The Royal Cemetery at Ur is an archaeological site in modern-day Dhi Qar Governorate in southern Iraq. The initial excavations at Ur took place between 1922 and 1934 under the direction of Leonard Woolley in association with the British Museum and the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Philadelphia.
Many finds are now in museums, including the Iraq Museum in Baghdad and the British Museum.
Discovery
The process was begun in 1922 by digging trial trenches, in order for the archaeologists to get an idea of the layout of the ancient city that would be documented in drawings by Katharine Woolley. In one trench where initially nothing was discovered, head archaeologist Leonard Woolley decided to dig deeper. There, clay vases, limestone bowls, small bronze objects, and assorted beads were found. Woolley thought that there may have been gold beads and, to entice the workers to turn them in when found, Woolley offered a sum of money—this led to the discovery of the gold beads after the workers repurchased them from the goldsmiths they sold them to.
Dishonesty of the workers was an issue, but not only in the preliminary digs. The locals hired to help had no previous experience in archaeology, leading Woolley to abandon what they referred to as the "gold trench" for four years, until the workers became better versed in archaeological digs. In addition, archaeology was still in the beginning stages as a field. As a result, gold objects were identified by an expert who dated them incorrectly to the "Late Babylonian" (c. 700 BC), when in fact they dated back to the reign of Sargon I (c. 2300 BC).
The cemetery at Ur included slightly more than 2000 burials. Amongst these burials were sixteen tombs identified by Woolley as "royal" tombs based on their size and structure, variety and richness of grave goods, as well as the existence of artifacts associated with mass ritual.
The site
The ruins of the ancient city of Ur can be found in the desert of southern Iraq. The city remained abandoned after the Euphrates River changed its course more than two millennia ago. Early archaeologists dug into the surface and recovered graves, some of which had royal names inscribed on them. Woolley began his excavation in 1922 on behalf of the British Museum and the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. However, the actual discovery of the cemetery and its royal tombs was four years later after the excavation started. The large cemetery was in operation for at least three centuries during the second half of the third millennium BC. Most of the graves were individual burials that had cut into one another. Male and female corpses were found with their belongings that identified them as either rich or poor.
Woolley initially unearthed 1850 graves but later identified 260 additional ones. Sixteen were unique to him, because they stood out from all the rest in terms of their wealth, the structure of their burial grounds, and rituals. He thought that the stone-built chambers and the immense value of riches belonged to the dead that came from royal lineage. Such cadavers inside their respective stone chambers were the only ones to have abundant provisions in order to meet their needs in the afterlife. Having that said, the subordinates were not treated in the same manner and had nothing of the aforementioned goods. They were treated in the same manner as other provisions and supplies, because the funeral was solely for the principal corpse. When the main body was buried, the rest of the people would have been sacrificed in that person's honor and buried thereafter.
When Woolley found the Great Death Pit (PG 1237), it was in extremely poor condition. What remained of the chamber were a few stones and some gold, lapis lazuli, and carnelian beads in fine condition. The Great Death Pit was an open square-shaped space, serving as the graveyard for the bodies of armed men that were laid out inside along with other corpses thought to belong to women or young girls. The introduction of massive death pits at Ur is usually associated to Meskalamdug, one of the kings of Ur that was also known as the paramount ruler of all the Sumerians. He started the practice of such a massive entombment with the sacrifice of soldiers and an entire choir of women to accompany him in the afterlife. It has also been suggested that the Great Death Pit was the tomb of Mesannepada.
Puabi
In contrast to the Great Death Pit, one of the royal tombs at Ur survived practically in its entirety, which was most notably due to its treasures left largely unscathed on the body of royal lineage. The tomb belonged to Queen Puabi, and was easy to identify due to her jewelry made out of beads of gold, silver, lapis lazuli, carnelian, and agate. The biggest clues that denoted her title as queen was a cylinder seal with her name on the inscription and her crown, which was made out of layers of gold ornaments shaped in intricate floral patterns.
Woolley uncovered an earth ramp leading down to the death pit of the well-preserved tomb, which was twelve by four meters approximately, and found a menagerie of corpses that ranged from armed men to women wearing headdresses with elaborate details. In his descent toward the pit, he found traces of reed matting, and they covered the artifacts and bodies in order to avoid contact with the soil that had filled the royal grave. Two meters below the level of the pit laid a tomb chamber built of stone that had no doorway in its walls, and its only accessible entrance was through its roof. Once inside, four bodies rested inside the tomb, but the most important one was evidently that of the queen.
