Description (Catalog Card): Fragment from lip of small alabaster vase with trace of archaic inscription.1     
Find Context (Catalog Card): Debris: N.E. face of Ziggurat     
Material (Catalog Card): Alabaster2     
Measurement (Catalog Card): 35mm by 24mm     
U Number: 1521     
Object Type: Vessels/Containers >> Closed Forms >> Jars      
Season Number: 02: 1923-1924      
Object Type: Vessels/Containers      
Description (Modern): Vessel fragment, inscribed     
Description (Modern): Object is not sealed.     
Material: Inorganic Remains >> Stones and Minerals >> Mineral >> Calcite Group >> Alabaster      
Tablet ID Number: P467974     
Measurement (Height): 353     
Measurement (Width): 243     
Measurement (X): 35     
Measurement (Y): 24     
[1] Woolley's description
[2] Material as described by Woolley
[3] Barrett. 1976. Near East Section, Ur, Inscribed Objects

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Locations: 1521 Export: JSON - XML - CSV

Location Context Title Context Description Description (Modern)
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)
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)
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Media: 1521 Export: JSON - XML - CSV

Media Media Title Title Label Author Omeka Label
Woolley's Catalog Cards Woolley's Catalog Cards Card -- BM ID:194 Box:26 Page:194 Card -- BM ID:194 Box:26 Page:194 (none)
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Context

Ur >> Ziggurat Terrace | ZT

Ur >> Ziggurat Terrace | ZT >> Ziggurat


References

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