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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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] | |
 | 18236 | (none) | (none) | (none) | Gold foil. Fragment of folded up into a sort of rod: no real shape: very thin metal. |
| 8843A | (none) | (none) | B16371 | Gold ear ring. Conical in shape and rising in two tiers. The base consists of 7 gold ball beads; above them a strip of gold foil with vertical ribs and two rims of a single coil of gold wire. Above this narrow hub and above the hub a second strip of ribbed gold foil about half the diameter of the first. On the top a thin plate of gold with 2 minute gold rings through which is passed a semicircular piece of copper wire. Upon this copper wire between the gold rings swivels the gold pin. The gold pin is a circular piece of wire with detached ends which originally fastened the earring to the ear. Intact Neo-Babylonian Period. [drawing 1:1] | |
| 3308 | (none) | 1927,1003.231 | (none) | Gold disk. Small, of plain unadorned leaf. In text: Kassite period (15) in cat. |
| 3306 | (none) | 1927,1003.225 | (none) | Gold disk. Plain beaten leaf, ornamented and in very bad condition. In text: Kassite period (15) in cat. |
| 3307 | (none) | 1927,1003.224 | (none) | Gold disk. Plain beaten leaf, ornamented and in very bad condition. In text: Kassite period (15) in cat. |
| 2668 | (none) | 1927,1003.232 | (none) | Gold crescent. Thin sheet metal. [drawing] |
| 3125 | (none) | (none) | (none) | Gold bead. With bitumen core blocking one hole. One end bent in. Spherical bead. In text: Neo-Babylonian period (7) in Cat. |
| 18225 | (none) | (none) | (none) | Gold bar. Rectangulare in section, one end hammered flat, the other bent and broken. |
| 3335 | (none) | (none) | (none) | Glazed pottery ampulla. Round cheeked vessel with exceedingly small neck and almost rounded base lip broken off. Brownish glaze with traces of bluish green. |
| 2620 | 29-174-26 | (none) | (none) | Glazed bowl. Reconstructed: with lotus design in relief outside: inside traces of flower design in color. =new type 2 (p) [drawing 1:2] | |
| 2621 | 29-174-27 | (none) | (none) | Glazed bowl. Reconstructed: drab clay, on low base: straight-sided. [drawing 1:2] | |
| 3334 | 29-174-28 | (none) | (none) | Glazed bowl. Fragmentary and unornamented: with plain transparent glaze. | |
| 1700 | (none) | (none) | (none) | Glass paste fragments. Blue and yellow bands. |
| 2575 | (none) | (none) | (none) | Glass bowl. Fragmentary, blue glass, translucent, design of dots and lines. [drawing 1:1] |
| 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. | |
| 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] |
| 18260C | (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] |
| 18260B | (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] |
| 3279 | (none) | 1927,1003.77 | (none) | Fragment of stone vase. White obsidian finely polished. |
| 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. |
| 11677 | (none) | 1927,0527.24a | (none) | Fragment of Statue(?) Diorite inscribed. |
| 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. |
| 2807 | (none) | 1927,1003.78 | (none) | Fragment of polished vase. Black obsidian. [drawing 1:1] |
| 17766 | (none) | (none) | (none) | Fragment of obsidian vase. [drawing 1:1] |
| Media | Media Title | Title | Label | Author | Omeka Label |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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) | |
| 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) |
- 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.