Editing Ur (section)

== Archaeology ==
[[File:Rawlinson's March 1854 letter to The Athenaeum announcing his reading of the Nabonidus cylinders which connected Muqeyer or "Um Qeer" with Ur of the Chaldees.jpg|thumb|left|[[Sir Henry Rawlinson, 1st Baronet|Rawlinson]]'s March 1854 letter to ''[[The Athenaeum (British magazine)|The Athenaeum]]'' announcing his reading of the Nabonidus cylinders which connected Muqeyer or "Um Qeer" with the name Ur<ref>{{cite book | last1=Frame | first1=G. | last2=Jeffers | first2=J. | last3=Pittman | first3=H. | title=Ur in the Twenty-First Century CE: Proceedings of the 62nd Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale at Philadelphia, July 11–15, 2016 | publisher=Penn State University Press | year=2021 | isbn=978-1-64602-151-2 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ipmYEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA35 | access-date=2024-01-05|page=37}}</ref>]]

{{multiple image |align=right |direction=vertical |width=
 |image1=OLD tar (like our cement or mortar) but 2500 - 6000 y.o..JPG |caption1=Bitumen "mortar" among Ur's mudbricks
 |image2=Ur excavations (1900) (14767185992).jpg |caption2=Circular groups of bricks excavated in 1900
}}
 
In 1625, the site was visited by [[Pietro Della Valle]], who recorded the presence of ancient bricks stamped with strange symbols, cemented together with [[bitumen]], as well as inscribed pieces of black marble that appeared to be [[Seal (emblem)|seals]]. He retrieved several inscribed bricks.<ref>P. Delia Valle, "Les fameux voyages de Pietro Delia Valle, gentil-homme Romain, surnomm? l'illustre voyageur", Vol. 4, Paris, 1663-1665</ref> European archaeologists did not identify Tell el-Muqayyar as the site of Ur until [[Sir Henry Rawlinson, 1st Baronet|Henry Rawlinson]] successfully deciphered some bricks from that location, brought to England by [[William Loftus (archaeologist)|William Loftus]] in 1849.<ref name="Loftus" >William Loftus, [https://archive.org/download/travelsresearche00loft/travelsresearche00loft.pdf ''Travels and researches in Chaldæa and Susiana; with an account of excavations at Warka, the Erech of Nimrod, and Shúsh, Shushan the Palace of Esther, in 1849-52''], J. Nisbet and Co., 1857</ref><ref>Crawford 2015, p. 3.</ref>

The site was first excavated in 1853 and 1854, on behalf of the [[British Museum]] and with instructions from the [[Foreign Office]], by [[John George Taylor]], British [[vice consul]] at [[Basra]] from 1851 to 1859.<ref>[https://ia801907.us.archive.org/15/items/jstor-25228658/25228658.pdf] J.E. Taylor, "Notes on the Ruins of Muqeyer", Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, vol. 15, pp. 260–276, 1855.</ref><ref>[https://archive.org/download/jstor-25228662/25228662.pdf] JE Taylor, "Notes on Abu Shahrein and Tel-el-Lahm", Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, vol. 15, pp. 404–415, 1855. [In the relevant publications he is erroneously listed as J. E. Taylor].</ref><ref>E. Sollberger, "Mr. Taylor in Chaldaea", ''Anatolian Studies'', vol. 22, pp. 129–139, 1972.</ref> Taylor uncovered the [[Ziggurat of Ur]] and a structure with an arch later identified as part of the "Gate of Judgment".<ref name=Crawford4>Crawford 2015, p. 4.</ref> Among the finds were copies of a standard cylinder of [[Nabonidus]], Neo-Babylonian ruler, mentioning the prince regent Belshar-uzur, usually thought to be the [[Belshazzar]] of the [[Book of Daniel]] in the Hebrew Bible.<ref>Langdon, S., "New Inscriptions of Nabuna’id", The American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures, vol. 32, no. 2, pp. 102–17, 1916</ref> Between 1854 and 1918 locals excavated over two hundred tablets from the site, mostly from the temple Ê-nun-maḫ, of the moon god Sin.<ref>Grice, E. M., "Records from Ur and Larsa Dated in the Larsa Dynasty", YOS 5, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1919</ref> Built by the Ur III ruler [[Ur-Nammu]], the ziggurat was later repaired by Isin ruler [[Ishme-Dagan]] early in the 2nd millennium BC.<ref>Clayden, Tim, "Ur in the Kassite Period", Babylonia under the Sealand and Kassite Dynasties, edited by Susanne Paulus and Tim Clayden, Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, pp. 88-124, 2020</ref> Stamped bricks on the ziggurat detail the rebuilding of the temple of [[Ningal]] by 14th century BC Kassite ruler [[Kurigalzu I]].<ref>T. Clayden, "The Date of the Foundation Deposit in the Temple of Ningal at Ur", Iraq, vol. 57, pp. 61–70, 1995</ref>

