Ur Excavations Research Articles

THE ROYAL CEMETERY AT UR DURING THE SECOND HALF OF THE THIRD MILLENNIUM B.C.: POTTERY ANALYSIS THROUGH THE USE OF ARCHIVAL DATA, A CASE STUDY

The Royal Cemetery at Ur, with its almost two thousand graves, is one of the most impressive archaeological settings in southern Mesopotamia. Although most of the graves have been assigned to the Early Dynastic Period, more than three hundred graves have been dated to a timeframe from the Late Akkadian Period to the end of the third millennium B.C. However, the precise dating of many of these graves is under debate because stratigraphic data are often lacking, and the material culture used for dating has mainly been cylinder seals and other small finds. Due to the poor quality of the data published by Woolley, pottery has rarely been used to establish chronological determinants that could be useful in dating the graves. Thanks to theUr Digitization Project, the field records from the Ur excavations are now available online. Among them are theField Notes, which often contain pottery drawings, reproduced to scale. This paper re-analyses some of the graves in the Royal Cemetery at Ur that have been dated to the final part of the third millennium B.C. This analysis is based on a typological approach to the pottery assemblages that allows revised chronological determinants for dating selected grave contexts.

Ur Excavation Texts VI. Literary and Religious Texts, Third Part. By A. Shaffer. With a Contribution by Marie-Christine Ludwig. London: The British Museum Press, 2006. Pp. 36 + 100 pls. £45 (cloth).

<i>Ur Excavation Texts VI. Literary and Religious Texts, Third Part</i>. By A. Shaffer. With a Contribution by Marie-Christine Ludwig. London: The British Museum Press, 2006. Pp. 36 + 100 pls. £45 (cloth).

Ur Excavation Texts VI. Literary and Religious Texts, Third Part

<i>Ur Excavation Texts VI. Literary and Religious Texts, Third Part</i>

Depletion Gilding from Third Millennium BC Ur

Three chisels (Fig. 1), excavated by Woolley (1934) in the 1920s from an Early Dynastic III grave at Ur, and now in the British Museum, were believed to be made of solid gold. Recently, however, it was noticed that the gold surface was blistering in places, revealing coppery coloured metal beneath, suggesting that they were gilded.The chisels were from a very rich grave (PG 800), known as “the Queen's Grave”. It is attributed to Queen Pu-abi (in the original excavation report her name was mistakenly transcribed as Shub-ad) and dated to c. 2600 BC. Five chisels U. 10429–33 were found with a gold saw behind a large steatite bowl which contained various copper tools. Part of the material from this grave is now in the British Museum. Other items are in the University Museum, Philadelphia, including two of the gold chisels and the gold saw, and in the Iraq Museum, Baghdad. The purpose of these gold tools has never been fully explained; presumably they were symbolic rather than functional. The two small chisels in the British Museum appear to have had handles and the excavation report lists rings of gold binding (U. 10443) as “probably belonging to their [the gold tools] handles” (Woolley 1934, p. 81). Bitumen and wood handles were found on copper chisels from Ur. The larger chisel is burnished all over and appears not to have been hafted. A small chisel (U.9130) and spearhead (U.9122) from another grave (PG 580) were also examined (Figs. 2 and 4). The tools are here referred to by their Ur excavation numbers, as in Woolley's report. The British Museum Department of Western Asiatic Antiquities registration numbers are given in the concordance below.

Depletion gilding from Third Millennium BC Ur

Three chisels (Fig. 1), excavated by Woolley (1934) in the 1920s from an Early Dynastic III grave at Ur, and now in the British Museum, were believed to be made of solid gold. Recently, however, it was noticed that the gold surface was blistering in places, revealing coppery coloured metal beneath, suggesting that they were gilded.The chisels were from a very rich grave (PG 800), known as “the Queen's Grave”. It is attributed to Queen Pu-abi (in the original excavation report her name was mistakenly transcribed as Shub-ad) and dated to c. 2600 BC. Five chisels U. 10429–33 were found with a gold saw behind a large steatite bowl which contained various copper tools. Part of the material from this grave is now in the British Museum. Other items are in the University Museum, Philadelphia, including two of the gold chisels and the gold saw, and in the Iraq Museum, Baghdad. The purpose of these gold tools has never been fully explained; presumably they were symbolic rather than functional. The two small chisels in the British Museum appear to have had handles and the excavation report lists rings of gold binding (U. 10443) as “probably belonging to their [the gold tools] handles” (Woolley 1934, p. 81). Bitumen and wood handles were found on copper chisels from Ur. The larger chisel is burnished all over and appears not to have been hafted. A small chisel (U.9130) and spearhead (U.9122) from another grave (PG 580) were also examined (Figs. 2 and 4). The tools are here referred to by their Ur excavation numbers, as in Woolley's report. The British Museum Department of Western Asiatic Antiquities registration numbers are given in the concordance below.

