Attribution: UE 5 Plate 75     
Media Type: Map     

Locations: UE 5 Ziggurat Terrace Neobab.pdf Export: JSON - XML - CSV

Location Context Title Context Description Description (Modern)
Great Nanna Courtyard | PD The meaning of this two-letter designation is unclear. It may derive from Woolley's search for Shulgi's palace and may thus stand for Palace of Dungi. Woolley came to realize, however, that it was an enormous courtyard surrounded by rooms, and at times in the excavation it was simply referred to as the Ziggurat Courtyard. The path through the court led to the ziggurat terrace and eventually to the temple atop it. The court was likely a gathering place for special occasions of worship to the moon god (whose name Woolley read Nannar, but which we read today as Nanna). Therefore, Woolley eventually dubbed this space the Great Nannar Courtyard. Area PD is the large space to the east of the ziggurat terrace, substantially lower in elevation than the base of the ziggurat. It had many floors over many periods. It consisted of a large paved courtyard (some 50 x 75 meters) surrounded by rooms that may have been used for storage. Because of indentations in some of the wall faces, Woolley believed there was once an inset wooden colonnade along some of the walls. (none)
Ziggurat Terrace | ZT The excavation area abbreviation ZT stands for Ziggurat Terrace. It was used for any portion of the terrace on which the ziggurat stood, though other more specific abbreviations were also used. For example, the abbreviation PDW refers to the northern side of the terrace, west of the Great Nannar Courtyard (PD), and HD refers to the southern part of the terrace. Early references using the abbreviation ZT refer specifically to excavations along the terrace retaining wall itself. Later references, however, mention specific areas on top the terrace such as the so-called 'boat shrine.' The abbreviation also refers to deep clearing of the terrace fill, particularly on the north side in later excavation seasons, though the abbreviation Zig.31 was most often used for this. Woolley uncovered large areas of the retaining wall that supported the platform known as the ziggurat terrace. He found that it was decorated with large wall cones. These cones bore an inscription of Urnamma but there is evidence that the terrace in some form existed in the Early Dynastic period as well. The Urnamma retaining wall was slanted to support the terrace, was 1.7 meters high, 34 meters wide, and was decorated with 5-meter-wide buttresses about 4 meters apart. The inscribed cones dedicate the terrace to the moon god, Nanna, and show that it was called e-temen-ni-gur, which translates as, "house, foundation platform clad in terror." (Woolley read this e-temen-ni-il). (none)
PDW The excavation area abbreviation PDW derives from the fact that the area lies to the west of the area designated PD, the Great Nanna Courtyard. Area PDW is on the ziggurat terrace itself, but includes only the north and northeast portion of the terrace since the Great Nanna Courtyard does not extend to the southern ziggurat terrace. The southern terrace was excavated under the abbreviation HD. Some of the finds from either side of the terrace may also be coded ZT. Legrain lists PDW as specifically the deep trench within the Ur-Nammu terrace, but this is almost certainly a reference to PAT, later called Pit K, a pit dug within PDW. Area PDW included the investigation of the Bastion of Warad Sin at the northern corner of the ziggurat terrace and essentially part of the northern temenos wall. This structure was possibly a defensive gate that led onto the terrace in the Isin-Larsa/Old Babylonian period, expanded somewhat in the Kassite. It had thick walls and a potential sally-port gateway. Other structures uncovered here included the Ur III shrine to Nanna and its Neo-Babylonian counterpart as well as various potential storage rooms. Two deep pits were begun here in season 3 and completed in season 8, see area abbreviations Pit K and Pit L. Much other work was done on the northwest terrace in later seasons, particularly 9 and 10. See excavation area abbreviation NCF. (none)
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