Ur Excavations V: The Ziggurat and its Surroundings | Ur Excavations V: The Ziggurat and its Surroun

General

Title:	Ur Excavations V: The Ziggurat and its Surroundings
Date:	1939
Author:	Woolley Leonard
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication place:	Oxford

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General

Objects: Ur Excavations V: The Ziggurat and its Surroundings | Ur Excavations V: The Ziggurat and its Surroun Export: JSON - XML - CSV

U Number	Museum Number (UPM Date Reg Number)	Museum Number (BM Registration Number)	Museum Number (UPM B-number)	Description (Catalog Card)
1353	(none)	(none)	(none)	Leg and hoof (of bull?). Thin gold leaf. [drawing 1:1]
1359	(none)	(none)	(none)	Shell amulet. In form of a left hand; pierced at wrist for suspension. [drawing 1:1]
1404	(none)	(none)	(none)	Glass fragment. White surface, with blue-grey leaf pattern. Probably from bottle. In text, see U.1359 [drawing 1:1]
1560A	(none)	1924,0920.243	(none)	[A-B] Two fragments of large baked clay cylinder of Nabonidus: containing parts of column I & II of the inscription on cylinder K.1688 in the British Museum. These fragments possibly belong to that cylinder.
1560B	(none)	1924,0920.244	(none)	[A-B] Two fragments of large baked clay cylinder of Nabonidus: containing parts of column I & II of the inscription on cylinder K.1688 in the British Museum. These fragments possibly belong to that cylinder.
16060A	(none)	(none)	(none)	[CARD MISSING Typed Transcription from British Museum Card] [A-B] 2 clay tablets. (A) mu-us-sa i-si-in-na ba-an-ku; (B) (in envelope). (A) UET/V:821
16061G	52-30-265, 52-30-265	(none)	(none)	[CARD MISSING Typed Transcription from British Museum Card] [A-W... 23 tablets in museum record] 22 Clay tablets. (A) mu us-sa-a-bi i-si-in-na ba-an-ku; (B) mu-us-sa-a-bi i-si-in-na ba-an-ku; (C) mu ki-6 i-si-in-na ba-an-ku; (D) 90mm x 50mm [no other information]; (E) mu ki-6 i-si-in-na ba-an-ku; mu us-sa 2-kam i-si-in-na ba-an-ku; (G) mu us-sa-a-bi 8-kam i-si-in-na ba-an-ku; (H) mu ki-6 i-si-in-na ba-an-ku; (I) mu ki-6 i-si-in-na ba-an-ku (K) mu-us-sa-a-bi 7-kam i-si-in-na ba-an-ku; (L) mu us-sa-a-bi i-si-in-na ba-an-ku; (M) mu ki-6 i-si-in-na ba-an-ku.
16061Q	(none)	(none)	(none)	[CARD MISSING Typed Transcription from British Museum Card] [A-W... 23 tablets in museum record] 22 Clay tablets. (A) mu us-sa-a-bi i-si-in-na ba-an-ku; (B) mu-us-sa-a-bi i-si-in-na ba-an-ku; (C) mu ki-6 i-si-in-na ba-an-ku; (D) 90mm x 50mm [no other information]; (E) mu ki-6 i-si-in-na ba-an-ku; mu us-sa 2-kam i-si-in-na ba-an-ku; (G) mu us-sa-a-bi 8-kam i-si-in-na ba-an-ku; (H) mu ki-6 i-si-in-na ba-an-ku; (I) mu ki-6 i-si-in-na ba-an-ku (K) mu-us-sa-a-bi 7-kam i-si-in-na ba-an-ku; (L) mu us-sa-a-bi i-si-in-na ba-an-ku; (M) mu ki-6 i-si-in-na ba-an-ku.
16064	(none)	(none)	(none)	Clay tablet, commercial UET/V:439 [CARD MISSING Typed Transcription from British Museum Card]
