UE 7 Temenos Area Larsa.pdf

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Attribution:	UE 7 Plate 117
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Context Title	Context Description	Description (Modern)
Ur	When Woolley lists context only as 'Ur' on his object catalog cards he tends to mean that it was found somewhere within the confines of the city wall but no more specific than that. These are often surface finds that Woolley felt did not require more specific find spot information. Those found outside the city walls were typically recorded as 'brought in' followed by the name of the broad region from which they were brought in by the workers.	(none)
Dublalmah \| LL	First investigated by Taylor in 1853, the dublalmah was originally a gateway onto the eastern corner of the ziggurat terrace. It expanded into a larger building in the Isin-Larsa/Old Babylonian period. It had multiple functions, religious and administrative, through the centuries. An inscribed door socket of Amar-Sin found here refers to the building as the great storehouse of tablets and the place of judgment. It was thus essentially a law court, possibly with tablets recording judgments stored within. In Mesopotamia, an eastern gateway--in sight of the rising sun--was typically seen as a place of justice, and gateways were often places where witnesses or judges might hear claims. After the Ur III period the door onto the ziggurat terrace was sealed up and the dublalmah appears to have become a shrine, but it retained its name and probably its law court function. Kurigalzu made significant restorations to the building in the Kassite period and Woolley marveled at the well-constructed fully preserved arched doorway of this Late Bronze Age time. By the Neo-Babylonian period, the structure had essentially merged with the functions of the neighboring giparu.	(none)
Enunmah \| TTB \| ES	That its foundation goes back behind the Third Dynasty of Ur is certain, for fragments of walls and pavements in pIano-convex brick (PI. 30a) prove the fact, but of the character of that original structure nothing can be said. Ur-Nammu was responsible for the temple in its existing form; he built it in mud brick, or at any rate made much use of that material, and his work was added to and probably completed by his son Dungi. Bur-Sin replaced with burnt brick the mud-brick walls of his grandfather and Gimil-Sin added further details. The temple was completely overthrown by the Elamites on the occasion of the downfall of Ibi-Sin and under the Isin Dynasty was rebuilt by Gimil-ilishu, who faithfully followed the lines of the Third Dynasty ground-plan. Ishme-Dagan, Nur-Adad, and Sin-idinnam all in turn undertook repairs of its structure and Kudur-Mabug seems to have done some more radical restoration, but his building was destroyed by the Babylonians in the time of Samsu-iluna. It was probably restored after a fashion not much later, but the first actual record of its re-establishment is that of Kuri-Galzu; the Kassite ruler still kept to the original plan, but added a few new features. His building was repaired, without any noticeable alterations, by Marduk-nadin-ahhe in the 11th century B.C. Nebuchadnezzar was the first to tamper seriously with the ancient ground-plan; his reconstruction involved a complete change of character corresponding to a change of ritual in the temple services, and in the temple as he left it the old E-nun-mah is barely recognisable. Nabonidus repaired but does not seem to have modified his predecessor's work. Finally we find, above the Nabonidus level, remains of a further reconstruction which we can attribute only to Cyrus of Persia., The building was an almost exact square measuring some 57.00 m. in either direction; its angles were, as usual, orientated to the cardinal points of the compass. It was surrounded by a wall 2.70 m. thick strengthened by double buttresses, of which there were five on each side, and the area thus enclosed was raised to form a platform about 2.00 m. above the level of the ground outside; this wall is fairly well preserved on the NE (v. Pis. 28b., 29b), has suffered a good deal, and is partly masked by subsequent additions in the SE (PI. 29a), could be traced only by its foundations on the SW, where the building has been remodelled, and on the NW it has been completely eradicated by a drain of Nebuchadnezzar. There is a doorway in the SE wall which, however, would seem to have led only into two small chambers having no communication with the rest of the building. In view of the denudation of the walls, which here do not rise above floor level, it is not possible to assert definitely that such communication never existed, but the facts that the wall between rooms 17 and 18 is whereas in almost every other case the doorways can be distinguished even at this level (rooms 8, 9, and 10 are the sole exceptions), and that no hinge-box or doorsocket stone was found here, make the theory of a door hazardous. Probably the real entrance to the building was in the NW front.	(none)
