The historical geography of Southern Mezopotamia in Ur III Period

After almost 50 years following the fall of the Kingdom of Akkad, the Ur III State which exert dominance in the region constituted the last Sumerian Period. The borders of this state, which was not limited to southern Mesopotamia, extended to the region of Diyala and to the city of Assyria in the north, perhaps to the Elam territory. The Ur kings appointed governors called ensi in places where they gain dominance. According to the Sumerian King List, the Ur kings reigned for 108 years in total. When the last of these kings, İbbi-Suen were defeated by Elamites and Gutians, the Ur III State ended up. Thanks to the archaeological excavations, thousands of tablets that enlighten on Ur III Period have been reached. Many of them have come from large cities such as Girsu, Nippur, Puzurş-Dagan, Umma. A large number of the Ur III inscriptions which are spread all over the world are now read and published. Some of the Ur III Era cities were discovered through tablets that were seized. Although many of the places in the texts are unclear, significant developments are recorded concerning their locations thanks to new the findings and researches. For this reason, in our thesis, the opinions about places whose locations are known for certain and uncertain are presented in two groups. In the first group, topics such as how cities are discovered, their locations, their geography and their position in Ur III Period have been mentioned. In the second group, geographical evaluations were made about places whose locations are unknown. Also, maps have been added as visual supporters in our study.