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When
the first western explorers and antiquarians arrived
in Mesopotamia Ur of the Chaldees was high on their
agenda. After all, it was said by the Bible to be
the home town of the patriarch Abraham. As it turned
out the site was even more than they imagined. It
was the principal city of a hitherto unknown civilization,
dubbed Sumerian by those who first identified it.
Excavations at Ur began shortly after World War I
and were conducted by Leonard Woolley under the sponsorship
of the British Museum and the University Museum, University
of Pennsylvania. Woolley worked there throughout the
1920's and uncovered huge areas of the city, including
the tombs of a number of her kings and queens along
with temples, palaces and the homes of ordinary citizens.
The results were published over the course of the
next several decades
Drawing
of Ur by William Loftus |
Sir
Leonard and Lady Woolley |
By
the time Hammurabi took the Babylonian throne, in
the eighteenth century BC, Ur was already a place
of considerable antiquity. It had already been occupied
for something like 3500 years, making it one of the
oldest cities in the world. Its inhabitants were Sumerians,
the people who 'invented' the very notion of cities
and civilization. Their ancestors were farmers who
had moved into the plains of southern Mesopotamia
by the sixth millennium BC. It was a fertile land,
with enormous agricultural potential if only it was
not so dry. The Sumerians had mastered the techniques
of irrigation, however, and used them to produce huge
quantities of grain to feed a rapidly growing population.
The
mound of Tell el-Mukayyar, site of ancient
Ur, is located on the northern edge of a vast expanse
of marshland and saltwater lagoons which gave the
inhabitants a variety of environments to exploit and
also provided a direct link with the Persian Gulf.
The latter was to prove the key to the success of
the city for, apart from good soil, Mesopotamia was
singularly lacking in most raw materials, such as
stone, timber and metals, and had to import them.
Most of the population were farmers and herdsmen but
significant numbers were involved in manufacturing
or trade.
The
political fortunes of the city varied over the years
but it was always a centre of considerable importance.
Its affairs were in the hands of a small group of
religious leaders, supported a staff of minor officials
and scribes. The priests maintained their position
through elaborate rituals and ceremonies designed
to promote a sense of community among the citizenry
and to reinforce the authority of the gods they
served. In fact, the Sumerians believed that the
cities in which they lived belonged to the gods
and that they themselves were merely their servants.
It is therefore not surprising that the grandest
and most important buildings in the city belonged
to the gods.
Ur
reached the peak of its power in the final century
of the third millennium BC, the so-called Neo-Sumerian
Period, when it controlled all of Mesopotamia.
This glorious episode came to a end with capture
and sack of the city by the Elamites in 2004 BC.
Its last king, Ibbi-Sin, was dragged off in chains
to Susa the Elamite capital and was never heard
from again. After the destruction, the survivors
eventually trickled back into the ruins of the
city and began to rebuild. Although Ur would never
again wield power in the region, the prestige
of the city meant that it was a valuable prize
for those who wished to take her place. The rulers
of the rival cities of Isin and Larsa competed
in restoring and enlarging the holy places. Eventually,
like the rest of Mesopotamia, Ur was absorbed
into the empire of Hammurabi of Babylon. The city
appears to have been quite prosperous during his
reign but, along with the rest of ancient Sumer,
rebelled shortly after his death. It was captured
and sacked by Samsu-iluna, Hammurabi's son, in
his eleventh year on the throne (1738 BC).
The
chief god at Ur was Nanna, the moon god,
whose temple was the most conspicuous feature
of the urban landscape. It sat atop an enormous
stepped tower or ziggurat and was located
at the heart of its own walled precinct. This
area is known as a temenos (the Greek word
for such an enclosure) and, along with the temple,
included all of the most important buildings in
the town. There was another temple known as the
Giparu in honour of Ningal, Nanna's wife,
which also served as the residence of the high
priestess of the god. The Ehursag seems
to have been a royal palace. Most of these buildings
dated from the time of Ur-Nammu, the founder of
the last great independent dynasty of Sumerian
kings, although they surviving remains generally
date to later times.