Burial practices
The bodies at the Royal Cemetery underwent certain burial practices. In the tombs, the primary inhumation is placed inside the tomb chamber usually accompanied by attendants. More bodies or victims are also buried, often in separate chambers or, more commonly, in 'death pits': open, sunken courts. The amount of sacrificed bodies in one tomb can range from as few as six to between seventy and eighty bodies. The attendants are usually lying in neat rows within the death pits or chambers. It is not entirely known if the attendants died placed in that manner or were positioned after death. The principal body was always laid on a mat made of reeds which also lined the floor and walls of the pit where the attendants are located. In some tombs the bodies are arranged in very specific ways. Some tombs were found with male skeletons with helmets and spears positioned in front of the entrance as guards and then contained female attendants inside.
It is not known for sure who the primary inhumations were, but it is generally assumed that they are royalty. The occupants are possibly related either by blood or marriage. Additionally, there is little textual evidence available to explain the tombs at the cemetery and the practices of the people, but it is thought that the burial of royalty consisted of multi-day ceremonies. Some of the bodies have evidence of heating or smoking which could have been an attempt at preserving the bodies to last through the ceremony. Additionally, mercury has been found on some skulls, which could also indicate attempts at preservation. Music, wailing, and feasting took place in addition to the burial with the possibility of the attendants joining in. In the first part of the ceremony the body was laid in the tomb, along with the offerings, and then sealed with brick and stone. In the next part of the ceremony the death pits were filled with guards, attendants, musicians, and animals, such as oxen or donkeys.
How the attendants ended up buried with the royalty is unknown. All of the bodies are arranged in an ordered fashion and appear peaceful. The elaborate headdresses worn by women are undisturbed which supports the assumption they were lying or sitting down when they died. Woolley thought initially that the attendants were human sacrifices and were killed to display the kings' power and put on a public show. Later he speculated that the attendants voluntarily consumed poison to continue serving their head in death. Each attendant was found with a small cup nearby which they could drink the poison from. The poison could have been a sedative with the cause of death being suffocation from having the chamber sealed. Later research has found that some of the skulls had received blunt force trauma indicating that, rather than voluntarily serving their superiors in death, they were forcibly killed.
Grave goods
The cemetery at Ur contained more than 2000 burials alongside a corresponding wealth of objects. Many items come from the handful of royal burials. Many of these grave goods were likely imported from various surrounding regions including Afghanistan, Egypt, Ethiopia and the Indus Valley. Objects of significance varied from cylinder seals, jewelry and metalwork, to pottery, musical instruments, and more.
Cylinder seals
Cylinder seals found amongst the grave goods in the cemetery at Ur were often inscribed with the names of the deceased. Excavators retrieved three cylinder seals near queen Puabi's remains, one with her name written in cuneiform.
The various female personages and attendants buried at the cemetery of Ur were adorned with necklaces, earrings, headdresses, and hair rings made from gold, silver, lapis lazuli and carnelian. Hair ornaments included hair combs with floral elements made of gold, lapis, shell, and pink limestone. Hair ribbons of gold and silver and inlaid combs with rosettes were also found amongst the human remains at Ur. The presence of carnelian beads amongst the grave goods at the cemetery indicate trade with the Indus Valley.
Many of the jewels contained some sort of botanical reference. Amongst them are vegetal wreaths fashioned with gold leaves. Notably, Puabi's headdress consists of four botanical wreaths including rosettes or stars and leaves.
Other precious metals were found in the form of helmets, daggers, and various vessels in copper, silver, and gold. A gold helmet, whose ownership is attributed to Meskalamdug, was found in a grave that Woolley believed to belong to an elite, but not necessarily a king. The helmet was made from a single piece of gold and fashioned to resemble a wig.
The presence of fully developed casting practices is assumed from the discovery of another weapon made from electrum. At the same time, another weapon, referred to as the "Dagger of Ur," was, according to Woolley, the first significant grave good discovered at Ur. The sheath and blade are both made from gold with a handle of lapis lazuli with gold decoration. Other examples of metalwork include a variety of golden goblets and vessels made with handles of twisted wire. Some of these vessels included relief decoration or patterning. Hammered work in various metals was also discovered. This included a shield ornament containing an Assyrian style subject of lions and men being trampled. Other objects included a silver fluted bowl with engravings and a silver model of a seafaring vessel.
Pottery
The pottery types at Ur included mostly jar forms and bowls with limited variety in style. Conical bowls, as recorded by the excavators, fall into two categorical types based on their rim diameters. Woolley identified 24 different pottery types at the Royal Cemetery based on the excavation of 238 graves. In order to date the pottery and burials at Ur, some scholars have looked to the pottery to compare to similar types from other sites in Mesopotamia and then checked using cylinder seals.