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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | 2550 | (none) | (none) | (none) | Fragment of inlay. Lapis-Lazuli, pierced for wiring and engraved to represent flower petal (?) [drawing 1:1] |
| 2826 | (none) | 1927,1003.242 | (none) | Fragment of inlay. Shell, pierced at back for fixing and part of presentation scene; both figures have crowns and long hair and one carries a wand. Probably 1st Dynasty. [drawing 1:1] |
| 18251 | (none) | 1933,1013.90 | (none) | Fragment of inlay. Shell. On one side, plain grooving, part of a hair pattern (probably for the flounce of a skirt): on the other side, very faint, a human figure, from the neck downwards, wearing a kaunakes and advancing right. Top missing. The inlay has been reused and the figure design seems to be the earlier. |
| 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. |
| 2563 | (none) | 1927,1003.256 | (none) | Fragment of lapis-lazuli. From inlay: representing man's curled beard. Pierced at back for fixing. [drawing 1:1] |
| 1207 | (none) | (none) | (none) | Fragment of New Babylonian baked clay tablet, obverse only preserved. Parts of 12 lines of an astronomical omen-text, in 4 sections. |
| 17766 | (none) | (none) | (none) | Fragment of obsidian vase. [drawing 1:1] |
| 2807 | (none) | 1927,1003.78 | (none) | Fragment of polished vase. Black obsidian. [drawing 1:1] |
| 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. |
| 11677 | (none) | 1927,0527.24a | (none) | Fragment of Statue(?) Diorite inscribed. |
| 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. |
| 3279 | (none) | 1927,1003.77 | (none) | Fragment of stone vase. White obsidian finely polished. |
| 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] |
| 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] |
| 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. | |
| 2575 | (none) | (none) | (none) | Glass bowl. Fragmentary, blue glass, translucent, design of dots and lines. [drawing 1:1] |
| 1700 | (none) | (none) | (none) | Glass paste fragments. Blue and yellow bands. |
| 3334 | 29-174-28 | (none) | (none) | Glazed bowl. Fragmentary and unornamented: with plain transparent glaze. | |
| 2621 | 29-174-27 | (none) | (none) | Glazed bowl. Reconstructed: drab clay, on low base: straight-sided. [drawing 1:2] | |
| 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] | |
| 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. |
| 18225 | (none) | (none) | (none) | Gold bar. Rectangulare in section, one end hammered flat, the other bent and broken. |
| 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. |
| 2668 | (none) | 1927,1003.232 | (none) | Gold crescent. Thin sheet metal. [drawing] |
| Media | Media Title | Title | Label | Author | Omeka Label |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Field Photographs | Field Photographs | GN0097 | GN0097 | (none) | |
| Field Photographs | Field Photographs | GN0098 | GN0098 | (none) | |
| Field Photographs | Field Photographs | GN0099 | GN0099 | (none) | |
| UPM Field Photo numbers | UPM Field Photo numbers | (none) | (none) | (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) |
| 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) |
- 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.