Along
with the rest of the city, the temenos area
was thoroughly plundered by the Elamites in
2004 BC. Only the ziggurat, because of its vast
bulk, escaped total destruction but the temple
at its summit was destroyed along with all other
structures in the area. The ziggurat terrace
was restored to something like its old self.
A fortified gate was added by Warad-Sin of Larsa
to the northwest side of the rebuilt terrace
wall but little else was obviously new. The
Edublalmah was laid out by Išme-Dagan
of Isin but most of what remains belongs to
the Kassite Period. The Enunmah was restored
to the state it had been when built by Shulgi.
The Giparu was rebuilt by Enanatuma (the
daughter of Išme-Dagan and high priestess
of Nanna) on its original foundations.
Its remains are by far the best-preserved among
the public buildings of this period.
The
Ziggurat, which was the main focus of
cult activity, was essentially a stepped platform
three stages high made out of mud-brick with
an outer skin of baked brick set in bitumen
mortar. The lowest stage, which measures some
60 x 45 metres, is very well-preserved and stands
to a height of about 15 metres, the walls inclining
inwards at a slight angle. However, only the
outline of the base of the second stage and
the eroded core of the third stage survive.
Ziggurat
of Ur-Nammu from the Southeast
The
summit was reached via three staircases of 100
steps—one perpendicular to, and the other
two leaning against, the side of the lowest stage
. These have been restored somewhat and refaced
with new brickwork (compare the view of the excavations,
Figure 1, with that shown above). The stairs
intersected at a gatehouse located between the
first and second stages—only the foundations
survive. From it, the central staircase continues
straight up to the second stage and then on to
the temple at the top of the third. Access to
the top of the first stage was via a pair of lateral
stairways leading down from the gatehouse. These
staircases would carried religious processions
to the summit of the structure, pageantry which
was surely the inspiration for the story of Jacob's
Ladder.
Deep
slits filled with broken pottery penetrated
from the exterior face deep into the core of
this platform (see Figure 3). Woolley
believed that these were designed to drain water
from the interior and suggested that trees and
gardens were planted along the top. At each
end of the ziggurat, deep channels were cut
into one of the buttresses, apparently to drain
excess water. On the southeast side of the lowest
terrace the foundations of a small building
of unknown function were found but no trace
of any other structure—including the temple
at the summit—has been found.
The
tower stood on a raised terrace surrounded by
its own walled compound known as the E-temennigur.
In front of the terrace was a separate enclosure,
the Court of Nanna. The walls of both enclosures
contained small rooms known as casemates which
could be used for a variety of purposes—
offices, workshops or storerooms. The latter
function was particularly important since the
wealth of the city god was enormous. He received
a large share of any enterprise conducted by
the city— military campaigns, trading expeditions
and the like. Unfortunately the city had been
pretty thoroughly plundered on more than one
occasion and the walls had been levelled to
their foundations by later builders making it
virtually impossible to determine the exact
function of each room.
On
the northwest side of the Ziggurat were the remains
of a building thought to be the kitchen of the
god. At least a later foundation deposit found
there mentions the "great cooking pot"
and describes the preparation of the "evening
and morning meals of the gods". Within the
terrace wall in the same quarter there had been
a small room with a niche at one end which may
well have been a small shrine of Nanna but it
was destroyed in the sack of the city and never
rebuilt. Adjoining the terrace on the northwest
side was the Court of Nanna
The
concept of justice was very important to the
inhabitants of Mesopotamia and one of the cornerstones
of their civilization. It was important that
justice be served in the presence of the city
god who was the ultimate judge. Records of legal
decisions numbering in the thousands have survived
from Mesopotamia— the most important being
the famous Code
of Hammurabi.
These
are the laws of justice which Hammurabi
the able king has established.... That
the strong may not oppress the weak, to
give justice to the orphan and widow,
I have inscribed my precious words on
my stele and established it in Babylon
before my statue called the 'King of Justice'.
(Extract
from the Epilogue of Hammurabi's Law Code)
Right:
Hammurabi receiving the symbols of
kingship from Shamash
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The
east gate of the terrace, known as the E.dublalmah
served as a "Place of Judgement" according
to an inscription found on a door-socket.
