Year
11 Ancient History: Semester 1
White’s Hill College, Camp Hill, Qld
The greatest insight into the life of the ancient Sumerians in the history of achaeology was provided by Leonard Woolley’s excavations at Ur.
The history of archaeology is a relatively short one, but it is comprised of many great discoveries. One of the most paramount of excavations in history occurred at the ruins of the ancient Sumerian city of Ur, in 1922 to 1934, and was directed by Leonard Woolley. What he found there threw a bright light onto the previously dark past, and greatly expanded our knowledge and understanding of life in ancient Sumer.
But where exactly was the land of ancient Sumer? What was Sumer is now lower Iraq, and is an area of desert that experiences extreme heat. However, studies have shown that conditions were much the same in the ancient times as well1. So why would anyone wish to build a civilisation in the middle of the desert? Where the cities of ancient Sumer were established wasn’t all desert: some were founded beside the banks of the Euphrates or Tigris Rivers, between its south-eastern border ended at the Persian Gulf, and its northern border where Iraq now joins onto Turkey2. Ur was at the southern end of Sumer, and was founded between 6000 and 5000 BCE. BCE being ‘Before Common Era,’ which is the equivalent of ‘Before Christ,’ and CE being ‘Common Era,’ which equates to the same year ‘Anno Domini’ or ‘After Death.’ Ur became home to over 30 000 people, making it one of the great metropolises of the third millennium BCE3. Ur reached its height in the 26th Century BCE as a cultural, religious and commercial centre. However, 600 years later, the city’s power diminished, and Ur eventually became abandoned in the 4th Century BCE when the Euphrates River changed its course and destroyed the river-trade that the city relied on4. Most of the artefacts that Woolley excavated came from around the time of Ur’s height.
Prior to Woolley’s excavations at Ur, we had little knowledge of life in Ancient Sumer. What we knew had been interpreted from a few literary compositions from ancient times, and from what little had been unearthed in previous excavations. However, our lack of understanding of ancient Sumer was to change in 1922. This was when Woolley directed the joint expedition between the University of Pennsylvania and the British Museum to Ur, in what was to become one of the larger excavations to ever be carried out5.
Over the course of the twelve years of the excavation, Woolley employed hundreds of workers and discovered some important artefacts. He uncovered the rest of Nanna’s ziggurat, and completely unearthed the entire temple area and whole quarters of the city. From these areas thousands of administrative and literary documents in the form of clay cuneiform tablets were found, all dating from between circa 2700 BCE to the 4th Century BCE. 6 Therefore even before his most amazing discoveries, Woolley had already contributed to what we knew of everyday life in Ur and ancient Sumer, through the layout of the city itself, and through documents from the time.
Although the unearthing of large areas of the city was an astounding feat of its own, it was overshadowed by the more spectacular discovery of the Royal Tombs of Ur. During the excavation of the cemetery in the south-eastern end of Ur, Woolley and his team found over 1 400 graves of people who were normal citizens of the state. Their social status is suggested by the artefacts that were found in the graves which were untouched by grave robbers. The graves contained ordinary items such as pots, jugs, tools and other trinkets7. However, from these ordinary items we have been able to learn about the life of the majority of the people of Ur in ancient times.
While Woolley was exploring the cemetery, at the bottom of one of the many shafts, evidently made by grave robbers8, he came across something extra-ordinary: A collection of weapons made from copper and adorned with gold and lapis lazuli – a bright blue semi-precious stone – and beneath his feet was a floor of limestone. This was extra-ordinary as the nearest deposits of limestone were at least 50 kilometres away9, and therefore must have been transported to the site. However, a more interesting fact is that although the limestone was originally thought to be a floor, a closer inspection revealed that it was actually a roof of a more deeply buried structure10. The structure was the tombs for the Kings and Queens or Ur, dating from circa 2700 to 2600 BCE and belonging to the same dynasty. The tombs were built from a combination of stone and brick, and were constructed using methods such as the vault, arch and dome, for possibly the first time in the history of architecture11. This tells us that the Sumerians were skilled builders, and had mastered concepts in areas of mathematics that are necessary to construct such forms of architecture.
In this structure, Woolley found sixteen tombs which he presumed to be royal, most of which had been disturbed by looters. From cylinder seals discovered next to some of the bodies, four could be identified12. There were two kings – Meskalamdug and Akalamdug – and two queens – Ninbanda who was Meskalamdug’s wife, and Pu-Abi, as their names read today. Pu-Abi’s tomb and that of an unnamed prince remained untouched by grave robbers, and it is in these two places where several of the great discoveries of ancient Sumerian culture occurred.
