Ziggurat Terrace | ZT
| Context Title: | Ziggurat Terrace | ZT |
| Context Name (Publication): | Ziggurat Terrace |
| Context Name (Excavation): | ZT |
| Context Description: | 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). |
| Season Number: | 02: 1923-1924 |
| Season Number: | 03: 1924-1925 |
| Season Number: | 05: 1926-1927 |
| Season Number: | 10: 1931-1932 |
| Season Number: | 11: 1932-1933 |
Files
| Object | U Number | Museum Number (UPM Date Reg Number) | Museum Number (BM Registration Number) | Museum Number (UPM B-number) | Description (Catalog Card) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | 18222 | (none) | (none) | (none) | Fragment of sculpture. Diorite. Right shoulder, upper arm and breast of a man wearing closely fitting shirt which passes straight across the front of the body and under the armpit. About 1/3 life size and very good work of about IIIrd dynasty period. |
| 18224 | (none) | (none) | (none) | Stone vase fragment. Black and white marble with fragment of inscription. Probably belongs to U.1455. H.C. |
| 18225 | (none) | (none) | (none) | Gold bar. Rectangulare in section, one end hammered flat, the other bent and broken. |
| 18226 | (none) | (none) | (none) | Sheet gold. a strip of fairly heavy metal bent double lengthways as if to form an edging, but the sharp point is solid. |
| 18232 | (none) | 1933,1013.1 | (none) | Stone vase. Fragments of stalagmitic calcite with deeply colored veining. Type. On it, part of an inscription. |
| 18236 | (none) | (none) | (none) | Gold foil. Fragment of folded up into a sort of rod: no real shape: very thin metal. |
| 18245 | (none) | (none) | (none) | Amulet. Dark grey steatite. Puzuzu head. Good minute work. |
| 18251 | (none) | 1933,1013.90 | (none) | Fragment of inlay. Shell. On one side, plain grooving, part of a hair pattern (probably for the flounce of a skirt): on the other side, very faint, a human figure, from the neck downwards, wearing a kaunakes and advancing right. Top missing. The inlay has been reused and the figure design seems to be the earlier. |
| 18260A | (none) | (none) | (none) | Fragments of inlay. Shell, with traces of red paint design of scles thus: [reference to drawing] [drawing 1:1]. (A) As drawn. (B) [measurements] (C) [measurements] |
| 18264 | (none) | (none) | (none) | Cylinder seal. White frit once glazed but the glaze all perished. Gazelle and man. |
| 18292A | (none) | (none) | (none) | Clay counters (?) (A) Disk: incised on both sides with criss-cross lines. (B) Disk: incised on one side with dotted pattern. |
| 18294 | (none) | (none) | (none) | Bitumen mace head. [drawing] |
| 18297 | (none) | (none) | (none) | Clay nail? Of painted Obaid ware. The top is broken and seems to have been cup shaped. [drawing] |
| 18299 | (none) | (none) | (none) | Sculpture head. Fragment of diorite. Life-size male head wearing broad high fillet treated like the crown of the head with small circular rings of hair. The face all deliberately smashed away and part of the right ear, right eyebrow and inner corner of right eye preserved. Very fine work of the best Guden type. |
| 18308 | (none) | (none) | (none) | Stone vase fragment. White calcite. Bowl, shallow with carinated rim. On the outside a panel, complete, with inscription. [drawing of cuneiform inscription] Rimush |
| 18309 | (none) | (none) | (none) | Fragment of inlay. White limestone. From a frieze of Al Obaid type. A man, naked except for a loin cloth, kneeling on one knee and wielding a paddle or punt-pole (?). The head missing. |
| 18312 | (none) | (none) | (none) | Fragment of stone vase. Bowl: dark steatite. Plain band at rim = the rest of the outside carved with scale pattern thus[reference to drawing], the scales originally filled in. With scales of white shell of which the centers were of another material. |
