At the beginning of Ibbi-Sin’s reign, the Third Dynasty of Ur was still fully functional. The dating formulas of this period prove this stability, commemorating victories over Simurrum and Huhnur (in the Zagros) and an inter-dynastic marriage with Zabshali. Soon after this, however, the dynasty began to show the first symptoms of a political and economic crisis. First, the tradition, attested in many city-states, of using Ibbi-Sin’s dating formulas as a sign of their dependence on Ur began to disappear. The process started in the east of the empire. Eshnunna stopped during Ibbi-Sin’s second regnal year, Susa in his third, Lagash in his fifth, Umma in his sixth, and Nippur in his seventh. Around the ruler’s seventh year, provincial governors ceased to provide offerings to the gods of Ur. In the previous year, several restoration works are attested on the fortification walls of Ur and Nippur. In other words, by Ibbi-Sin’s seventh regnal year, the ruler’s kingdom was reduced to his capital and a few other territories. The situation was further worsened by an agricultural crisis which severely damaged the supply systems supporting the Mesopotamian cities. As a result of this scarcity of goods, the prices of basic products increased dramatically.
If the administrative texts carefully recorded these changes, literary texts provided two main explanations for this crisis. First of all, there were natural factors, such as the weak floods of the Tigris and Euphrates. These led to difficulties in irrigation and famine. Second, there were the incursions of barbarian groups. On the one hand, there were the Martu, who had managed to overcome the wall constructed to keep them away. On the other, there were the Gutians and the people of Shimashki. They descended the Zagros and destroyed several Mesopotamian cities (such as Kish and Adab), reaching as far south as Eridu. Moreover, an Elamite incursion caused the fall of Lagash, located in the empire’s most vulnerable area.
A collection of royal letters, copied in the Old Babylonian period, informs us of this period of disintegration of central control. Ishbi-Erra, a functionary of Ibbi-Sin originally from Mari, was sent to the north (in the area of Isin and Kazallu) to find grain supplies for Ur. He wrote to his king stating that the operation was impossible because ‘all of the Martu have entered the midst of the land, seizing all the great fortresses one after the other.’ For this reason, Ishbi-Erra asked the king to be left in charge of the defence of Nippur and Isin. Ibbi-Sin confided to Ishbi-Erra that he was unable to face these dangers, as well as the breakdown of his empire, on his own. Ishbi-Erra, however, took advantage of this situation to become independent.
The Gutian and Amorite incursions only brought temporary destruction and invasions, but the Elamite occupation to the east, and the independence of the north under the newly founded kingdom of Isin, forced the empire to shrink back into a city-state. It is difficult to understand why Ibbi-Sin was unable to fight back, and whether an economic and political crisis preceded or followed the various military attacks on the empire. The literary sources consider the two factors of equal importance. They interpret the various aspects of the crisis as an expression of the gods’ decision to abandon their cities and determine the fall of Ur. The city’s collapse, however, was not seen as due to a sin committed by its rulers, but simply because: ‘Ur was indeed given kingship, but not an eternal reign! From time immemorial, when the land was founded and until the population multiplied, who has ever seen a reign whose kingship was eternal?’
Ibbi-Sin’s rule lasted twenty-five years in total, up until Ur’s collapse. An Elamite attack against Ur brought Ibbi-Sin to seek refuge within its walls. The city was besieged for a long time, until it collapsed for lack of food supplies. The Elamites broke into the city and plundered it. They profaned its most sacred temples, captured Ibbi-Sin and imprisoned him in Susa. For a while, Ur became an Elamite garrison, until a change in divine support (that is the interpretation given in the sources) brought about its liberation and restoration under Ishbi-Erra. In the later accounts found in collections of omens, Ibbi-Sin’s name became synonymous with misfortune and destruction: ‘omen of Ibbi-Sin, in whose reign Elam reduced Ur to rubble,’ or simply ‘destruction omen of Ibbi-Sin.’
The destruction of Ur, which a few years earlier was the empire’s capital and the most powerful city in the known world, had an enormous impact. The ‘Lamentation over the Destruction of Ur’ (Text 10.1) is a long composition written when the reconstruction of the city and its political recovery had already begun (since the text itself ends predicting this recovery). However, the account was close enough to the events surrounding the collapse to provide an organic theological interpretation of it. Despite this theological interpretation, it is still possible to detect some reliable historical information in the text. For instance, there is the division of the crisis into two phases: first, there was a general crisis of the empire (described for each city); and then the destruction of its capital. All aspects of the crisis are described, from the natural phenomena to the agricultural, legal, cultic, political, and military causes of the collapse.
World History