Some cuneiform tablets were found. Thirty four of these tablets were inadvertently mixed in with those excavated at [[Kutalla]]. Only in recent years has this error been recognized.<ref>Charpin, Dominique, "Archives familiales et propriéte privée en Babylonie ancienne: étude des documents de" Tell Sifr", Vol. 12, Librairie Droz, 1980</ref> Typical of the era, his excavations destroyed information and exposed the [[Tell (archaeology)|tell]]. Natives used the now loosened, 4,000-year-old bricks and tile for construction for the next 75&nbsp;years, while the site lay unexplored,<ref name="wool65" /> the British Museum having decided to prioritize archaeology in [[Assyria]].<ref name=Crawford4 />

The site was considered rich in remains, and relatively easy to explore. After some soundings were made during a week in 1918 by [[Reginald Campbell Thompson]], [[Henry Hall (Egyptologist)|H. R. Hall]] worked the site for one season (using 70 Turkish prisoners of war) for the British Museum in 1919, laying the groundwork for more extensive efforts to follow. Some cuneiform tablets from the Isin-Larsa period were found, including omen and medical texts. They are now in the British Museum.<ref>H. R. Hall, "The Excavations of 1919 at Ur, el-'Obeid, and Eridu, and the History of Early Babylonia", Man, Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. 25, pp. 1–7, 1925.</ref><ref>H. R. Hall, "Ur and Eridu: The British Museum Excavations of 1919", Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, vol. 9, no. 3/4, pp. 177–195, 1923.</ref><ref>Hall, H. R., "A Season’s Work at Ur, Al-‘Ubaid, Abu Sharain (Eridu), and Elsewhere Being an Unofficial  Account  of  the  British  Museum  Archaeological  Mission  to  Babylonia, 1919", London: Methuen Co. Ltd., 1930</ref>

[[File:Ur from the Air.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|left|Aerial photograph of Ur in 1927]]
Excavations from 1922 to 1934 were funded by the [[British Museum]] and the [[University of Pennsylvania]] and led by the [[archaeologist]] Sir [[Charles Leonard Woolley]].<ref>Woolley, C. L., "Excavations at Ur of  the Chaldees", Antiquaries Journal, 3, pp. 312–333 and pl. XXIV, 1923</ref> The last two seasons focused on closing the site properly.<ref>Leonard Woolley, ''Ur: The First Phases'', Penguin, 1946.</ref><ref name='wool65'>Leonard Woolley, ''Excavations at Ur: A Record of Twelve Years' Work'', Apollo, 1965, {{ISBN|0-8152-0110-9}}.</ref><ref>Leonard Woolley and P. R. S. Moorey, ''Ur of the Chaldees: A Revised and Updated Edition of Sir Leonard Woolley's Excavations at Ur'', [[Cornell University Press]], 1982, {{ISBN|0-8014-1518-7}}.</ref> A total of about 1,850 burials were uncovered, including 16 that were described as "[[Royal Cemetery at Ur|royal tombs]]" containing many valuable artifacts, including the [[Standard of Ur]]. Most of the royal tombs were dated to about 2600 BC. The finds included the unlooted tomb of a queen thought to be Queen [[Puabi]] (formerly transcribed as Shub-ab), known from a cylinder [[Seal (emblem)|seal]] found in the tomb, although there were two other different and unnamed seals found in the tomb. Many other people had been buried with her, in a form of human sacrifice.<ref>{{cite book |chapter-url=https://oi.uchicago.edu/sites/oi.uchicago.edu/files/uploads/shared/docs/Publications/SAOC/saoc71.pdf |first=Paul C. |last=Zimmerman |chapter=Two Tombs or Three? PG 789 and PG 800 Again! |editor-first=Mark |editor-last=Altaweel |title=From sherds to landscapes |pages=283–296 |series=Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilization |volume=71 |location=Chicago |publisher=[[Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures]] |year=2021 |isbn=978-1-61491-063-3 }}</ref> Near the [[ziggurat]] were uncovered the temple E-nun-mah and buildings E-dub-lal-mah (built for a king), E-gi-par (residence of the high priestess) and E-hur-sag (a temple building).

