A Day in the Life During the Ur III Period & 3rd Millennium

This student exhibit centres on and around the Ur III period—the 22nd to 21st century BC—in the region of the Sumerian Dynasty in southern Mesopotamia. Ur III takes place during the 3rd millennium and was one of the many heights in Mesopotamian complexity and evolution of urbanism in the city-state of Ur. The reason we focused on Ur III and the 3rd millennium is because it was the beginning of increase urbanism and complexity in southern Mesopotamia with city-states and early ”empires” forming such as the Sumerians and Akkadians.

Southern Mesopotamia is a desert-like environment, making scaling of population and urbanism reliant on irrigation and trade of resources to produce surpluses that could promote an increase in development. The replicas on display come from a range of city-states that were part of the Sumerian Dynasty. These items capture various aspects of daily life during ancient southern Mesopotamia’s expansions and collapses. By studying ancient southern Mesopotamia, we can learn about how these city-states and ”empires” evolved and collapsed to apply them current events and society.