Mesopotamia 3D (this is a reference to the third step up movie)

Getrude Bell

Father was a wealthy industrialist

Well-educated

• Studied history at Oxford, but was not allowed to graduate (likely a decision by her family)

• Went on to a career in scholarship

Fluent in eight languages, traveled West Asia in the 1890s under Ottoman rule

• Fascinated with history, geography, and contemporary politics in West Asia

• Became an expert

Recruited into the British intelligence service

1921 - invited to join a committee to carve out the borders of West Asia

• The Cairo Conference

• Only woman out of 39 people

Also did archaeology

• Created a photo archive that’s now at Newcastle University

• Published in English, French, and German

Became a close advisor to Faisal I in Iraq

• Honorary head of antiquities in Iraq - wrote the first antiquities laws, founded the Iraq museum of antiquities

• Ur was the first permit given under the new laws - she was instrumental in getting archaeology off the ground there

Died in 1926

• Leonard Woolley wrote her obituary

Known as the “Uncrowned Queen of Iraq”

• But was an agent of colonial power in the Cairo Conference

Katharine Woolley background

Born Katherine Menke

Very outgoing and well-educated

• Attended Oxford

Worked as a nurse in WWI

Married Betram Keeling (a diplomat in Cairo who died 1922)

Ended up traveling West Asia

Katharine Wooley at Ur

Visited Ur in 1924

• Became an illustrator on Woolley’s project - at first for free, but then a paid position

When her presence was noted by the University of Pennsylvania, this “single” woman was viewed as a scandal

• Museum directors considered her presence a distraction

• Married Leonard Woolley in 1926 for convenience

Excavated, did restoration and reconstruction

• Most of the jewels were reconstructed and illustrated by her

By the 1930s, she was managing the whole project

Emblematic of many uncredited women in the field at the time

Leonard Woolley and Sheik Hamoudi Ibn Ibrahim

Lifelong friendship

Hamoudi Ibn Ibrahim’s community provided labourers/ excavators and protected the cemetary site from looting

From all accounts, a good collaboration

Woolley’s excavations

The Temenos

The cemetery

Some excavated residential areas

2 ports

3 test trenches

The Temenos

Monumental area of the temples and administrative palaces

Off-center (unusual for typical organization)

Walled area inside the central city

Temenos structures

E-Temen-Ni-Gur

• Temple dedicated to Moon god Nanna and his wife Sin/ Nigal (the Great Lady)

• Includes the Ziggurat

E-gi-par

• “Cloistered house”

• Home of the high priestess (important political role for women)

E-Hur-Sag

• Ur-Nammu’s palace

Temenos construction

Baked mud-brick

Massive (4+ meter) walls

• Core and veneer walls - filled with rubble

Bitumen as mortar to protect from the elements

Gipsum or lime plaster (non-local materials)

Painted

The Ziggurat at Ur

3- tiered

• Temple on top

Intended to evoke a mountain

• Huge structure on what is otherwise a flat plain

Now, only one layer remains

Dedicated to Nanna (the patron of Ur) and his wife

More recently restored by Saddam Hussein

The concept was relatively late in the 3rd millennium BCE

• Tiered temples existed, but not massive mountain-like ones

• Became more popular after Ur-Nammu’s time

One of the largest known ziggurats

Iconography on seals and sculptures identify Ur-Nammu as the builder king

Surrounded by buildings and courtyards

• Later, the city rose up above it (tells)

The Ziggurat at Ur - dimensions

64m x 45 m

30 m high (the remaining layer)

The Ziggurat at Ur - symbolic meaning

Temple to the patron deity

Express the glory of the city and the god

Also monuments to kings and evidence of their efficacy

McMahon - symbol of collective labour

Access was likely highly restricted

Mesopotamian deities - voibes

Characterized by shared concepts and beliefs across the region

Not a single organized religion, no central human leader

Consistent, but not centralized

• Apart from homage to Enlil/ Nippur

Gods represented as anthropomorphic, have families

• Some are more important (politics)

The place and importance of each god varies over time and space

Enlil (again) (more info) (because we love him almost as much as Tlaloc does)

Associated with Nippur

God of water, forces of nature, flooding

“Father of the Gods”

Ianna

Associated with Uruk

Goddess of sexual reproduction

Temples at Ur and Nippur as well

Nanna

Associated with Ur

God of the moon, wisdom

Son of Enlil

Beard of lapis lazuli

Depicted riding a winged bull

An/ Anu

God of heaven

Father of Ianna

Gods and cities

Each city is a gift from the patron god

• But might have temples to other gods (maybe because its citizens came from elsewhere)

By Uruk times, gods were firmly associated with the urban sphere

• Lived in temples

• Referred to as urban city-dwellers

• Temples were the largest owners of agriculture in Mesopotamia (reason for so much cuneiform)

Public ceremonial space (the Temenos)

Temples, quarters of priests and priestesses, residences of royalty

Enclosed and open spaces

• Lots of courtyards - people would have been let in for ceremonies

Feasting, music, and dancing were important

• Employed the craft industry

Egipar translation

“Cloistered house” or “Priestly residence”

Egipar location

South of the Ziggurat, separated by a street

Who constructed the Egipar?