Hundreds
of Neo-Sumerian administrative and economic
texts were found here, giving salaries of various
temple personnel. Apparently the temple owned
and operated a number of workshops throughout
the city. The main industry was weaving and
one establishment employed no less than 165
women. Records were kept (monthly, quarterly
and annually) of the amount of woollen thread
issued and the amount of cloth produced according
to quality and weight— they even made allowance
for wastage. Rations were issued according to
skill and output-generally the older and younger
women received less. The texts themselves were
the characteristic clay tablets which were in
use throughout Mesopotamia for over 3000 years.
The
Giparu
| The
temple of the goddess Ningal (right),
wife of Nanna, lay in the area immediately
southwest of the Ziggurat Terrace and was
separated from it by a paved street. During
his excavations Woolley found no less than
thirteen door sockets bearing inscriptions
of Ur-Nammu suggesting that the original foundation
was his. They were all found in secondary
locations, however, and the earliest structural
remains are associated with his grandson,
Amar-Sin. This was built largely out of sun-dried
mud brick, a material with a somewhat limited
lifespan and about a century later it was
replaced with a baked brick version built
which endured until Samsu-iluna's sack of
the city in 1737 BC. Its construction is associated
with a high priestess of Nanna named
Enanatuma whose stamped bricks and dedications
are found throughout. |
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A
narrow passageway (Figure 6) ran just
inside the outer wall, around three sides of
the building, while another corridor divides
into two main blocks. Each block is quite distinct
and has its own separate entrance. There are
doorways leading from each into the central
passage, making it relatively easy to get from
one to the other. The function of the perimeter
corridor is slightly more problematic. It leads
from doorways on either side of the northwest
entrance but, apart from where it meets the
central passage on each side, there is no other
access. It may well have provided access to
the roof or to a chamber over the southeast
entrance, although Woolley found no evidence
of any staircase.
The
Northwest Wing was subdivided into three
distinct units. The largest of these is a rectangular
block with a central wing (A1-35, coloured green
on Plan 4). In each of the corners of
this T-shaped arrangement was a smaller suite
of rooms, isolated to some degree from the rest
of the building.
The
rectangular block is a temple complex with a
pair of courtyards. The main entrance led to
a pair of antechambers (A1 & A2) paved with
baked brick. From there a dog-legged approach
led to a long room (A4) lined with libation
troughs and with a bench for offerings. To the
left (northeast) was a large forecourt (A6)
but both it and the rooms around it (Rooms A7-A15)
had been badly damaged by later activity and
it is difficult to determine the precise function.
It is possible that they are the remains of
a domestic suite for the high priestess. Room
A5 had a platform set in a broad niche in one
of its long walls. The niche was directly opposite
a rather formal looking doorway from the forecourt
and undoubtedly held a statue.
Figure
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Figure
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Figure
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Figure
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The
main courtyard (A16), located on the opposite
site of Room A4, is fairly typical of a Mesopotamian
temple of the period. It was essentially a
gathering place for the select few who were
privileged to visit the shrine and sacrifice
on behalf of the people as a whole. In one
corner was a small compartment (A17) which
contained a number of contemporary clay tablets.
Not much is known for certain about the rest
of the rooms surrounding the courtyard, apart
from those on the southwest side. There, a
pair of massive doorways framed by an elaborate
arrangement of niches and buttresses gave
access to a pair of small antechambers (A27
& A28). These in turn led to the cella
(A30), the principal cult room of the temple.
Basically,
a Mesopotamian cella consisted of an altar
in the middle of the room and a niche in the
wall behind it containing a podium on which
the cult image (usually a statue) was placed.
In this case, the altar is located along the
long rear wall of the cella, with pedestals
for votive offerings (votives are thanks offerings,
usually in the form of a figurine of the worshipper)
on either side . The niche has been expanded
into what amounts to a separate room (A31)
located at the northwest end of the main chamber.