Outside the temple area, many houses used in everyday life were found. Excavations were also made below the royal tombs layer: a {{convert|3.5|m|ft|adj=mid|-thick}} layer of [[alluvial]] clay covered the remains of earlier habitation, including [[pottery]] from the [[Ubaid period]], the first stage of settlement in southern Mesopotamia. Woolley later wrote many articles and books about the discoveries.<ref>{{cite book | last = Beck | first = Roger B. |author2=Linda Black |author3=Larry S. Krieger |author4=Phillip C. Naylor |author5=Dahia Ibo Shabaka | title = World History: Patterns of Interaction | publisher = McDougal Littell | year = 1999 | location = Evanston, IL | url =https://archive.org/details/mcdougallittellw00beck| url-access = registration | isbn = 0-395-87274-X }}</ref> One of Woolley's assistants on the site was the British [[archaeologist]] [[Max Mallowan]].<ref>Mallowan, M. E. L., "Memories of  Ur", Iraq 22, pp. 1–19, 1960</ref>

A number of royal inscriptions were found during the Woolley excavations.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/ur-excavation-texts-i.-royal-inscriptions.-text] C. J. Gadd & L. Legrain, with contributions by Sidney Smith and E. R. Burrows, "Royal Inscriptions", UET 1, London, 1928</ref><ref>E. Sollberger, "Royal Inscriptions Part II", UET 8, London, 1965</ref> Numerous cuneiform tablets were also recovered. These included archives, temple and domestic, from the Early Dynastic and Sargonic periods,<ref>[https://archive.org/details/ur-excavation-texts-ii.-archaic-texts] E. Burrows, "Archaic Texts", UET 2, London, 1935</ref><ref>Alberti, A./F. Pomponio, "Pre-Sargonic and Sargonic Texts from Ur Edited in UET 2, Supplement", Studia Pohl Series Minor 13, Rome, 1986</ref><ref>Visicato, G./A. Westenholz, "An Early Dynastic Archive from Ur Involving the Lugal", Kaskal 2, pp. 55–7, 2005</ref><ref>Saadoon, Abather and Kraus, Nicholas, "The Lost Months of Ur: New Early Dynastic and Sargonic Tablets from the British Museum", Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und vorderasiatische Archäologie, vol. 114, no. 1, pp. 1-11, 2024</ref> the Ur III period,<ref>L. Legrain, "Business Documents of the Third Dynasty of Ur. Plates", UET 3, London, 1937</ref><ref>[https://archive.org/details/economic-texts-from-the-third-dynasty] D.  Loding, "Economic Texts from the Third  Dynasty", UET 9, Philadelphia, 1976</ref> Old and Middle Babylonian period,<ref>H. H. Figulla & W. J. Martin, "Letters and Documents of the Old-Babylonian Period", UET 5, London, 1953</ref><ref>O. R. Gurney, "Middle Babylonian Legal Documents and Other Texts", UET 7, London, 1974</ref> and the Neo-Babylonian and Persian periods.<ref>H. Figulla, "Business Documents of the New Babylonian Period", UET 4, London, 1949</ref> Many literary and religious texts were also recovered.<ref>C. J. Gadd & S. N. Kramer, "Literary and Religious Texts. First Part", UET 6/1, London, 1963</ref><ref>C. J. Gadd & S. N. Kramer, "Literary and Religious Texts. Second Part", UET 6/2, London, 1966</ref><ref>A. Shaffer, "Literary and Religious Texts. Third Part", UET 6/3, London, 2006</ref>

The discoveries at the site reached the headlines in mainstream media in the world with the discoveries of the Royal Tombs. As a result, the ruins of the ancient city attracted many visitors. One of these visitors was the already famous [[Agatha Christie]], who as a result of this visit ended up marrying Max Mallowan.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Brunsdale |first1=Mitzi M. |title=Icons of Mystery and Crime Detection: From Sleuths to Superheroes [2 volumes] |date=26 July 2010 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=978-0-313-34531-9 |page=143 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=The World This Weekend - Sir Max Mallowan |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/the-world-this-weekend--sir-max-mallowan/zh27rj6 |access-date=25 February 2022 |work=BBC Archive |language=en}}</ref> During this time the site was accessible from the [[Baghdad railway|Baghdad–Basra railway]], from a stop called "Ur Junction".<ref>Crawford 2015. p. 5. "It used to be close to the Basra to Baghdad railway, part of the proposed Berlin to Basra line that was never completed. It was possible to get off the train from Baghdad at the grandly named Ur Junction, where a branch line turned off to Nasariyah, and drive a mere two miles across the desert to the site itself, but the station was closed sometime after the Second World War, leaving a long, hot journey in a four-wheeled vehicle as the only option."</ref>