| 18313A | (none) | (none) | (none) | Inlay. Fragments of grey steatite. Hair of head or beard from a large figure. [drawing] [A] One large piece thus [reference to drawing]. [B] One fragment from the upper part perhaps fitting on, [C] and one single curl |
| 18314A | (none) | 1933,1013.99 | (none) | Inlay. 2 fragments of, fitting together. Grey steatite. The hair of a large figure, carved in horizontal ripples with the single hairs denoted by roughly engraved wavy lines. [drawing] |
| 18323 | (none) | (none) | (none) | Clay figurine of baked clay. Rudimentary human figure one eye missing. [drawing 1:1] |
| 18335 | (none) | (none) | (none) | Copper bolt. With shaft round in section and gilt head. |
| 18338 | (none) | 1933,1013.93 | (none) | Wig of dark steatite, for a small male figure the wig is complete. The hair is parted down the middle, then confined by three broad braided tresses wound roudn the head: a fringe comes over the forehead: the back hair falls in a plaited mass over the shoulders. |
| 18346 | (none) | 1933,1013.78 | (none) | Cylinder seal of dark purple glazed glazed frit. Two trees (?) and pomegranates (?) |
| 18352 | (none) | (none) | (none) | Tortoise of grey steatite. L. 23mm |
| 18356 | (none) | (none) | (none) | Cat's eye. Fragment of inscribed across middle and round the side: less than half the stone preserved. Ningal. Kurigalzu. |
| Media | Media Title | Title | Label | Author | Omeka Label |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Woolley's Field Note Cards | Woolley's Field Note Cards | Ur_Notes_v4_p218 | Ur_Notes_v4_p218 | (none) | |
| Woolley's Field Note Cards | Woolley's Field Note Cards | Ur_Notes_v4_p121 | Ur_Notes_v4_p121 | (none) | |
| Woolley's Field Note Cards | Woolley's Field Note Cards | Ur_Notes_v2_p219 | Ur_Notes_v2_p219 | (none) | |
| Woolley's Field Note Cards | Woolley's Field Note Cards | Ur_Notes_v2_p215 | Ur_Notes_v2_p215 | (none) | |
| Woolley's Field Note Cards | Woolley's Field Note Cards | Ur_Notes_v2_p214 | Ur_Notes_v2_p214 | (none) | |
| Woolley's Field Note Cards | Woolley's Field Note Cards | Ur_Notes_v2_p213 | Ur_Notes_v2_p213 | (none) | |
| Woolley's Field Note Cards | Woolley's Field Note Cards | Ur_Notes_v2_p212 | Ur_Notes_v2_p212 | (none) | |
| Woolley's Field Note Cards | Woolley's Field Note Cards | Ur_Notes_v2_p211 | Ur_Notes_v2_p211 | (none) | |
| Woolley's Field Note Cards | Woolley's Field Note Cards | Ur_Notes_v2_p160 | Ur_Notes_v2_p160 | (none) | |
| Field Photographs | Field Photographs | GN0099 | GN0099 | (none) | |
| Field Photographs | Field Photographs | GN0098 | GN0098 | (none) | |
| Field Photographs | Field Photographs | GN0097 | GN0097 | (none) | |
| Ur Excavations IV; The Early Periods | Ur Excavations IV; The Early Periods | 1955 | Woolley, L. | (none) |
| Ur Excavations V: The Ziggurat and its Surroundings | Ur Excavations V: The Ziggurat and its Surroundings | 1939 | Woolley Leonard | (none) |
| UPM Field Photo numbers | UPM Field Photo numbers | (none) | (none) | (none) |
- 15 Media
Sibling Locations
AH Site | AH - City Wall | CLW - DP - Dublalmah | LL - EH Site | EH - Ehursag | HT - EM Site | EM - Enunmah | TTB | ES - ESB - FH - Giparu | KP - Great Nanna Courtyard | PD - Harbor Temple - House 34/1 - House 34/2 - House Site - Kassite Fort - KPS Site | KPS - LT - LW - Mausoleum Site | BC - Neo-Babylonian Housing | NH - NNCF - NTB - P/103 - Palace of Bel-Shalti-Nannar | AD - Pit F - Royal Cemetery | PG - SM - Temenos Wall | TW - TTC - XNCF
Child Locations
Courtyard BB - Ningal Temple | HD - PDW - Room FF - Room GG - Room SW 2 - Ziggurat
Share
Context
Ur > Ziggurat Terrace | ZT
References
Woolley, L. . (1955) Ur Excavations IV; The Early Periods, Oxford: Oxford University Press.