Unfortunately, the room was badly disturbed
and no trace of the cult statue nor the podium
has survived. In fact, even the name of the
deity is unknown. A temple was essentially
the abode of the deity and contained many
of the features of a domestic house. There
were storerooms for the possessions of the
god, things like jewellery and fine clothing,
etc. Room A29 was probably the treasury while
A26 had a large storage jar stuck in the floor.
The
south corner contained an unusual suite of rooms
(coloured blue on Plan 4). Rooms B1-B4
formed a small shrine, a scaled-down version
of its neighbour— except that this one
contained two cellae. Next to it was a set of
three rooms (B6-8) enclosed by a corridor (B5).
The
central room (B7) contained a standing stela
and another pair lying face down on the floor.
They were inscribed with a dedication to Ningal
by Amar-Sin suggesting the suite may have been
a shrine to the deified king.
The
suite in the east corner (coloured purple on
Plan 4) was very badly preserved and only the
foundations of the Neo-Sumerian period have
survived. The walls and floors were gone so
it is impossible to say what its function was.
At some point a number of subterranean brick
tombs were constructed, one in each of the rooms.
All of the tombs were plundered long ago but
it is possible that they belonged to the various
high priestesses of the temple.
The
Southeast Wing (coloured red on Plan 4)
is completely taken up by a temple to Ningal,
the wife of the city god. A pair of lobbies
led to a small forecourt (C3) from which one
proceeded to the main courtyard (C7)— a
'bent-axis' approach which was fairly common
in Mesopotamian temples (follow the arrows on
Plan 4). In the northern corner of the courtyard
was a brick water tank next to which stood a
stone column. The tank was undoubtedly used
for ritual purification (lustration) and Woolley
suggests that a vessel of holy water was placed
on the pillar. Directly in front of the doorway
from C3 was a rectangular brick platform with
a socket which held a diorite stela (an upright
slab of stone bearing an inscription and/or
carved with reliefs) of Hammurabi, of which
several fragments were found. Next to it was
a much lower platform with a pair of rectangular
compartments in the top. On the other side of
the courtyard, directly in front of the entrance
to the shrine, was a large brick altar. Against
the wall, on either side of the doorway were
low platforms where votive offerings (usually
in the form of statues or stelae of royal benefactors)
were placed. Fragments of a calcite stele of
a king named Rim-Sin were found in front of
one of them.
The
doorway to the sanctuary proper was framed
by reveals and was probably arched (see figure
below). It led through a pair of wide antechambers
(C19-C22) which appear to have been shrines
for lesser deities—
a statue of the goddess Bau was found in C20,
next to a low brick pedestal. The
inner sanctum (C27) was entirely occupied
by a brick pedestal for Ningal's statue and
a low podium for the priestess to stand. The
whole suite was on a long axis with the inner
sanctum directly visible from the courtyard
(when the doors were open).
Reconstruction
of the Interior of the Ningal Temple in the
Giparu
Since
the temple was considered to be the abode
of the goddess, it was provided with all of
the standard amenities of a domestic house.
Her bedchamber was probably in C28 while C23
has been identified as her treasury. Fragments
of stone vessels dedicated by a number of
different rulers were found on the floor of
the latter. On either side of the central
unit were storerooms and workshops— C10
contained a weaver's pit, an oval hollow where
the weaver sat to operate a hand loom. Behind
the shrines were other service rooms, including
a large kitchen suite (C32-34). The main work
area (C32) was a small open courtyard with
two smaller, covered rooms at one end. The
court contained a well and a water tank along
with a copper ring fixed in the ground in
front of the well (presumably to fasten the
bucket). Up against the southeast wall were
two fireplaces for boiling water. A counter,
heavily scored with knife marks, was located
against the short wall between the doorways
to the other two rooms. Of the smaller rooms,
one contained a domed bread oven (C34) while
a cooking range was found in the other (C33).
The rest of the rooms around the kitchen (C29-31;
C35-41) were used for storage. In C29 Woolley
found a number of large storage jars lined
up against one of the walls.