16501	(none)	(none)	(none)	Clay tablet. [CARD MISSING Typed Transcription from British Museum Card]
16506A	52-30-80, 52-30-87	(none)	(none)	[A-G] 7 clay tablets. [CARD MISSING Typed Transcription from British Museum Card] (A) mu-us-sa 10 kam i-si-in-na in-dib-ba. (B) mugis gu-za bar zag-bi-us kuggi bar es-ma mah ^dinanna-ra mu-na-dim. ; (C) (no date); (D) (No date); (E) (No date); (F) (no date); (G) (no date).
16524C	(none)	1953,0411.263	(none)	[A-F] 6 Clay tablets. [CARD MISSING Typed Transcription from British Museum Card] (A) mu-us-sa-a-bi 4-kam-ma, i-si-in-na in-dib Rim-Sin; (B) no date...; (C) no date...; (D) no date...; (E) no date...; (F) no date...;
16526A	(none)	(none)	(none)	[A-E] 5 Clay Tablets. [CARD MISSING Typed Transcription from British Museum Card] (A) muidburanum ba-ba-al; UET/V: 417; (B) mu...; (C) mu...; (D) mu...; (E) mu...
16576	(none)	(none)	(none)	Clay tablet. [CARD MISSING Typed Transcription from British Museum Card]
16595B	(none)	1953,0411.203	(none)	[A-D] 4 clay tablets. [CARD MISSING Typed Transcription from British Museum Card] (A)...; (B) Seventh year after Isin was conquered Rim-Sin; Seal : E-ri-ba-amden, dumu ^dSin-i-warad den; (C) Fourth year after Isin was conquered Rim-Sin. (D) Fourth year after Isin was conquered Rim-Sin.
16597G	(none)	1953,0411.141	(none)	[A-I] 9 clay tablets. [CARD MISSING Typed Transcription from British Museum Card] (A) Fourth year after Isin was conquered Seal: Rim-Sin. (B) i.a. (A)...Seal: Rim-Sin; (C) Year when Isin was conquered Rm-Sin, (D) Fifth year after Isin was conquered Rim-Sin UET V: 4437); (E) i.q. (A) : (F) i.q. (C); (G) i.q. (A); (H) i.q. (A); (I) Year after Isin was conquered Rim-Sin.
16811	52-30-61	(none)	(none)	Clay Tablet. Babylonian letter. To: I-li-..., from: ^dSin-... [CARD MISSING Typed Transcription from British Museum Card]
16814B	(none)	(none)	(none)	[A-E] Clay tablets. Babylonian letters to E-a-na-si-ir (var. -sir). [CARD MISSING Typed Transcription from British Museum Card] (A) From: IM(?)- ^dAdad, HC.30/; (B) From: A-ap-pa-a, HC.30/xiv, 1; (C) From: I-(li)-i-din-, H.C. 30/XIII, 2; (D) From: Ar-bi-tu-um, H.C. 30/XIII, 1; (E) From Su-mi-a-tar-um (also addressed to Ilu-su-ellat-su). HC.30/XIV, 2.
16814D	(none)	(none)	(none)	[A-E] Clay tablets. Babylonian letters to E-a-na-si-ir (var. -sir). [CARD MISSING Typed Transcription from British Museum Card] (A) From: IM(?)- ^dAdad, HC.30/; (B) From: A-ap-pa-a, HC.30/xiv, 1; (C) From: I-(li)-i-din-, H.C. 30/XIII, 2; (D) From: Ar-bi-tu-um, H.C. 30/XIII, 1; (E) From Su-mi-a-tar-um (also addressed to Ilu-su-ellat-su). HC.30/XIV, 2.
16826B	(none)	(none)	(none)	[Card Missing]
16826K	52-30-67, 52-30-67	(none)	(none)	[Card Missing]
16826L	(none)	1953,0411.91	(none)	[Card Missing]
16826N	(none)	(none)	(none)	[Card Missing]
16826O	(none)	(none)	(none)	[Card Missing]
16826R	(none)	(none)	(none)	[Card Missing]

