The Death of Ur-Nammu

the death of Ur-Namma and his descent to the nether world

Anonymous / tradition · c. 2040s BC (composed shortly after Ur-Nammu's death, in the early reign of Shulgi) · Ur (Iraq) · poetry

Mourning a king who died suddenly and, by the poem's own account, before his time, the text argues that even the founder of the Ur III dynasty arrives in the netherworld as a bewildered stranger, needing gifts and introductions to secure a decent place among its judges.