Queen Pu-Abi’s tomb was the most extravagant, and consisted of two chambers. She had been buried wearing an elaborate head-dress ornamented with various gold items, strands of lapis lazuli and beads of carnelian – a red type of chalcedony13. She was also adorned with necklaces, chokers, large earrings, and she had ten rings on her fingers. Around the chamber in which she was buried various metal, stone and pottery vessels were also found14. On examination of these vessels and jewellery, it is obvious that the Sumerians were quite skilled craftsmen, and that the kings and queens of that dynasty were wealthy enough to afford such items. However, a more intriguing discovery that was made is the customary ritual of human life evident which accompanies a royal burial. Next to Pu-Abi’s bier lay two women, evidently ladies-in-waiting, who had been buried with their Queen, and in the other chamber five soldiers and ten beautifully dressed ladies of the court were found15. This practice of human sacrifice wasn’t unusual, and in all of the tombs attendants of the deceased royal had been buried. The largest number of people sacrificed was in the unnamed prince’s tomb. Woolley and his team uncovered the remains of six men and sixty-eight women. Woolley dubbed the tomb the ‘Great Death Pit’.
But how and why were these sacrifices of human life made? Woolley felt that it was a willing sacrifice, as there was no evidence of a struggle.16 Further more, the bodies are neatly positioned with no sign of movement, which implies that the attendants walked into the tomb, took poison and then lay down. Perhaps the members of the court and other ‘victims’ considered it an honour to accompany and continue to serve their king or queen in the Underworld. This practice suggests that the Sumerians had religion, if they considered the death and beyond. Prior to these excavations, no one had suspected such complex rituals of the Sumerians, as texts from the time did not suggest that such burials occurred.
Another important artefact that was uncovered in the ‘Great Death Pit’ was one that has given us great insight into the Sumerian way of warfare. The Standard of Ur was a box of some kind, and on it are mosaics showing scenes of war and victory. Therefore, not only did Woolley’s excavations of the Royal Tombs act as an incredibly valuable source of information regarding the material culture and wealth of the ancient Sumerians, it told us of other aspects of their culture such as war and correct the misconceptions that existed regarding Sumerian religion. Now, many of Woolley’s findings from Ur can be found at the University of Pennsylvania, or at the British Museum in London. For his extraordinary work in the field digging up the past from in Sumer and other places, Leonard Woolley was knighted in 1935.
Archaeology has told us much about past cultures and life that cannot be deduced from written texts. One of the greatest archaeological excavations occurred at Ur, conducted by Leonard Woolley. Woolley uncovered much of the city of Ur, and found many artefacts that were used in everyday life thousands of years ago. The uncovering of the Royal Tombs of Ur is what Woolley would be best known for. He discovered several magnificent royal tombs, which threw light on the burial rituals of ancient times, suggesting a far more advanced religion than we had previously thought. From these findings the culture of the Sumerians could be interpreted, and our knowledge of those times was greatly advanced. Therefore, it was Leonard Woolley’s excavations at Ur which gave us greatest insight into the life of the ancient Sumerians that we have ever received.
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1
Estensen. Understanding Ancient Worlds. p. 26
2
Roebuck. The World of Ancient Times. p. 19
3
Life-Time Books. The Age of God-Kings. p. 22
4
Reader’s Digest Ass. Ltd. Reader’s Digest Book of Facts. p. 23
5
Encarta 99 (CD-ROM). ‘Archaeology’.
6
ibid. ‘Ur’.
7
8
Lloyd and Palmer. Archaeology, The Pegasus Book of. p. 41
9
ibid. p. 41
10
ibid. p. 41
11
Estensen. op. cit. p. 36
12
Time-Life Books. op. cit. p. 31
13
Estensen. op. cit. p. 38
14
ibid. p. 40
15 http://www.upenn.edu/museum/Collections/royaltombsoverview.html
16 Estensen. op. cit. p. 38
17 ibid. p. 39
Bibliography
‘Archaeology’. 1998, in Encarta Encyclopedia 99 (CD-ROM). Microsoft Corporation. 1999.
Estensen, Miriam G.; 1995. Understanding Ancient Worlds. New South Wales, Australia; Science Press.
Lloyd, N. and Palmer, G.; 1968. Archaeology, The Pegasus Book of. London, England; Dobson Books Ltd.
Reader’s Digest Book of Facts. 1994, 2nd ed. New South Wales, Australia; Reader’s Digest Association Far East Limited.
Roebuck, Carl; 1966. World of Ancient Times, The. United States of America; Charles Scribner’s Sons.
Roux, Georges; 1964. Ancient Iraq. Great Britian; Allen & Unwin Ltd.
Time-Life Books; 1987. Age of God-Kings, The. United States of America; Time-Life Books Inc.
‘Ur.’ 1998, in Encarta Encyclopedia 99 (CD-ROM). Microsoft Corporation. 1999.
‘Ur’. 1996. Family Encyclopedia of World History. London, England; Reader’s Digest Association Limited.
WORLD WIDE WEB
University of Pennsylvania. Available:
http://www.upenn.edu/museum/Collections/royaltombsoverview.html
Stevenson, S. and Bouchie, C.; Sir Leonard Woolley. Available:
http://emuseum.mnsu.edu/information/biography/uvwxyz/woolley_leonard.html