ABSTRACT
The Amorites, “the Westerners,” from the west of the Mesopotamian plain, had been seen as partly alien foreigners and partly usefully aggressive generals under the Ur kings. They stayed around and became the leaders of practically every state in the second millennium. They worked their way into power by becoming indispensable military leaders and then replacing the kings of the old orders. These transitions were traumatic to some of the leading personalities of Ur, and yet in many ways there was considerable continuity between the administration and even the aspirations of the ruling classes.
