This post references two BAS articles and includes comparison maps.
Where Is Abraham’s Ur? by Cyrus H. Gordon at BSA published in 1977.
The following is Claude.ai’s summary of that article. The PDF is in the BAS directory in Dropbox.
Summary: “Where Is Abraham’s Ur?” by Cyrus H. Gordon
Gordon argues that the traditional identification of Abraham’s birthplace — “Ur of the Chaldees” — with Sumerian Ur in southern Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) is mistaken. The true Ur, he contends, lies in the Urfa-Haran region of south-central Turkey, near the Syrian border.
The Biblical Case
The geographic argument is straightforward: Genesis 11:31 describes Terah and Abram traveling from Ur of the Chaldees to Canaan, stopping at Haran along the way. Since Haran’s location is firmly established, any reasonable travel route to Canaan would not pass through southern Mesopotamia — Sumerian Ur is simply too far out of the way. Gordon also notes that Genesis 24 places Abraham’s homeland in Aram-Naharayim, and that crossing the Euphrates was necessary to reach Canaan from there — something unnecessary if departing from Sumerian Ur, which lies west of the river.
The Cuneiform Evidence
Critically, Sumerian Ur is never called “Ur of the Chaldees” in any cuneiform texts, despite thousands of references. The “of the Chaldees” designation was clearly meant to distinguish Abraham’s Ur from other cities of the same name, including the Sumerian one. An Akkadian tablet from Ugarit mentions a northern trading city called “Ura” (which would render as “Ur” in Hebrew), associated with the Hittite kingdom in Anatolia — a plausible candidate for the biblical site.
How the Error Took Hold
Gordon traces the confusion to the 19th-century decipherment of cuneiform inscriptions, which brought Sumerian Ur to scholarly attention, followed by C. Leonard Woolley’s spectacular excavations there. The glamour of those finds led scholars to associate them with Abraham, and the misidentification became entrenched — repeated so often it was accepted as fact even by experts who knew Sumerian Ur was never labeled “of the Chaldees.”
The Ebla Confirmation
Gordon concludes by welcoming a newly discovered Ebla tablet (c. 1976) that refers to “Ur in Haran,” calling it corroboration of what the biblical evidence already makes clear.
MLA Citation for the full article:
Gordon, Cyrus H. “Where Is Abraham’s Ur?” Biblical Archaeology Review 3.2 (1977): 20–21, 52.
Abraham’s Ur—Is the Pope Going to the Wrong Place? By Hershel Shanks.
The two paragraphs below are extracts from that article.
Gordon points to another objection: The southern Ur lies on the west bank of the Euphrates. Here’s why that matters: When Abraham was an old man, he sent his servant back to “the land of my birth”—Ur—to find a wife for his son Isaac (Genesis 24:4). Abraham’s obedient servant went back to the land of Abraham’s birth and there found Rebekah, Laban’s sister. (Actually, Laban is the first person to greet Abraham’s servant.) A generation later, Isaac’s son Jacob went back, presumably to Ur, to work for Laban. After working for Laban for 20 years, Jacob fled back to Canaan. To do so, however, he had to cross the Euphrates (Genesis 31:21). If Ur was on the west bank of the Euphrates, as the southern Ur is, it would not be necessary to cross the Euphrates to travel to Canaan. Ergo, the southern Ur cannot be the place that Abraham sent his servant.11
In addition, we are told that Laban lived in Paddan-Aram, in the Haran region (Genesis 28:2, 5, 6, 7). Scholars equate this with Aram-Naharaim, Abraham’s ancestral home (Genesis 24:10). Both terms refer, although somewhat vaguely, to areas in upper (northern) Mesopotamia, as indicated in other Biblical references.12
Citation – Biblical Archaeology Society. (n.d.). Abraham’s Ur: Is the Pope going to the wrong place? Biblical Archaeology Society Library. Retrieved November 15, 2024, from https://library.biblicalarchaeology.org/article/abrahams-ur-is-the-pope-going-to-the-wrong-place-2/
See the article by Gary Rensberg at TheTorah.com titled Ur Kasdim: Where Is Abraham’s Birthplace? that makes a case for Abraham not being from Ur of the Chaldees. This alternate is based on the reference to their homeland being “Beyond the River”. Ur of the Chaldees is not beyond the river but on the same side.