New Sumerian Literary Texts from Tell Haddad (Ancient Meturan): A First Survey

The excavations of the State Organization in Tell Haddad-Meturan were part of the great salvage project in the Hamrin area. Though they were conducted under difficult circumstances they were amongst the most fruitful enterprises of the project, especially from the epigraphic point of view. Among other things a relatively large number of tablets from the OB period was excavated. Most of them are Akkadian and of economic content, and will be published in due course by several of our colleagues. A fragment of the “Laws of Ešnunna” has already been published by one of us (F. Al-Rawi, Sumer 38 [1983], 117–120). There is also a certain number of lexical texts, but the greatest surprise was caused by the discovery of a relatively large number of Sumerian “literary” texts (in the broad sense of the term literary, including magic etc.), the first important find of this kind since the Ur excavations (cf. Gadd and Kramer, UET VI/I and VI/2), and the first made by an Iraqi excavation. We have had the great privilege to be entrusted with the publication of these tablets. They will soon be published in a TIM (Texts from the Iraq Museum) volume under the authority of the State Organization, some particularly important pieces being also edited independently in separate articles. We will undertake here a survey specifically of the Sumerian corpus; to clarify the exposition we shall also use a small part of the information kindly communicated to us by the excavators and by the colleagues who are studying the rest of the tablets, though this is not an anticipation of the final publication, either archaeological or philological. Once all the texts are published there will remain an interesting study to be done about their precise dating, and their grouping into coherent archives, also no doubt interesting conclusions on the function of the texts and of the buildings. Such study will be made possible by the exact documenting of the find-spots of each individual text, even of small fragments, which has been made by the excavators.

Unpublished Early Dynastic Sealings from Ur in the British Museum

Some years ago at the request of Dr. R. D. Barnett, then Keeper of Western Asiatic Antiquities, Mrs. Diane Gurney prepared drawings of unpublished sealings from Ur in the British Museum for a supplementary volume in the Ur Excavation Series. At the same time she also did revised drawings of a few sealings already published by Legrain in Ur Excavations III: Archaic Seal-Impressions (London, 1936). As the proposed supplementary volume has been cancelled, Mrs. Gurney's careful drawings are published here with a revision of the short catalogue and commentary which I originally wrote to accompany them. The complexity of the task facing Legrain was formidable and must never be forgotten. Criticism of his impressionistic, often idiosyncratic, renderings of these designs is all too easy. The decipherment of details is often hard enough; but it is the restoration of complete designs that is so testing of eye, hand and judgement. Those compositions combining geometric motifs or cuneiform signs, sometimes both, with representations of men, animals and objects are particularly hard to unravel. Sometimes not only the exact frame of a design, but even its orientation, is in doubt. Nor yet have we actual cylinders carved with the most intricate of such designs to guide us.In preparing her drawings Mrs. Gurney first produced a provisional pencil sketch. After independent study of the sealing, I discussed this initial copy with her, resolving as far as possible any points at issue. Then the drawings were completed in ink, with any details which remained obscure rendered in broken line. Since the drawings best speak for themselves, catalogue descriptions have been reduced to a minimum. As far as possible cross-reference has been made to Legrain's pioneer study. His introductory remarks and his analysis of decorative motifs are as relevant to the sealings here as to his selection. This supplement adds nothing of substance; but it offers an opportunity for students to contrast another hand and eye to Legrain's in one of the most important groups of sealings yet found in Iraq.

Sir Leonard Woolley and Sir Max Mallowan (ed. T. C. Mitchell): Ur excavations VII: The Old Babylonian period. London: British Museum Publications Ltd., 1976. 278 pp., 129 pls., 44 figs. £45.00.

Sir Leonard Woolley and Sir Max Mallowan (ed. T. C. Mitchell): Ur excavations VII: The Old Babylonian period. London: British Museum Publications Ltd., 1976. 278 pp., 129 pls., 44 figs. £45.00. - Volume 52 Issue 206

Ur Excavations, Vol. VII. The Old Babylonian Period. By Sir Leonard Woolley and Sir Max Mallowan (edited by T. C. Mitchell). (Publication of the Joint Expedition of the British Museum and the Museum of the University of Pennsylvania to Mesopotamia.) 33 × 23 cm. Pp. xviii + 260 + 129 pls. + 44 text figs. London: published for the Trustees

Ur Excavations, Vol. VII. The Old Babylonian Period. By Sir Leonard Woolley and Sir Max Mallowan (edited by T. C. Mitchell). (Publication of the Joint Expedition of the British Museum and the Museum of the University of Pennsylvania to Mesopotamia.) 33 × 23 cm. Pp. xviii + 260 + 129 pls. + 44 text figs. London: published for the Trustees of both museums by British Museum Publications Limited, 1975. £45·00. - Volume 58 Issue 2

Ur Excavation Texts VI: Literary and Religious Texts, Second Part. C. J. Gadd , S. N. Kramer

