Context Title: Dublalmah | LL     
Context Name (Publication): E-Dub-Lal-Mah     
Context Name (Excavation): LL     
Context Name (Excavation): DM; DLM     
Context Name (Excavation): LM     
Context Description: 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.     
Season Number: 03: 1924-1925      
Season Number: 06: 1927-1928      

Objects: Dublalmah | LL Export: JSON - XML - CSV

Object U Number Museum Number (UPM Date Reg Number) Museum Number (BM Registration Number) Museum Number (UPM B-number) Description (Catalog Card)
3892 (none) 1948,0423.144 (none) [Card Missing]
3874 (none) 1948,0423.142 (none) [Card Missing]
3914 (none) 1948,0423.141 (none) [Card Missing]
3869 (none) 1948,0423.128 (none) [Card Missing]
3901 (none) 1948,0423.121 (none) [Card Missing]
3890 (none) 1948,0423.116 (none) [Card Missing]
3860 (none) 1948,0423.114 (none) [Card Missing]
3898 (none) 1948,0423.109 (none) [Card Missing]
3915 (none) 1948,0423.106 (none) [Card Missing]
2643 (none) 1927,1003.72 (none) Stone seal. Flat seal, pierced for suspension: design obliterated. Roughly circular.
2674 (none) 1927,1003.60 (none) Door-socket of Sin-balatsu-iqbi (time of Ashurbanapal) shakkanak (vice regent) of Ur son of Ningal-iddinna. Restoration of Elemen-ni-gur. In particular of the gate-way to Esag-dili (the Ziggurat). The gate was built in the middle of the terrace of the temenos, on the procession way (! e hal-la-ta du-a). The door was of boxwood, fixed with bronze pegs in massive walls, had a gold USH, a silverlock, silver plated bronze binding (?). See notes. H.C.
2732 (none) 1927,1003.58 (none) Statue of Da-da-i-lum. Fragment of bust. Inscription of 2 lines on right shoulder: Da-da-i-lum Si-lim ilZu-fa = Dadailum Protection of Sin. Name is semitic and also the prayer Silu(m) protection, and the writing to Zu-en (= Sin) H.C.
3251 (none) 1927,1003.48 (none) Cone of Libit-Ishtar. Fragment. Same as 3245 = SAKI. P.204.
3245 (none) 1927,1003.46 (none) Clay cone of Libit-Ishtar. Fragment Same as SAKI. P.204.
2736 (none) 1927,1003.3 (none) Door-socket of Ur-Engur. Text: To Innina, the great lady, his lady, Ur dEngur, the mighty heero, king of Ur, king of Sumer and Akkad, Es-bur her beloved house he has built. Es = shrine, house. Bur = pot, vase H.C.
3147 (none) 1927,1003.275 (none) Brick of Kurigalzu. Construction of E-Dub-lal-mah.
2744 (none) 1927,1003.263 (none) Flint arrowhead. Leafshaped with fine teeth. [drawing 1:1]
2752 (none) 1927,1003.258 (none) Fragment of inlay. Lapis-lazuli, with incised lines representing hair or water. [drawing 1:1]
2604 (none) 1927,1003.182 (none) Model brick. Drab clay.
3217B (none) 1927,1003.131 (none) Pottery vases. With slihgtly curved cheeks and small base: buff ware. (B) Smaller and slightly different from type. Type CCI, =RC.14a, =L, =P.74
3218 (none) 1927,1003.121 (none) Pottery vase. With small base, body gradually opening out to lip. Type CCII, =P.69
2751 (none) 1927,1003.105 (none) Bronze arrowhead. Triangular pattern [drawing 1:1]
6587 (none) 1927,0527.1 (none) Fragment of Ur Nammu stela. Upper portion of frieze showing portion of crescent, upper part of headdress and 2 more crescents from left to right. Re-used in later period as door-socket. IIIrd Dynasty.
1165 (none) (none) B15885 Black stone gate socket, with long but incomplete inscr. running round the side. Beginning and end lost, partly by the breaking off of one side of the stone, partly by flaking away the surface. 42 ll remain, recording the building of an archive-house (dub-la-mah), annexed to the court of justice, by Bur-Sin I, king of Ur. The text ends with blessings and curses upon those who should respect or destroy the king's monument. Photo 147 RI.71
2528 (none) (none) (none) Clay jar stopper. Drab ware, broken off at end. Sketch. [drawing 1:2]

Media: Dublalmah | LL Export: JSON - XML - CSV

Media Media Title Title Label Author Omeka Label
Ur Excavations IX; The Neo-Babylonian and Persian Periods Ur Excavations IX; The Neo-Babylonian and Persian Periods 1962 Woolley, L. and Mallowan, Max (none)
Ur Excavations VIII; The Kassite Period and the period of the Assyrian Kings Ur Excavations VIII; The Kassite Period and the period of the Assyrian Kings 1965 Woolley, Leonard (none)
  • 2 Media

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