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      

Objects: Ziggurat Terrace | ZT 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)
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
18308A (none) (none) (none) (none)
18308B (none) (none) (none) (none)
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.
18310 33-35-260 (none) (none) Clay seal impression. In a rectangular frame a guilloche, the strands made up of 3 narrow bands at one end, remains of an animal scene.
18311 33-35-261 (none) (none) Clay seal impression. Long strip of clay on which a very fair impression. A standing figure (?): before him a small figure fallen backwards (?): behind him two dwarflike figure in violent action (?) = above a guilloche: beyond them, two rampant beasts heraldically crossed (?)
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
18313B (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
18313C (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]
18324 33-35-156 (none) (none) Gold handle? A ring of deeply fluted metal, bent over and one end (for attachment?) flattened out on this is a cross lightly engraved [drawing 1:1]
18325 33-35-262 (none) (none) Clay seal impression. Men and animals fighting. [Note on back of card reads Check in Catalog of Vol. IV, was there, but has been removed. The note is signed [illegible], and dated 1936.]
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 (?)
18347 33-35-155 (none) (none) Fruit of gold and carnelian. A simple bead of carnelian shaped thus [reference to drawing], through which is a slender gold stem with a rounded cap above.
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.
18358 (none) (none) (none) Gold leaf. Fragment of very thin metal cut out for inlay with small shield-shaped stones arranged in rows.
18525 (none) (none) (none) Door socket. Diorite. With inscription of Ur-Engur.
18529A 33-35-191a, 33-35-191A (none) (none) [A-H] Terracotta roundels. 8 in all with convex sides, both carved with inscription. In catalog.
18529B (none) 1933,1013.3 (none) [A-H] Terracotta roundels. 8 in all with convex sides, both carved with inscription. In catalog.

Media: Ziggurat Terrace | ZT Export: JSON - XML - CSV

Media Media Title Title Label Author Omeka Label
Woolley's Field Note Cards Woolley's Field Note Cards Ur_Notes_v2_p160 Ur_Notes_v2_p160 (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_p212 Ur_Notes_v2_p212 (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_p214 Ur_Notes_v2_p214 (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_p219 Ur_Notes_v2_p219 (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_v4_p218 Ur_Notes_v4_p218 (none)
Ur Excavations V: The Ziggurat and its Surroundings Ur Excavations V: The Ziggurat and its Surroundings 1939 Woolley Leonard (none)
Ur Excavations IV; The Early Periods Ur Excavations IV; The Early Periods 1955 Woolley, L. (none)
UPM Field Photo numbers UPM Field Photo numbers (none) (none) (none)
Field Photographs Field Photographs GN0097 GN0097 (none)
Field Photographs Field Photographs GN0098 GN0098 (none)
Field Photographs Field Photographs GN0099 GN0099 (none)
  • 15 Media