In 2009, an agreement was reached for a joint University of Pennsylvania and Iraqi team to resume archaeological work at the site of Ur.<ref>[http://www.rferl.org/content/American_Archeologists_To_Excavate_In_Iraq/1604648.html Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty – Free Media in Unfree Societies] U.S. Archaeologists To Excavate In Iraq</ref> Excavations began in 2015 under the direction of Elizabeth C Stone and Paul Zimansky of the [[State University of New York]].<ref>Hammer, Emily, "The City and Landscape of UR: An Aerial, Satellite, and Ground Reassessment", Iraq. Journal of the British Institute for the Study of Iraq, vol. 81, pp. 173–206, 2019</ref> The first excavation season was primarily to re-excavate Woolley's work in an Old Babylonian housing area with two new trenches for confirmation. Among the finds were a cylinder seal and balance pan weights.  A number of cuneiform tablets were unearthed, a few Ur III period, a few Old Babylonian period, and a number of Old Akkadian period.<ref>Charpin, Dominique, "Epigraphy of Ur: Past, Present, and Future", Ur in the Twenty-First Century CE: Proceedings of the 62nd Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale at Philadelphia, July 11–15, 2016, edited by Grant Frame, Joshua Jeffers and Holly Pittman, University Park, USA: Penn State University Press, pp. 181-194, 2021</ref> A similar though smaller dig was made in a Neo-Babylonian housing area.
<ref>Stone, Elizabeth C; Zimansky, Paul, Archaeology Returns to Ur: A New Dialog with Old Houses, Near Eastern Archaeology; Chicago, vol. 79, iss. 4, pp. 246–259 Dec 2016</ref><ref>Grant Frame, Joshua Jeffers and Holly Pittman ed., "Ur in the Twenty-First Century CE", "Proceedings of the 62nd Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale at Philadelphia, July 11–15, 2016", Penn State University Press, 2021 {{ISBN|9781646021512}}</ref> In the 2017 season an urban area adjacent to Wooleys very large AH area was excavated. The burial vault of a Babylonian general Abisum was found. Abisum is known from year 36 of Hammurabi into the reign of Samsu-iluna. Thirty cuneiform tablets were found around the vault and another 12 inside the tomb itself. Some distance south of Area AH a German team of Munich University directed by Adelheid Otto excavated an Old Babylonian home. In levels below the final occupation were found tablets dating to [[Sin-Eribam]] and [[Silli-Adad]], rulers of [[Larsa]]. They included a new copy of the [[Lament for Sumer and Ur]].<ref>[https://hal-college-de-france.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-03022888/file/Charpin_JANER_19_HAL.pdf] Charpin, Dominique, "Priests of Ur in the Old Babylonian Period: a Reappraisal in Light of the 2017 Discoveries at Ur/Tell Muqayyar", Journal of ancient near eastern religions 19.1-2, pp. 18-34, 2019</ref><ref>D. Charpin, "Les tablettes retrouvées dans les tombes de maisons à Ur à l'époque paléo-babylonienne", in: D. Charpin (ed.), Archibab 4. Nouvelles recherches sur la ville d'Ur à l'époque paléo-babylonienne, Mémoires de NABU 22, Paris, 2019</ref><ref>Stone, Elizabeth, et al., "Two Great Households of Old Babylonian Ur", Near Eastern Archaeology 84.3, pp. 182-191, 2021</ref>

===The Royal Tomb Excavation===
When the Royal Tombs at Ur were discovered, their size was unknown. Excavators started digging two trenches in the middle of the desert to see if they could find anything that would allow them to keep digging. They split into two teams – A and team B. Both teams spent the first few months digging a trench and found evidence of burial grounds by collecting small pieces of golden jewelry and pottery. This was called the "gold trench". After the first season of digging finished, Woolley returned to England. In Autumn, Woolley returned and started the second season. By the end of the second season, he had uncovered a courtyard surrounded by many rooms.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.mesopotamia.co.uk/tombs/story/sto_set.html|title=The Royal Tombs of Ur – Story|website=Mesopotamia.co.uk|access-date=2016-12-04}}</ref> In their third season of digging archaeologists had uncovered their biggest find yet, a building that was believed to have been constructed by order of the king, and a second building thought to be where the high priestess lived. As the fourth and fifth season came to a close, they had discovered so many items that most of their time was now spent recording the objects they found instead of actually digging objects.<ref>Hauptmann, Andreas, Klein, Sabine, Paoletti, Paola, Zettler, Richard L. and Jansen, Moritz. "Types of Gold, Types of Silver: The Composition of Precious Metal Artifacts Found in the Royal Tombs of Ur, Mesopotamia" Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und vorderasiatische Archäologie, vol. 108, no. 1, 2018, pp. 100–131</ref> Items included gold jewelry, clay pots and stones. One of the most significant objects was the [[Standard of Ur]]. By the end of their sixth season they had excavated 1850 burial sites and deemed 17 of them to be "Royal Tombs". Some clay sealings and cuneiform tablet fragment were found in an underlying layer.<ref>Benati, Giacomo and Lecompte, Camille. "From Field Cards to Cuneiform Archives: Two Inscribed Artifacts from Archaic Ur and Their Archaeological Context" Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und vorderasiatische Archäologie, vol. 106, no. 1, 2016, pp. 1–15</ref>

