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)
18365 33-35-176 (none) (none) Cylinder seal. Lapis lazuli. 3 standing figures.
18359 (none) 1933,1013.227 (none) Terracotta mould for a small figure, grotesque, naked, full face, with bent knees, urinating.
18351 (none) (none) (none) Cylinder seal. Dark steatite. Design destroyed except for 1 standing figure: a single column of inscription.
18350 (none) (none) (none) Cylinder seal. Dark steatite. Two figures, standing one on either side of a staff whereon a crescent.
18349 (none) (none) (none) Cylinder seal. Darks steatite. Two figures, standing on either side of a date palm.
18345B (none) (none) (none) [A and B] Two finger rings. [A] One copper, [B] one silver. Each with a flat bezel.
18345A (none) (none) (none) [A and B] Two finger rings. [A] One copper, [B] one silver. Each with a flat bezel.
18344 (none) (none) (none) Weight (?) of green stone. Circular, with straight vertical sides and flattened conical tip. ? Like this [drawing]. Type XX.
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.
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.
18334 (none) (none) (none) Cylinder seal. Grey steatite. Unfinished. First sketch for lower part of standing human figure.
18333 (none) 1933,1013.73 (none) Cylinder seal. Grey steatite. 2 columns of inscription.
18332 (none) (none) (none) Cylinder seal. Grey steatite. 3 standing figures.
18331 (none) (none) (none) Cylinder seal. Grey steatite. 3 standing figures.
18330 (none) (none) (none) Cylinder seal. Grey steatite. (broken). 2 registers: above, presentation scene with seated god and 2 standing figures: below a line of swans.
18329 (none) 1933,1013.89 (none) Amulet. Shell in form of an open human hand.
18307 (none) 1933,1013.235 (none) Jeweller's trial piece. Fragment of a large pot of of light drab clay on which is roughly scratched the design for a cylinder seal. Subject: seated god and standing god introducing a man behind whom is an ostrich (?).
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.
18305 (none) (none) (none) Terracotta relief. Moulded. Light drab clay. Head of bed. Two birds facing eachother on a rocky ground, crescent on staff between them.
18304 (none) (none) (none) Terracotta figurine. Moulded. Light drab clay. Upper part of nude girl with hands clasped below breasts: hair falling on shoulder in Egyptian style: face fat and heavy. Broken off above hips.
18303 (none) 1933,1013.190 (none) Terracotta relief. Moulded. Upper part of female figure, full face, hands clasped below breasts: wearing richly embroidered garments and with her hair elaborately dressed with two feathered (?) towers above and crimped waves below.
18302 (none) (none) (none) Terracotta figurine. Moulded. Red clay. Upper part of woman, nude, suckling an infant. She wears a necklace and hair falling heavily on the shoulders. Broken off at waist. Good well rounded work.
18301 (none) 1933,1013.188 (none) Terracotta figurine. Moulded. Upper half of greenish drab clay. Bearded god, draped, with horned crown, hands in front of body holding maces (?) Kassite (?). Flaccid work. Broken off just above the knees.

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