Ur-Nammu, fl. 2060 B.C., king of the ancient city of Ur, sometimes called Zur-Nammu or Ur-Engur. He founded a new Sumerian dynasty, the third dynasty of Ur, that lasted a century. Ur-Nammu was the promulgator of the oldest code of law yet known, older by about three centuries than the code of Hammurabi. It consists of a prologue and seven laws; the prologue describes Ur-Nammu as a divinely appointed king who established justice throughout the land. This code is of great importance to the study of biblical law, which it predates by about five centuries. The two most famous monuments of Ur-Nammu's reign are the great ziggurat (temple) at Ur and his stele, of which fragments remain.

Ur, ancient city of Sumer, S Mesopotamia. The city is also known as Ur of the Chaldees. It was an important center of Sumerian culture (see Sumer) and is identified in the Bible as the home of Abraham. The site was discovered in the 19th cent., but it was not until the excavations of C. Leonard Woolley in the 1920s and 30s that a partial account of its history could be constructed. Remains found at the site seem to indicate that Ur existed as far back as the late Al Ubaid period (see Mesopotamia) and that the city was an important commercial center even before the first dynasty was established (c.2500 B.C.). Among the most important remains of the first dynasty, which has revealed a luxurious material culture, are the royal cemetery, where the standard of Ur was found, and the Temple of Ninhursag at Ubaid, bearing the inscriptions of the kings of the first dynasty. Ur was captured c.2340 by Sargon, and this era, called the Akkadian period, marks an important step in the blending of Sumerian and Semitic cultures. After this dynasty came a long period of which practically nothing is known except that a second dynasty rose and fell. The third dynasty was established c.2060 B.C. under King Ur-Nammu, who built the great ziggurat that has stood, although crumbled and covered with sand, throughout the centuries. An inscription in the Museum of the Ancient Orient in Istanbul was identified (1952) as a fragment of the code of Ur-Nammu. It predates the code of Hammurabi by 300 years and is the oldest known law code yet discovered. The third dynasty of Ur fell (c.1950 B.C.) to the Elamites and later to Babylon. The city was destroyed and rebuilt throughout the years by various kings and conquerors, including Nebuchadnezzar and Nabonidus in the 6th cent. About the middle of the 6th cent., Ur went into a decline from which it never recovered. A record dated 324 B.C. mentions it as being inhabited by Arabs, but by that time its existence as a great city was forgotten. The change in the course of the Euphrates, which had been the source of the city's wealth, probably contributed to the final decline of Ur. Ur is mentioned often in the Bible (Gen. 11.28,31; 15.7; Neh. 9.7) and was at one period known to the Arabs as Tall al-Muqayyar [mound of pitch].

Siglufjörður, town (1993 pop. 1,781), N Iceland, on the Greenland Sea. It is known as the capital of Iceland's herring industry.

Seyðisfjörður, town (1993 pop. 879), E Iceland, at the head of the Seyðisfjörður, an arm of the Norwegian Sea. It is a trade center and a fishing port.

Sacré-Cɶur, basilica in Paris, dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It is a famous landmark atop the Montmartre, from which it dominates the city. Built (1875-1914) by subscriptions as a votive offering after the Franco-Prussian War, it was consecrated in 1919 after World War I and has a patriotic as well as religious symbolic significance. Designed by the architect Paul Abadie, the basilica is a huge and harmonious edifice in the Byzantine-Romanesque style. Behind its tall dome rises a bell tower 276 ft (84 m) high.

Richard Cɶur de Lion: see Richard I, of England.

Neskaupstaður, town (1993 pop. 1,619), extreme E Iceland, on the Mjóifjörður, an arm of the Norwegian Sea. It is the chief town of E Iceland and a fishing port with freezing plants and fish-meal factories. It was chartered in 1929.

Isafjörður, town (1993 pop. 3,524), NW Iceland, on the Isafjarðardjúp, an arm of the Denmark Strait. It is a fishing port and has refrigeration plants, shrimp and fish-meal factories, shipyards, and machine workshops. It was chartered in 1866.

Hafnarfjörður, town (1993 pop. 16,787), SW Iceland, S of Reykjavík. It is a distribution, industrial, and fishing center with an excellent harbor. During the 15th and 16th cent. German and English traders fought over the port. The town was chartered in 1908.

Eyjafjörður, inlet of the Greenland Sea, longest (37 mi/60 km) and most scenic fjord in N Iceland. Akureyri is at its head.

Cɶur, Jacques, c.1395-1456, French merchant prince and adviser of King Charles VII, who made him chief of finances and sent him on important diplomatic missions. His reforms restored order to the confused financial situation brought about by the Hundred Years War. Cɶur established French trade in the Levant, employed agents throughout the Orient, owned factories and mines in France and abroad, and rivaled the great Italian merchant republics. Through his monopolies he amassed a fabulous fortune, but he spent a large part of it to finance the campaigns that ultimately drove the English from France. In 1451 he was arrested on the charge, concocted by his debtors and enemies, of having poisoned Agnès Sorel. He was sentenced (1453), after an unfair trial, to imprisonment and a fine of several million francs. In 1454-55 he escaped to Rome. He died in Chios while leading a papal fleet against the Ottomans. His house in Bourges, which still stands, is one of the finest examples of secular medieval architecture.

Cɶur de Lion: see Richard I, king of England.

Breiðafjörður, large inlet of the Denmark Strait, c.75 mi (120 km) long and 45 mi (70 km) wide, W Iceland, between the Vestfjarða and Snaefellsnes peninsulas. Hvammsfjörður and Gilsfjörður are eastern arms.

Boucher de Crèvecɶur de Perthes, Jacques, 1788-1868, French writer and archaeologist. He was the first to provide evidence that humans had existed in the Pleistocene epoch, thereby disputing the theory of diluvial catastrophism. He collected flint artifacts near Abbeville, France, and demonstrated that these manufactured objects came from the same stratum as Ice Age fauna. See Paleolithic period.

Ancient city and district, Sumer, southern Mesopotamia. It was situated on a former channel of the Euphrates River in what is now southern Iraq. One of the oldest cities of Mesopotamia, it was settled sometime in the 4th millennium BC. In the 25th century BC it was the capital of southern Mesopotamia under its first dynasty. Though it later declined, it again became important around the 22nd century BC. It is mentioned in the Bible (as Ur of the Chaldees) as the early home of Hebrew patriarch Abraham (circa 2000 BC). In subsequent centuries it was captured and destroyed by many groups, including the Elamites and Babylonians. Nebuchadrezzar II restored it in the 6th century BC. Excavations, especially in the 1920s and '30s, uncovered remains of great archaeological value.

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