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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | 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 | 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
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.