approach or without proper source criticism. The study of the Ur III period is burdened by all these issues. Students spend years working out the administrative system of labour management, or strategies for shepherding, and so forth, without asking why the system is as it is. Other scholars use literary or historical texts to understand the role of the king, or the origins of the dynasty without a firm grip of folkloristic or even historical methodology, and without questioning the point of view of the texts. In this talk I will suggest that the Third Dynasty of Ur, henceforth Ur III , is best understood as a predatory dynasty monopolising power in southern Babylonia in an aggressive attempt to establish suzerainty over Babylonia against the real political and military power of the period, the Elamites. I will try and show how this was a short-lived attempt eventually failing, and I will use simple statistics of the text distribution to show how the dramatic increase in the bureaucracy was a response to these failings.