Figure
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Figure
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Figure
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Figure
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Figure
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The
rest of the buildings in the temenos
were all the work of earlier or later periods—
the Old Babylonian versions have entirely
disappeared. The E.hursag was built
by Shulgi, the son of Ur-Nammu, whose stamped
bricks were used. It appears to have been
the residence of the king as well as a temple
for his worship. It is a square structure
(55 x 55 metres) of which the northern corner
has been totally destroyed. It has been suggested
that the building may have been part of a
larger complex (now destroyed). The interior
is divided into two parts by a range of rooms
(19-23) with the domestic apartments and shrine
(Rooms 8-12) in the southwest and servants'
quarters in the southeast.
Residential
Areas
Areas
of housing occurred virtually everywhere within
the city walls with the exception of the temenos.
The most extensively excavated and most coherent
plans belong to Areas EM and AH (for their
locations, see Plan 1). The
latest tablets found date to Year 11 of Samsu-iluna,
known as the "year in which the King
destroyed the walls of Ur". Although
the houses in these neighbourhoods had been
occupied from the beginning of the second
millennium BC, the destruction ensured that
those of the very last phase were especially
well-preserved and enabled Woolley to get
a reasonably accurate picture of life in the
city at a particular point in time.
Layout
The
excavated area shows no evidence whatsoever
of town planning but has the rather rambling
layout typical of settlements in the region
of more recent days. There was undoubtedly
one or more major thoroughfares running through
the city, leading to the temenos—
there must have been an enormous traffic in
supplies and manufactured goods going to and
from the temple and palace. It also seems
likely that there was a Sacred Way for the
major processions which dominated the religious
calendar. However, nothing of the sort was
found in the excavated areas. There the streets
are narrow and very irregular but this is
an asset in a country with a climate like
Iraq's. Narrow streets with awnings hanging
from the buildings provide more shade than
broad avenues— an important consideration
during the blistering heat of the summer.
They also break the force of the bitter winter
winds and the sandstorms which strike suddenly
at any time of year. The blocks enclosed by
this street system are very large and the
houses in the middle had to be approached
from
blind alleys or extremely narrow passageways.
Wheeled vehicles would have found it virtually
impossible to get around and goods must have
been transported by donkeys or porters. In
addition to private homes, the neighbourhoods
included shops, small manufacturing enterprises
and and religious sanctuaries. One particularly
narrow and twisty lane, Bazaar Alley, resembles
the typical souk of more recent times
with shop fronts and even a restaurant on
the corner.
Figure
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Figure
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The
absence of public sanitation facilities meant
that household rubbish was dumped into the
unpaved streets, leading to a rise in level
(as much as 1.3 metres in Paternoster Row)
over the years. Householders had the regular
chore of raising the threshold and adding
steps to gain access to what was originally
a ground level building (see Figure 25).
In wet weather, a flood of muck and garbage
would wash into the house. Eventually the
problem would reach the point where the lintel
above the doorway got to be uncomfortably
low and the house had to be partially dismantled
and rebuilt. The walls would be trimmed to
below the height of the original ground floor
ceilings and used as the foundations of the
new construction so that the new house was
essentially a replica of the old.
Construction
The
primary building material was mud-brick, of
which the country had an inexhaustible supply.
Clay tempered with straw was packed into moulds
and simply allowed to dry in the sun. Nothing
could be easier or cheaper. Certainly nothing
else was available locally. It is very prone
to damage by running water, however, and flooding
has always been a problem in Mesopotamia.
The builders minimized the effects of this
by using kiln-fired bricks for the foundations
and lower course of the walls. Thicker,
support walls had a core of rubble into which
the brickwork was bonded.
Interior
walls were normally covered with a thick mud
plaster and might be whitewashed to help reflect
the heat. Some doorways, at least, were arched—
a fallen example, made of baked bricks, was
found No. 3 New Street. Open areas were paved
with fired bricks as were some of the larger
rooms. Otherwise, packed earth was sufficient
for the floors. Roofs were of mud over layers
of matting laid on a framework of wooden rafters.
They were fitted with projecting gutters.
Since drains were often found in the centre
of the courtyard, it is assumed that the roofs
sloped inwards. Wood was also used for stairways
as well as door and window-frames. The doors
themselves were also made of wood and swung
on doorposts set in sockets of brick or stone.