Ur-Nammu

Who lived at the Egipar?

Priestesses who acted as Nigal/ Sin (wife of Nanna)

Entu

“Princess”

A priestess of Nanna revealed to the country through omens

• “Chosen” by Nanna

• Omens may have been engineered to install certain women in the position

The first Entu

Enheduanna, daughter of Sargon

• Effectively appointed by her father

Egipar structure/ construction

Two halves, surrounded by a wall

Floors made of baked brick

Kitchen

• Food and drink for feasting was likely prepared here (a political practice)

Had archives/ a library as well!

• Repository for texts

• Poetry, economics, politics

• Leonard Woolley found a cache of unbaked tablet (fired for posterity)

The Royal Cemetery at Ur location

The Southeast corner of the Temenos

The Royal Cemetery at Ur time period

ED period

Graves at Ur - vibes (rough numbers and such)

~2000 burials excavated

• 16 of which were royal (contained gold, silver, semi-precious stones)

4000 graves were not recorded because they were considered too disturbed or of lesser importance (everyday people)

• Destroyed

Royal tombs at Ur

3rd millenium BCE

Total of 16

Belowground stone vaults with multiple chambers

Some court attendants/ sacrifices

Cut into early period garbage pits

• Midden used at the same time

Most looted pre-Woolleys

Difficult stratigraphy, some graves cut into each other

High-value belongings

• Instruments, seals, important precious metals, stone, personal items (i.e. cosmetic kits)

Only 4 had skeletons that could be definitively decided by sex

“Queen” Puabi’s tomb

Undisturbed!

Best guess = an elite woman

A lot of belongings

Name comes from a seal in the tomb - two other seals give other names, so it’s unclear

Puabi grave goods

Headdress of golden leaves, silver, lapis lazuli

Gold, carnelian, lapis lazuli beads

• Stone beads from the IVC

Gold plates

Non-local, highly skilled craft

Also a lyre

Other people in Puabi’s tomb

52 sacrificed attendants - also with headdresses

Woolley thought they were poisoned

• Recent CT scans suggest blunt force trauma for at least some

• But most skeletons were thrown away (bad bad bad)

Tomb 1237 “Death pit”

Largest of the “chamberless death pits”

Shaft tombs with sacrificed retainers thought to be sunk in front of more elaborate grave chamber tombs of elites

• Woolley believed the associated chamber tomb had been looted and destroyed

Still a lot of goods, believed by some to be the grave of the 26th king of Ur

• A lot of jewelry, lyres, etc

• Armed men and a chariot

Most victims were considered to be women because of particular types of jewelry, but this is not based on skeletal analysis, so it remains unclear

Another theory: skeleton 61 (wearing headdress and jewelry similar to Puabi) is the central figure of the tomb

• But may have just been a sacrificial elite retainer

Narrative that the victims went willingly (by Woolley)

• Further analysis is not possible because the skeletons were disposed of

• And also skeletal analysis of the time was very eugenics

Pollock’s theory: offerings to more elite dead

• Or related to administrators in the cemetery

Cemetery demographics

Mostly adults in their prime

Most children were believed to be buried in houses or other cemeteries

Residential architecture excavations by Woolley

East of the Temenos

Larger area to the south

Dated to a later period (after Ur III)

The study of households/ everyday practices was not common in the 1920s/30s

• Often ignored even if excavated

Residential architecture - vibes

Packed, shared walls, tight living quarters

Houses built along tight alleys

• Rubbish was thrown into the streets, increasing the street level (Woolley)

Elizabeth Stone

Mesopotamian Cities and Countryside

Based part of her PhD on residential life at Nippur

Uses a wide range of sources

• Recovered texts, excavation data, survey data, analogies with later Ottoman architecture

Ethnographic analogy

Using analogies with later architecture in the same region to surmise things about ancient life

Used by Elizabeth Stone

Excavations at Nippur - Elizabeth Stone

Patchy approach at times, uses available data

Distinguishes between inter- and intra-site survey

Intramural survey

Survey between walls

City organizations - Elizabeth Stone

Walled sectors, divided by canals

Ziggurats on the outskirts - residential areas at the heart of the city

• Ur is an outlier there

Both rich and poor in some neighbourhoods

• More variation within neighbourhoods than between them

Not a lot of house size variation due to common walls

Most residents were both home- and landowners

Some neighbourhoods/ streets may be associated with a particular profession

• I.e. copper production at Nippur

Household excavations at Nippur

Basic unit of social organization

Patrilineal (as seen in legal documents)

Most think the houses were not extended families, but there were still strong family ties

• Cycles of households

Sun-dried brick is relatively cheap to renovate

The House

Great uniformity across sites and time

From the ED period to early Islamic time

1-2 stories built around a courtyard

Flat rooftops are important, used as work spaces

Focus on the inside

• Exteriors are unadorned

No activity-specific rooms

Sub-floor burials, but not enough to say everyone in the family was buried there

• Family space was sacred

Isin-Larsa

Period after Ur III