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Locations: Ur Excavations V: The Ziggurat and its Surroundings | Ur Excavations V: The Ziggurat and its Surroun Export: JSON - XML - CSV

Context Title	Context Description	Description (Modern)
Great Nanna Courtyard \| PD	The meaning of this two-letter designation is unclear. It may derive from Woolley's search for Shulgi's palace and may thus stand for Palace of Dungi. Woolley came to realize, however, that it was an enormous courtyard surrounded by rooms, and at times in the excavation it was simply referred to as the Ziggurat Courtyard. The path through the court led to the ziggurat terrace and eventually to the temple atop it. The court was likely a gathering place for special occasions of worship to the moon god (whose name Woolley read Nannar, but which we read today as Nanna). Therefore, Woolley eventually dubbed this space the Great Nannar Courtyard. Area PD is the large space to the east of the ziggurat terrace, substantially lower in elevation than the base of the ziggurat. It had many floors over many periods. It consisted of a large paved courtyard (some 50 x 75 meters) surrounded by rooms that may have been used for storage. Because of indentations in some of the wall faces, Woolley believed there was once an inset wooden colonnade along some of the walls.	(none)
Temenos Wall \| TW	The excavation area abbreviation TW stands for Temenos Wall, a wall that surrounded the ziggurat terrace and its extended sacred space in the northern central portion of the city of Ur through much of its history. The wall may have begun in the Early Dynastic period, as Woolley found some indication of what he believed to be its earliest foundation. There was clearly an Ur III period version that ran south of the giparu and then further southeast to encompass the ehursag. This was the general line of the wall through the Isin-Larsa/Old Babylonian and into the Kassite period, though the Kassites made some changes in the northern portion. Finally, the Neo-Babylonians changed the wall greatly, expanding the area encompassed to the north and south and adding several gateways. The foundations of this later, quite massive, wall often destroyed earlier remains. Woolley explored parts of the temenos wall in many seasons and frequently used the TW abbreviation for the wall in any of its building periods. Other excavation area abbreviations include parts of the temenos, particularly NCF, PDW and BC. The temenos wall built by Urnamma was 6 meters thick and built of mud brick with a baked brick facing. Most of the baked brick had been removed, probably for later building. The Nebuchadnezzar and Nabonidus temenos wall had chambers within it and sported six gates into the temenos area. This area was known as e-gish-nu-gal (Woolley read this e-gish-shir-gal). At least one later interpretation conflates TW with the phrase Town Wall, but the wall surrounding Ur was always referred to as the city wall, (CLW).	(none)
Nebuchadnezzar Corner Fort \| NCF	The excavation area abbreviation NCF refers to the Nebuchadnezzar Corner Fort excavated in seasons 10 and 11. This building was located at the west corner of the temenos where it meets the ziggurat terrace and turns to the south. Publication UE9 refers to this specific structure as the West Corner Fort, built by Nebuchadnezzar at the corner of his temenos wall. An earlier fortification had been uncovered in season 3, which Woolley called the Bastion of Warad Sin. This structure sits at the north corner of the ziggurat terrace, approximately mid-way along the northwest temenos wall and may have functioned as a kind of sally port gate. It was sometimes called the north corner fort in early seasons but artifacts were not catalogued with this abbreviation in those seasons. Any artifacts from the Warad Sin building were likely catalogued instead with the abbreviation PDW. Nebuchadnezzar's Corner Fort may also have been defensive, but it contained in its later phase a large mixing basin filled with bitumen. In the time of Nabonidus it may well have been in use in repairing the ziggurat. Woolley dug beneath the Nebuchadnezzar Corner Fort, still using the abbreviation NCF, and uncovered what he believed was a temple or shrine.	(none)
Ziggurat Terrace \| ZT	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).	(none)
Ningal Temple \| HD	The excavation area abbreviation HD stands for Hall's Dump. When H.R. Hall investigated portions of the ziggurat in 1919, he left a great deal of back-dirt to the south of the structure. Woolley worked for several seasons clearing the rest of the ziggurat and in season 3 he removed Hall's back-dirt dump. It had covered most of the southern ziggurat terrace, and moving it revealed a temple to Ningal of the Neo-Babylonian and Kassite periods as well as a series of rooms of these late periods probably used for storage. In the earlier periods, the southern terrace was largely free from structures.	(none)
PDW	The excavation area abbreviation PDW derives from the fact that the area lies to the west of the area designated PD, the Great Nanna Courtyard. Area PDW is on the ziggurat terrace itself, but includes only the north and northeast portion of the terrace since the Great Nanna Courtyard does not extend to the southern ziggurat terrace. The southern terrace was excavated under the abbreviation HD. Some of the finds from either side of the terrace may also be coded ZT. Legrain lists PDW as specifically the deep trench within the Ur-Nammu terrace, but this is almost certainly a reference to PAT, later called Pit K, a pit dug within PDW. Area PDW included the investigation of the Bastion of Warad Sin at the northern corner of the ziggurat terrace and essentially part of the northern temenos wall. This structure was possibly a defensive gate that led onto the terrace in the Isin-Larsa/Old Babylonian period, expanded somewhat in the Kassite. It had thick walls and a potential sally-port gateway. Other structures uncovered here included the Ur III shrine to Nanna and its Neo-Babylonian counterpart as well as various potential storage rooms. Two deep pits were begun here in season 3 and completed in season 8, see area abbreviations Pit K and Pit L. Much other work was done on the northwest terrace in later seasons, particularly 9 and 10. See excavation area abbreviation NCF.	(none)