Previous articleNext article No AccessBook ReviewsUr Excavation Texts VI: Literary and Religious Texts, Second Part. C. J. Gadd , S. N. Kramer Robert D. BiggsRobert D. Biggs Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Journal of Near Eastern Studies Volume 29, Number 1Jan., 1970 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/372047 Views: 1Total views on this site Copyright 1970 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Ur Excavations, Volume VIII, the Kassite Period and the Period of the Assyrian Kings

Ur Excavations, Volume VIII, the Kassite Period and the Period of the Assyrian Kings

Ur Excavations IX, The Neo-Babylonian and Persian Periods by Sir Leonard Woolley, with a contribution by Professor M. E. L. Mallowan. London: Publications of the Joint Expedition of the British Museum and of the University Museum, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, to Mesopotamia. Published for the Trustees of the Two Museums, 1962. 151 pp., 72 pls., 1 fig. £5 15s. 6d.

Ur Excavations IX, The Neo-Babylonian and Persian Periods by Sir Leonard Woolley, with a contribution by Professor M. E. L. Mallowan. London: Publications of the Joint Expedition of the British Museum and of the University Museum, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, to Mesopotamia. Published for the Trustees of the Two Museums, 1962. 151 pp., 72 <i>pls.</i>, 1 <i>fig.</i> £5 15<i>s</i>. 6<i>d</i>.

(L.) Woolley Ur excavations. Vol. ix. The Neo-Babylonian and Persian periods. With a contrib. by M. E. L. Mallowan. London: the British Museumfor the Trustees of the British Museum and of the University Museum, Pennsylvania. 1962. Pp. xii + 139. 72 plates. £5 15s 6d.

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Ur Excavations, Vol. IX. The Neo-Babylonian and Persian Periods. By Sir Leonard Woolley.

<i>Ur Excavations, Vol. IX. The Neo-Babylonian and Persian Periods</i>. By Sir Leonard Woolley.

Ur Excavations. Volume IX. The Neo-Babylonian and Persian Periods

Ur Excavations. Volume IX. The Neo-Babylonian and Persian Periods

Ur-al 'Ubaid, 'Uqair and Eridu. An Interpretation of Some Evidence from the Flood-Pit

The publication in 1955 of the fourth volume of Sir Leonard Woolley's Ur Excavations series set a coping-stone upon the remarkable edifice of recorded research which he and his collaborators in the “Combined Expedition” have achieved. This volume deals finally with the pre-Third Dynasty discoveries, other than those connected with the Royal Cemetery. But, having in the sequence of publications given precedence to Volume V ( The Ziggurat and its Surroundings ), its appearance has been long delayed, and, as explained in a foreword, it has now proved necessary to publish the original text as prepared for printing in 1935, almost without reference to the bearing which subsequent work in the same field has had upon its contents. Clearly its usefulness will be greatly enhanced if this omission can gradually be repaired; and though an attempt can hardly be made to do so with a standard of thoroughness comparable to that of the original work, the following notes are intended as a small contribution. They concern the discoveries connected with the Al ‘Ubaid period at Ur and the light thrown upon them by subsequent finds, particularly at the sites of Tell ‘Uqair and Tell Abu Shahrein (Eridu).

Ur Excavations: The Royal Cemetery Special Announcement

Previous articleNext article No AccessUr Excavations: The Royal Cemetery Special AnnouncementW. F. A.W. F. A. Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Bulletin of the American Society of Overseas Research Volume 151October 1958 A journal of the American Schools of Oriental Research Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/BASOR1355895 Views: 1Total views on this site Journal History This article was published in the Bulletin of the American School of Oriental Research (1921-2021), which is continued by the Bulletin of the American Schools of Overseas Research (2022-present). PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

UR EXCAVATIONS, VOL. IV: THE EARLY PERIODS. By Sir Leonard Woolley. British Museum, 1956. £5 15s.

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Ur Excavations. Vol. IV, The Early Periods. A Report on the sites and objects prior in date to the Third Dynasty of Ur discovered in the course of the excavations. By Sir Leonard Woolley. 12¾×9¼ Pp. 225 + pls. 83. Published for the Trustees of the British Museum and of the Museum of the University of Pennsylvania by aid of

Ur Excavations. Vol. IV, The Early Periods. A Report on the sites and objects prior in date to the Third Dynasty of Ur discovered in the course of the excavations. By Sir Leonard Woolley. 12¾×9¼ Pp. 225 + pls. 83. Published for the Trustees of the British Museum and of the Museum of the University of Pennsylvania by aid of a grant from the Johnson Fund of the American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, 1955. £5. 15s. - Volume 37 Issue 1-2

Ur Excavations, Volume X, Seal Cylinders. By Dr. L. Legrain.

<i>Ur Excavations, Volume X, Seal Cylinders</i>. By Dr. L. Legrain.