The Royal Cemetery of Ur and Its Treasures
By STAN PARCHIN
July 31, 2010
|
| Excavations in Pit X in the Royal Cemetery of Ur (1933-34). University of Pennsylvania Museum Archives. |
|
| Reconstructed scene in Tomb PG 789 just before the death of the royal retainers. Illustrated London News, June 23, 1928, 1172-1174. University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. |
|
| Mesopotamian, Sumerian, Early Dynastic IIIA (ca. 2550-2400 B.C.). Cylinder Seal and Modern Impression. Lapis lazuli. H. 4.2 cm (1.7 in.); Diam. 2.6 cm (1 in.). Mesopotamia, Ur, PG 800, Pit. University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. |
|
| Mesopotamian, Sumerian, Early Dynastic IIIA (ca. 2550-2400 B.C.). Spouted Bowl. Gold. H. 8 cm (3.1 in.). Mesopotamia, Ur, PG 800, Pit floor. University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. |
|
| Mesopotamian, Sumerian (ca 2550-2400 B.C.). Headdress and Jewelry of Queen Puabi (Comb, Hair Rings, Three Wreaths, Hair Ribbon and Earrings). Gold, lapis lazuli and carnelian. University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. |
The site of ancient Ur in present-day southern Iraq was excavated since the mid-19th Century. First explored by the British Museum and then, by the University of Pennsylvania Museum, it gained prominence in the 1920s when both institutions conducted a joint expedition directed by archaeologist C. Leonard Woolley (1880-1960). Unprepared for the fine gold jewelry he found in the city's Royal Cemetery in 1922, the scholar trained his team for four years to record its discoveries in meticulous field notes, plans, maps and photographs. Woolley's finds were legally divided among the host nation and the two museums. And he was awarded a knighthood for his contributions to archaeology in June 1935.
Ur and Its Royal Cemetery
Sumer in lower Mesopotamia was located between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. It was a land of agricultural and material wealth. An arid region of fertile alluvial soil, lagoons and waterways, Sumer possessed few natural resources. So its inhabitants cultivated a lively international trade network to provide the necessities for a vibrant commercial and artistic life. The prosperity Sumer enjoyed during its Early Dynastic period (ca. 2900-2250 B.C.) was not always accompanied by peace. Ur, on the banks of the Euphrates River, was an independent city-state of nearly 40,000 residents in 2600 B.C. that came to dominate Sumer by means of war.
By the 3rd Millennium B.C., Ur was ruled by kings in the service of the moon god Nanna. During its height, the Sumerians established a vast cemetery. Most of the grounds' 1,850 burials were simple inhumations of the rich and poor. Woolley described 16 of the tombs as royal because of their distinctive vaulted chambers, extraordinary contents and evidence of ritual, including human sacrifice. Indeed, some of the deceased were interred with retinues of attendants, musicians, charioteers and soldiers to serve them in the Underworld or act as gifts to placate the Mesopotamian deities and demons.
Cylinder seals were made of stone or another hard material such as gold or bronze. Their curved sides were carved with designs and cuneiform (wedge-shaped) writing. When the small seal was rolled across an impressionable substance, the engraving appeared in relief as a mirror image. Intricately incised cylinder seals found at Ur's cemetery helped archaeologists determine that several of its graves were regal.
The Tomb of Queen Puabi
Most of the Royal Cemetery's tombs were looted in antiquity or disturbed by later burials. Yet they yielded unimaginable artifacts in gold, electrum, silver, lapis lazuli, carnelian, agate and chalcedony. Astonishing metal and stone vessels were uncovered with pottery, tools, weaponry, jewelry and cosmetics.
The tomb of Queen Puabi (PG 800) survived virtually intact. When opened, it revealed her body on a wooden bier. Many attendants, guards and musicians who participated in her funerary ceremony surrounded the raised platform. Three cylinder seals made of lapis lazuli were found in the undisturbed burial. The two-line cuneiform inscription in Sumerian on one of them identified the queen's remains unambiguously.
Puabi was just under five feet tall and about 40 years old when she died. The queen was interred wearing an elaborate headdress of gold leaves and a tall comb. She was adorned with gold ribbons, strings of lapis lazuli and carnelian beads, a choker, a necklace and a pair of large crescent-shaped earrings. Puabi's upper body was draped with a sumptuous and heavy cape made from some 50 strands of glistening gold, silver, carnelian, agate and lapis lazuli beads. Ten gold rings decorated her fingers. An ornate diadem (band) of lapis lazuli beads and gold animal and plant pendants was discovered on a table near Puabi's head.
The Great Death Pit
Some of the cemetery's royal burials contained large numbers of retainers' bodies. The Great Death Pit (PG 1237), its tomb chamber destroyed, held the remains of 74 attendants; 68 were female. Among the site's contents were beads of gold, lapis lazuli and carnelian, exquisite jewelry, three musical lyres and two sculptures of a rearing goat with a flowering plant, each previously known as the Ram Caught in a Thicket (ca. 2550-2400 B.C.).
The Sumerians' complex art, jewelry, utilitarian objects and cuneiform texts reflect their belief systems, lifestyles and thoughts. It is through the Royal Cemetery of Ur's artifacts that a greater understanding of ancient Sumerian culture is possible.
Sources
Aruz, Joan and Ronald Wallenfels (eds.), et al. Art of the First Cities: The Third Millennium B.C. from the Mediterranean to the Indus (exh. cat.). New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2003, 21-37, 93-132.
Burrows, E.R., et al. The Royal Cemetery: A Report on the Predynastic and Sargonid Graves Excavated between 1926 and 1931. London: The British Museum, 1934.
Zettler, Richard L. and Lee Horne (eds.), et al. Treasures from the Royal Tombs of Ur (exh. cat.). Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, 1998, 20-72.
Permalink: http://artmuseumjournal.com/royal_cemetery_ur.aspx