Pit K \| Ziggurat Pit A \| PAT	Excavation area abbreviation PAT was also called Ziggurat Pit A. It was expanded and renamed Pit K in season 9. The pit was located within the area of PDW, on top of the northwest portion of the ziggurat terrace and cut down into its filling. Woolley had hoped to find early buildings beneath the terrace but only uncovered fill of broken bricks and Ubaid period pottery. He dug a second pit to the west on the line of the terrace wall (see Pit L). Woolley is unclear on the exact placement of either pit and the only plan published does not correspond well with his notes. In a field report dated Feb. 1, 1931, he speaks of removing the Neo-Babylonian sanctuary of Nannar and making this the site of his deep pit. This building sat on the northeastern side of the terrace, just north of the ziggurat's central staircase. In publication UE4, however, Woolley states that the pit was located in the center of the northwest portion of the terrace (the plan shows it falling in the UrIII shrine of Nannar). At this point Woolley also states the pit was dug in 1932, but all field records indicate it was dug in January, 1931 (and begun as PAT in 1925). In the season 9 excavation it is clear that Woolley intended to excavate a deep trench on the terrace that included both PAT and PBT. He laid out an area measuring some 20x40 meters that included the smaller pits. This excavation uncovered the early and quite dense terrace wall, so Woolley continued as two pits, Pit K and Pit L, falling essentially on either side of it. Pit K was farther southeast and measured 11x20 meters, stepping in to become 9.5 meters at a depth of 7 meters from the surface. It continued down to sea level, about 14 meters below the surface. These measurements are obtained from the stratigraphic profile published in UE4, but it is admittedly difficult to interpret. The only scale on the image is the vertical and this scale appears to have been exaggerated to show the strata while including the entire horizontal extent on the page. When the portion of the ziggurat included on the drawing is scaled to meet its appropriate horizontal, the Pit K profile is shown to be approximately 11 meters NW-SE at the top. Two season 8 artifacts have the context Ziggurat Pit A (with a note that this was renamed Pit K). Field notes do not indicate excavation of the pit in season 8 and the artifacts are very late in the season 8 sequence. Woolley may have been cleaning out the old pit in preparation for the following season expansion.	(none)
Pit L \| Ziggurat Pit B \| PBT	Ziggurat Pit B (PBT) was expanded and renamed Pit L in season 9. The pit sat on top of the northwest portion of the ziggurat terrace and cut down into the terrace itself. Woolley is unclear on its exact placement and the only plan published does not correspond well with his notes. In the Antiquaries Journal for 1925, he states only that this pit was dug west of the first (PAT) along the line of the terrace wall and included the find U.2826. This artifact, a shell plaque, carries on its catalog card only the location abbreviation PDW. The pit had to be located northwest of PAT (Pit K), but that pit is also difficult to pinpoint. In the season 9 excavation it is clear that Woolley intended to excavate a deep trench on the terrace that included both PAT and PBT. He laid out an area measuring some 20x40 meters that included the smaller pits. This excavation uncovered the early and quite dense terrace wall, so Woolley continued as two pits, Pit K and Pit L, falling essentially on either side of it. Pit L was farther northwest and measured initially 15x20 meters, but it was split up again (according to the stratigraphic profile in UE4) and the main portion of Pit L measured only 5 meters NW-SE. At approximately 8 meters down from the surface, it was truncated again to about 2.5 meters NW-SE and continued down to sea level another 6 meters down. These measurements are obtained from the stratigraphic profile published in UE4, but it is admittedly difficult to interpret. The only scale on the image is the vertical and this scale appears to have been exaggerated to show the strata while including the entire horizontal extent on the page. See Pit K for more information.	(none)
Ziggurat	The ziggurat was a focus of Woolley's work in many seasons. It was covered in millennia of dirt and it took the initial seasons just to clear this away. In the process, many artifacts were discovered but Woolley did not assign a separate excavation area abbreviation other than Zig. and this does not always refer solely to the Ziggurat but also to its immediate surroundings. When Woolley listed Ziggurat or Zig as the context for an artifact, he usually included that it was at the foot, along the south wall, or some other region of the ziggurat itself. In 1931, however, he began using the code Zig.31 to indicate the deep cuts across and in front of the northern terrace that were essentially under the excavation area PDW. Many of the artifacts with the excavation area abbreviation Zig.31 come from the Ubaid period. The terrace was packed with soil gathered from earlier deposits at Ur, and thus the fill itself contained very early remains. J.G. Taylor first investigated the ziggurat in 1854,R. Campbell Thomson in 1918 and HR Hall in 1919. Hall uncovered the southern portion and dug into the ziggurat itself to retrieve foundation cylinders of Nabonidus. Woolley worked extensively on the ziggurat, stating that there were only three seasons where it was not worked on in some form. In some of these seasons, however, it was really the ziggurat terrace and its buildings that were the main focus.	(none)