Surprising fact: the oldest surviving law code was written at Ur—centuries before Hammurabi.
Its roots lie in a place.
Sumer’s river cities—Ur, Uruk, Lagash—linked by canals and trade, strained by floods, rivalries, and Akkad’s collapse.
In this charged landscape, temple estates and scribal courts organized life.
Here, Ur-Nammu emerged, unifying cities, rebuilding Ur, and inscribing rules in clay.