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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | 18356 | (none) | (none) | (none) | Cat's eye. Fragment of inscribed across middle and round the side: less than half the stone preserved. Ningal. Kurigalzu. |
| 17635 | (none) | (none) | (none) | Celt. Schist. [drawing 1:1] |
| 17664 | (none) | (none) | (none) | Celt. Schist. [drawing 1:1] |
| 17149 | (none) | 1930,1213.467 | (none) | Clay bowl. Large, with flat base and straight somewhat everted sides. Al 'Obaid ware with a band of decoration in black round the rim and just above the base broken and incomplete, but a considerable fragment. Type aU.51 [Al 'Obaid typology?] [drawing] | |
| 2539 | (none) | (none) | (none) | Clay bowl. Pinkish drab ware. Type CXXI =RC.3 =P.29 =L.11a |
| 2769 | (none) | 1927,1003.32 | (none) | Clay cone fragment. King of Larsa? Last lines of Column I -e-bar-bar-ra sul dUtu sa(g) azag gza-a. H.C. |
| 2576 | (none) | 1927,1003.35 | (none) | Clay cone of Ibi-Sin. Fragment. -About BC 2190. Text: "dIbi-ilSin, god of the "country, (powerful) king, king (of Ur) "king (of Sumer and Akkad)? "- 6 or 7 lines missing - two last lines "illegible." H.C. |
| 2648 | (none) | 1927,1003.12 | (none) | Clay cone of Ur-Engur. Text: To Nannar strong bull of heaven, eldest son of Enlil, his king, has Ur-Engur, the mighty hero, the king of Ur built E-temen-ni-il Found in position in a mud brick. |
| 2637 | (none) | 1927,1003.39 | (none) | Clay cone. Fragment of stem. Half of column II(?) Date ?? King of Larsa. Text: (x--) babbar Ab (ancient?) of E-Babbar / Fix destiny / decisions / --- / army of Larsa / may? / its food prosper / its good? / its harvester.. / be prosperous? H.C. |
| 3267 | (none) | (none) | (none) | Clay cone. Fragment. Construction - with the great cubit of Sin: - of the great outer wall (Kir-mah). King probably Larsa (Warad-Sin or Rim-Sin?) H.C. |
| 17644 | (none) | (none) | (none) | Clay cone. Inscribed. Lower part only: small both with no 'head' to the nail but flattened and like Ur-Engur type: but this later. |
| 6338A | (none) | (none) | (none) | Clay cones of Warad ilSin. To Nin-gal. Warad-sin only patesi like Silli Adad. Restores on the old plan her hous: e id-galu-sub-gu-kalam-ma. Walls destroyed? does not destroy the temenos, but puts (a si-cu-um: Semetic word) Curious name of the temple: house of the canal: the man who raises the land. Cf. Br. 11656: boat of the god of the same canal. B. H.C. |
| 6338B | (none) | (none) | B16233 | Clay cones of Warad ilSin. To Nin-gal. Warad-sin only patesi like Silli Adad. Restores on the old plan her hous: e id-galu-sub-gu-kalam-ma. Walls destroyed? does not destroy the temenos, but puts (a si-cu-um: Semetic word) Curious name of the temple: house of the canal: the man who raises the land. Cf. Br. 11656: boat of the god of the same canal. E. H.C. | |
| 17885 | (none) | (none) | (none) | Clay cones. Fragments of. |
| 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. |
| 18292B | (none) | (none) | (none) | Clay counters (?) (A) Disk: incised on both sides with criss-cross lines. (B) Disk: incised on one side with dotted pattern. [drawing] |
| 8837B | (none) | 1928,1009.9 | (none) | Clay cylinder. Fragments giving bottom half of the 2 columns ? dedication to Sin-Nannar Style of Nebuchonosor. H.C.71. |
| 18323 | (none) | (none) | (none) | Clay figurine of baked clay. Rudimentary human figure one eye missing. [drawing 1:1] |
| 2608 | (none) | (none) | (none) | Clay figurine. Dark buff clay. Bearded and mitred figure, head only. [drawing 1:1] |
| 2609 | (none) | (none) | (none) | Clay figurine. Greenish glaze, head only. [drawing 1:1] |
| 2636 | (none) | 1927,1003.120 | (none) | Clay flower(?) pot. Pinkish ware, unglazed : pierced at bottom. Type CXXX. Type drawing in album. [drawing] | |
| 1163 | (none) | (none) | (none) | Clay jar-handle. (Broken off) Drab clay. In form of nude female figure. It has 13 circles arranged on back. P. [drawing not to scale] |
| 2731 | (none) | (none) | (none) | Clay jar. Wheel made with rounded base and knob. Upper part and lip missing. Larsa period. Type CXXXVII or L.40.C [drawing] |
| 2562 | (none) | (none) | (none) | Clay jug. Drab clay. Handle broken. Type CXXVI. Type drawing in album. |
| 18280 | 33-35-258 | (none) | (none) | Clay label. Dark blackish-brown clay. Oval, with string hole through its leng and side plain, one roughly incised on the dry or nearly dry clay, thus: [reference to to drawing] [drawing 1:1] |
| 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.