Context Title: Diqdiqqeh | DQ     
Context Name (Publication): Diqdiqqeh     
Context Name (Excavation): Digdiggah; DQ     
Context Name (Excavation): Railway site     
Context Description: Essentially a suburb of the ancient city, this area is located about 2 km to the northeast of the ziggurat of Ur. The precise extents of Diqdiqqeh were never defined, but Woolley referred to it as the low ground between the main railway line and the branch that went to Nasiriyeh. The train lines no longer run in the same place they did in Woolley's day, but Corona images allow us to recreate their paths. This makes the general boundaries west, south, and east somewhat known but how far it stretched north is not completely clear. From the first season workers walking across this area picked up surface finds and brought them to Woolley. At that time the location did not have a fixed name in Woolley's mind and thus first season references sometimes say 'near the railway' or 'near Munshid's water engine.' In the second season Woolley decided to investigate more systematically, but after two days of excavation he decided there was not enough remaining architecture to reward further work. Instead, he continued to allow the workers to gather finds over the next ten seasons, and many later catalog cards state "brought in: Diqdiqqeh" The finds from Diqdiqqeh indicate that the ancient suburb played a role in manufacturing and perhaps in commerce. Canals seem to have met in the area and boats may have unloaded goods here. Many figurines, tools, moulds and other crafting items are among the finds, suggesting that Diqdiqqeh may have been an industrial area away from the main habitation. The so-called Treasury of Sin-Iddinam was also excavated in this general area in season 5. In the Antiquaries Journal of January 1925, Woolley described Diqdiqqeh as follows: “A mile and a half NE. of the ziggurat, between the main railway line and the Nasiriyah branch, there is a patch of low-lying ground, occasionally cultivated, which the natives call Diqdiqqeh... a happy hunting-ground for treasure-seekers, and I took advantage of this fact to collect from the natives the scattered antiquities which they might bring to light.”     
Season Number: 01: 1922-1923      

Objects: Diqdiqqeh | DQ 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)
18567 33-35-21 (none) (none) Terracotta relief. Female figure, standing, facing right. Both hands raised in gesture of prayer. Long simple drapery, horned head dress.
18450 33-35-177 (none) (none) Cylinder seal. Grey stone. Introduction scene with 1 seated and 2 standing figures and 2 columns of inscription: the figures much erased.
18365 33-35-176 (none) (none) Cylinder seal. Lapis lazuli. 3 standing figures.
18276 33-35-174 (none) (none) Cylinder seal. Fragment of greenish grey steatite. Only 2 columns of inscription left; no figures.
18258 33-35-173 (none) (none) Cylinder seal. Dark steatite. Presentation scene. Seated goddess, with 2 standing figures and 2 lizards. Poor condition.
18248 33-35-172 (none) (none) Cylinder seal. Pink limestone. Two men fighting a lion. Poor work and in poor condition.
18284 33-35-170 (none) (none) Stamp seal. Facetted conical: chalcedony. Persian type. Two standing figures worshipping before an altar: crescent above.
18339 33-35-168 (none) (none) Fragment of statuette. Grey steatite. Part of a male figure wearing the Kaunakes with upper part of body bare: the hands clasped over the breast. Preserved , one half of the body, cut vertically, right side & rt arm, from just below the shoulder to the hip. The figure was deliberately cut in pieces: the saw marks go partly through the figure and then the fragments were broken apart. Fine work of about 3rd Dynasty or a little earlier.
18342 33-35-165 (none) (none) Puzuzu head. Dark steatite. With ring for suspension. Coarse work. [drawing]
18341 33-35-164 (none) (none) Animal's body. Grey steatite. Body of couchant animal, the hind quarters complete, in fairly high relief: the front leg only sketched: the stone is rounded off at the shoulder so that there never was a head. The body is flat and bears two engraved signs thus. [drawing]
18340 33-35-162 (none) (none) Calf's head in dark steatite. The neck pierced horizontally for attachment The eyes hollowed for inlay and a hole for inlay in the forehead. Good archaic work.
18306 33-35-15 (none) (none) Terracotta relief. Moulded. Light greenish drab clay. Nude female figure with hands on breasts. Head very small and birdlike: hair treated as in archaic Samian statues: hips and thighs grotesquely wide. Completely, but a poor impression from the mould.
18247 33-35-14 (none) (none) Terracotta relief. Of two bearded male figures advancing full face, side by side, holding mace and litnus. In very poor condition.
18215 33-35-12 (none) (none) Terracotta relief, back of bedstead with two birds facing each other: below, crosses in circles (fragmentary)
18086 32-40-45 (none) (none) Clay mould. For making figurines. Goddess wearing a flat low headdress. Fragment: only the head and ahoulders left.
17717 32-40-436 (none) (none) Pictograph. Limestone. [drawing 1:1]
18026 32-40-38 (none) (none) Terracotta relief. Puzuzu head.
18039B 32-40-35 (none) (none) Terracotta relief. Nude female, -young girl- standing full face, hands clasped = hair in waves, double necklace. (A) = fragment, complete from thighs upwards. (B) Fragment, from waist up. Not from the same mould, but identical type. (C) Fragment from waist up = perhaps from the same mould as (B). (D) Fragment, from hips up = same type but from a smaller mould.
17797 32-40-345 (none) (none) Stamp seal. Shell. One side flattened and rough representation of animal drilled and scratched on. [drawing 1:1]
18047A 32-40-34 (none) (none) Terracotta figurine. Nude female standing full face, hands clasped. (A) Complete to knees. (B) Complete but mould has failed between knees and feet. (C) Complete. (D) Complete from knees upwards. Poor impression. (E) The same figure but 2 heads struck from the same mould have been attached to one body, very clumsily. Doubtful authenticity. Said to be from Digdiggeh.
17726 32-40-330 (none) (none) Cylinder seal. Pink limestone. 2 men fighting a lion.
18048A 32-40-33 (none) (none) Terracotta figurine. Nude female standing full face, hands clasped the hair dressed in a heavy rather Egyptian style. (A) Fragment, from clasped hands upwards (background removed). (B) Fragment (background left on) = from belly upwards: much worn.
17763 32-40-329 (none) (none) Cylinder seal. Steatite. Obscured; 2 lines of inscription. Adoring figure of goddess separated by star on staff.
17871 32-40-326 (none) (none) Cylinder seal. Dark steatite. Badly chipped. Presentation scene with seated goddess and 2 standing figures and 3 columns of inscription.
17678 32-40-324 (none) (none) Cylinder seal. White limestone. Eye; joined ladders. On photo: U.17679.

Media: Diqdiqqeh | DQ Export: JSON - XML - CSV

Media Media Title Title Label Author Omeka Label
Ur Excavations VII; The Old Babylonian Period Ur Excavations VII; The Old Babylonian Period 1976 Woolley, L. and M. Mallowan (none)
  • 1 Media