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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8473 | (none) | 1928,1009.471 | (none) | Terracotta head of female Upper right-hand side of head missing Hair falls down side of head in long tresses Pronounced chin, straight nose and slight ridge in middle of forehead Hellenistic style? [drawing] 1:1 sketch | |
 | 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. |
| 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] | |
| 10613 | (none) | (none) | (none) | Fragment of Door-socket. Inscription Equivalent to last 5 lines of Bur Sin, U.295, U.1727 Found at same time as fragmentary diorite statue) Later; Another fragment, joining, giving end of lines 2-5. |
| 11231 | (none) | (none) | B16909 | Obsidian Nail. Miniature. Square in section. T Shaped top. [drawing 1:1] |
| 11677 | (none) | 1927,0527.24a | (none) | Fragment of Statue(?) Diorite inscribed. |
| 16423 | (none) | (none) | (none) | Head of statue. Dark steatite. Bearded male head with long hair dressed in the Assyrian fashion & long waved beard, both finely engraved. Good work but bad condition. The right side of the face perished and nose and lips gone, and the left side which is better preserved, damaged by rubbing. |
| 17114 | (none) | (none) | (none) | Limestone mace-head. Rounded pear-shaped. |
| 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] | |
| 17602 | (none) | (none) | (none) | Statue fragment of White limestone. Back of head, showing type of hair-dressing: all the face in part of the ears broken away. [drawing] |
| 17608 | (none) | (none) | (none) | Copper spearhead. Point broken. |
| 17609 | (none) | 1932,0010.8 | (none) | Fragment of celt. Schist. [drawing 1:1] |
| 17623 | (none) | (none) | (none) | 3 ear studs. Clay. [drawing 1:1] |
| 17624 | (none) | (none) | (none) | Gold sheet. Fairly thick metal. Obviously plating from some object whose character cannot be determined. The surviving fragment comes from a rectangular piece, from the top right corner. Near the bottom of the fragment remains of panel with inscription impressed from the top surface. [drawing] |
| 17625C | (none) | (none) | (none) | Inlay. Shell: [A-F] Six fragments of white shell cut in strips 38mm wide and decorated with 3 horizontal rows of 'mountain' design: the top and bottom rows are merely outlined with a double incised line which was filled in with black: the middle row is champleve and filled in with bright red paste of which a good deal is preserved. [drawing] |
| 17625D | (none) | 1932,1008.34 | (none) | Inlay. Shell: [A-F] Six fragments of white shell cut in strips 38mm wide and decorated with 3 horizontal rows of 'mountain' design: the top and bottom rows are merely outlined with a double incised line which was filled in with black: the middle row is champleve and filled in with bright red paste of which a good deal is preserved. [drawing] |
| 17625E | (none) | 1932,1008.35 | (none) | Inlay. Shell: [A-F] Six fragments of white shell cut in strips 38mm wide and decorated with 3 horizontal rows of 'mountain' design: the top and bottom rows are merely outlined with a double incised line which was filled in with black: the middle row is champleve and filled in with bright red paste of which a good deal is preserved. [drawing] |
| 17626B | (none) | (none) | (none) | [A-B] Copper cylinders. A pair. Solid metal, entirely carved with inscription in vertical lines. Name of NUR-ADAD. |
| 17627A | (none) | 1932,1008.8 | (none) | [A-B] Copper cylinders. A pair. Solid metal, entirely covered with inscription in vertical lines (not the same size). Name of NUR-ADAD. |
| 17627B | (none) | (none) | (none) | [A-B] Copper cylinders. A pair. Solid metal, entirely covered with inscription in vertical lines (not the same size). Name of NUR-ADAD. |
| 17628 | (none) | (none) | (none) | Foundation Cone. Fragmentary. (Larsa type) 1/3 of stem and virtually all of base missing = UR RI#131 (Warad-Sin). |
| 17631 | (none) | (none) | (none) | Pin. Obsidian. [drawing 1:1] |
| 17635 | (none) | (none) | (none) | Celt. Schist. [drawing 1:1] |
| 17640 | (none) | (none) | (none) | Amulet bead. Steatite. [drawing 1:1] |
| 17641 | (none) | (none) | (none) | Tablet. Unbaked = complete. |
| Media | Media Title | Title | Label | Author | Omeka Label |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UPM Field Photo numbers | UPM Field Photo numbers | (none) | (none) | (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) |
| 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) | |
| 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.