By Dr Munir Taha
The ancient Sumerian holy city Ur is located four hundred kilometres south of Baghdad. At the very end of the third millennium BC, Ur was known as the city of the moon god, Sin, while in later periods, specifically in the Old and New Testaments, it was mentioned as the city of Abraham.
According to the Sumerian texts, in the 2006 BC Ur witnessed a severe and cruel siege with full destruction of this holy city. However, their innovations, creativity and contributions to the humanity in different aspects of life remained up to the present time.
Ur got totally deserted and consequently ended in ruins when the Euphrates River changed its course more toward the eastern direction at the very begging of AD centuries.
Ur remained in ruins stretching for hundreds of meters from all directions until archaeologists began to unveil its glorious history. The very first organised excavation at was Ur conducted by Tylor between the years 1853-1854. Thomson followed Tylor’s excavations in the year 1818.
Scientific and organised excavations was conducted at Ur by Leonard Woolly between the years 1922-1934 and funded by the British Museum and Pennsylvania University. The continuous excavations revealed different sorts of pottery ware attributed to the Al Ubaid Culture (5-4 mill BC) or might have belonged to the early Sumerian ancestors.
However, the most interesting find was the discovery of an alluvium stratum, which made Woolly believe he found the stratum of the deluge mentioned in the Book of Genesis.
On the other hand, archaeologists and art historians often compare the discovery of the Royal Tombs found at Ur with those found at Pharaoh Tutankhamen tombs in Egypt — both were discovered in the same year.
The continuous excavations at the Royal Cemetery at Ur, as it was called by the discoverer, revealed 1530 different shapes and uses of burials. Woolly himself classified sixteen of them as Royal Tombs. His assumption was based on their wealth in antiquities, and their shapes. In addition, they used to contain burials for royal, high ranging persons and servants and attendants.
One the other hand the artefacts found at Queen Pu-Abi burial seemed clearly intact. Only her burial comprised of vaulted burial chamber built at bit, which Woolly called Death Pit. The Queen Pu-Abi was found lying on wooden cot or bier. Luckily, her name was found inscribed in cuneiform writing on one of her cylinder seals.
The queen was found wearing a large diadem adorned with gold leaves, gold like ribbons, beads made of precious stones, large comb of gold, necklaces, crescent shaped earrings and many other jewels and ornaments.
Her neck and chest appeared to have adorned with strings of different kinds of beads made of gold silver and semi and precious stones; and a ring was found in all her fingers. Other smaller diadem adorned with thousands of small lapis lazuli and other ornaments found on a table placed near her head.
Among the other reassures found at the Royal Tombs were harps adorned with oxen heads mad of gold or silvers, gold daggers, gold helmet, different kind of seals and pottery ware and many other artefacts exhibited now at Iraq Museum, the British Museum and Pennsylvania Museum.
As a result of the new discoveries the site attracted many foreign tourists and scholars. Among them was the famous novelist Agatha Christie. Agatha seemed to have fallen in love with one of Woolly assistants called Max Mallowan. After they got married, she accompanied him to all the sites he excavated in Iraq which lasted for nearly thirty years.
The Peninsula