Woolley finished his work excavating the Royal Tombs in 1934, uncovering a series of burials. Many servants were killed and buried with the royals, who he believed went to their deaths willingly. Computerized tomography scans on some of the surviving skulls have shown signs that they were killed by blows to the head that could be from the spiked end of a copper axe, which showed Woolley's initial theory of mass suicide via poison to be incorrect.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=McCorriston Joy, Field Julie|title=World Prehistory and the Anthropocene An Introduction to Human History|publisher=Thames & Hudson Inc.|year=2019|isbn=978-0-500-843185|location=New York|pages=286–287}}</ref>

[[File:Reconstructed sumerian headgear necklaces british museum.JPG|thumb|Reconstructed Sumerian headgear and necklaces found in the tomb of [[Puabi]] in the "Royal tombs" of Ur]]
Inside [[Puabi|Puabi's]] tomb there was a chest in the middle of the room. Underneath that chest was a hole in the ground that led to what was called the "King's Grave": PG-789. It was believed to be the king's grave because it was buried next to the queen. In this grave, there were 63 attendants who were all equipped with copper helmets and swords. It is thought to be his army buried with him. Another large room was uncovered, PG-1237, called the "Great death pit". This large room had 74 bodies, 68 of which were women. This was based on artifacts found with the bodies, weapons and whetstones in the case of males and simple, non-gold, jewelry in the case of females. There is some debate about the gender of one body. Two large ram statues were found in PG-1237 which are believed to be the remains of lyres. Several lyres were found just outside the entrance. The bodies were found to have perimortem blunt force injuries which caused their death. They also had skeleton markers for long term manual labor.<ref>Vidale, Massimo, "PG 1237, Royal Cemetery of Ur: Patterns in Death", Cambridge Archaeological Journal 21.3, pp. 427-451, 2011</ref><ref>Molleson, Theya, and Dawn Hodgson, "The Human Remains from Woolley's Excavations at Ur", Iraq, vol. 65, pp. 91-129, 2003</ref><ref>Marchesi, Gianni, "Who was Buried in the Royal Tombs of Ur? the Epigraphic and Textual Data", Orientalia (Roma), vol. 73, no. 2, pp. 153-197, 2004</ref>

Most of the treasures excavated at Ur are in the British Museum, the [[University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology]] and the [[Baghdad Museum]]. At the Penn Museum the exhibition "Iraq's Ancient Past",<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.penn.museum/sites/iraq/|title=Iraq's Ancient Past: Rediscovering Ur's Royal Cemetery|website=Penn.museum|access-date=11 August 2017}}</ref> which includes many of the most famous pieces from the Royal Tombs, opened to visitors in late Spring 2011. Previously, the Penn Museum had sent many of its best pieces from Ur on tour in an exhibition called "Treasures From the Royal Tombs of Ur." It traveled to eight American museums, including those in Cleveland, Washington and Dallas, ending the tour at the Detroit Institute of Art in May 2011.{{Citation needed|date=November 2021}}

Samples from two stratigraphic layers in the royal cemetery area, from before the royal burials, have been radiocarbon dated. The ED Ia layer dated to c. 2900 BC and the ED Ic layer to c. 2679 BC.<ref>Camille Lecompte, and Giacomo Benati, "Nonadministrative Documents from Archaic Ur and from Early Dynastic I–II Mesopotamia: A New Textual and Archaeological Analysis", Journal of Cuneiform Studies, vol. 69,  pp. 3–31, 2017</ref><ref>Wencel, M. M., "Radiocarbon Dating of Early Dynastic Mesopotamia: Results, Limitations, and Prospects", Radiocarbon 59, pp. 635–45, 2017</ref>