Giparu \| KP	The excavation area given the abbreviation KP was eventually found to be the site of the ancient building known as the giparu (alternatively e-gig-par or gig-par-ku). Mostly dedicated to the goddess Nin-gal, Nanna's consort, it was also in various periods the residence of the entu priestess. The abbreviation KP, however, stands for King's Palace because Woolley initially thought this might be the site of Shulgi's palace, the ehursag. The giparu was a very long-lived building, though it underwent many changes over many centuries. Most striking were the changes in the Neo-Babylonian period when Woolley shows it combining with the dublalmah to the east. He believed that by this point the building was not sufficient to house the Ningal temple and the entu priestess together, and thus the so-called Palace of Belshaltinannar was constructed outside the temenos specifically to house the priestess herself. At times Woolley refers to the giparu as the Great Ningal Temple, which can be confusing as the Kassite and Neo-Bablyonian Ningal temples had moved onto the ziggurat terrace to the north of the giparu (Area HD). Furthermore, parts of the giparu were excavated under area abbreviations other than KP in season 3 when the full extents of the building were only just coming to light. The northern portion originally carried the abbreviation HDB and the southeastern portion, SF.	(none)
Giparu \| HDB	The excavation area abbreviation HDB refers to the southern extension of area HD, thus it is beyond Hall's Dump, or south of the pile of back-dirt on the southern ziggurat terrace. Many of the artifact cards that have this context designation mention 'lower rooms' and it is apparent that the southern extension HDB uncovered walls at a lower elevation because they were off of the ziggurat terrace. This makes HDB actually the northern part of area KP (the giparu), also begun in season 3. Only one season 4 artifact has the abbreviation HD, and it sits among many other cards from KP.	(none)
Giparu \| SF	The excavation area abbreviation SF refers to the southeastern portion of the giparu (KP). This building was very large and in season 3 its full extents were not yet known. It was being excavated from the north (HDB) and the south (SF) simultaneously, thus it initially received different abbreviations. SF may stand for South Face or South Front, though this is nowhere recorded. Legrain records "Gipar-ku, SE part" for this context. The shape of the giparu changed through the centuries and SF runs to join with the dublalmah to the east, as that building merged with the giparu in the Neo-Babylonian period.	(none)
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)
Temenos Wall \| TW	The excavation area abbreviation TW stands for Temenos Wall, a wall that surrounded the ziggurat terrace and its extended sacred space in the northern central portion of the city of Ur through much of its history. The wall may have begun in the Early Dynastic period, as Woolley found some indication of what he believed to be its earliest foundation. There was clearly an Ur III period version that ran south of the giparu and then further southeast to encompass the ehursag. This was the general line of the wall through the Isin-Larsa/Old Babylonian and into the Kassite period, though the Kassites made some changes in the northern portion. Finally, the Neo-Babylonians changed the wall greatly, expanding the area encompassed to the north and south and adding several gateways. The foundations of this later, quite massive, wall often destroyed earlier remains. Woolley explored parts of the temenos wall in many seasons and frequently used the TW abbreviation for the wall in any of its building periods. Other excavation area abbreviations include parts of the temenos, particularly NCF, PDW and BC. The temenos wall built by Urnamma was 6 meters thick and built of mud brick with a baked brick facing. Most of the baked brick had been removed, probably for later building. The Nebuchadnezzar and Nabonidus temenos wall had chambers within it and sported six gates into the temenos area. This area was known as e-gish-nu-gal (Woolley read this e-gish-shir-gal). At least one later interpretation conflates TW with the phrase Town Wall, but the wall surrounding Ur was always referred to as the city wall, (CLW).	(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)