Private
Houses
Private
houses are all of a broadly similar type although
the scale and the exact layout might vary.
Typical is the house at No. 3 Gay Street (Woolley
named the streets after those he knew well
from his student days at Oxford) shown in
the plan below. Essentially it consists of
a central court with living rooms arranged
around it, reflecting both the climate and
the need for privacy in a crowded urban environment.
If there were any windows facing the street,
they were in the upper storeys. The small
door from the street opened into a paved lobby
which was often provided with a drain in one
corner—presumably so that one could wash
the dust off one's feet before entering the
house proper. From the lobby another door
(usually offset) led to the central court.
Masks of the demon-god Pazuzu were often hung
on the door jambs to protect the house against
the southwest wind which brought pestilence.
The
surface of the courtyard sloped towards the
centre where there was an impluvium
and a drain to carry away the excess rainwater.
Around the court were various domestic rooms
and a stairway. One of the rooms, usually
at the rear of the house, was a reception
room, the equivalent of the liwan found
in more recent Middle Eastern homes, where
visitors would be entertained and accommodated.
On the other side were the stairs and a lavatory,
the latter distinguished by its paved floor
and drain. Another ground floor room would
be the kitchen, usually equipped with a beehive
shaped bread oven and cooking range. There
might also be a spare bedroom (with a low
brick platform or wooden frame covered with
mats) and possibly a workroom. Larger houses
might have a second courtyard suite and private
lavatory facilities next to the liwan
for the use of guests.
Figure
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Figure
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Figure
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It
is assumed that the family lived on a second
storey— the walls are certainly thick
enough if it followed the same plan as the
ground floor (the ceilings would have been
too flimsy to support the weight of cross-walls).
Postholes in the court of 3 Gay Street suggest
that a wooden gallery ran around the interior
of the court for communication. The fact that
at least one central drain had a curb around
it suggests runoff from the roof of such a
structure flowed directly into it. No. 11
Paternoster Row had walls thick enough to
support a third storey. The odd house has
yards at the back with what seem to be storage
sheds or stables.
Domestic
chapels are found at the rear of all of the
larger houses and were generally accessed
through a door in the liwan. Typically,
the chapel consisted of a long brick-paved
room, the largest in the house, with an altar
at one end. The paving suggests the room may
have been at least partly open to the sky—although
the end with the altar was most likely protected
by a roof. The altar was a low brick platform
which took up most of the end of the chapel.
Cut into the wall behind it was a recessed
incense hearth with an open chimney running
up to the roof. At one end of the altar stood
a brick pedestal about 1 metre high. It was
covered with plaster which had been into a
pattern, usually representing the facade of
a temple building, and undoubtedly held the
image of the deity. A small chamber associated
with the chapel contained the family archives.
Plan
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Figure
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Figure
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Figure
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Figure
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No
trace of wooden furniture has been found but
folding chairs and tables are depicted on
seals. Wooden or wicker chests for storage
are known elsewhere. The floors of the more
important rooms would have been covered with
rugs and cushions? much as in a modern Iraqi
house. Raised wooden beds and cots are also
depicted in terracotta models. Light could
be supplied by torches or small terracotta
lamps with wicks floating in oil.
The
tendency in this period is to bury the dead
within the house (in contrast to the earlier
practice of interment in large cemeteries).
Corbel-vaulted brick tombs for the interment
of adults were located beneath the floor,
usually at the roofless end of the chapel.
When the chamber was full, clay coffins were
used for adults and children. Infants were
generally interred in clay pots. Grave goods
were few, perhaps a cylinder seal or some
cheap jewellery together with a pot or two.
The close association with the chapel suggests
that a cult of the ancestors existed. If so,
but the bones of earlier burials were swept
aside to make way for the latest interments.
Figure
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Figure
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Figure
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Figure
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Public
Chapels
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Shrines
are found at prominent locations within
the excavated area, especially intersections.
They were designed to meet the religious
needs of ordinary people rather than
the city as a whole and were much more
open and accessible than the major temples.
Where the name of the deity is known
(Hendursag or Nin-shubur) it is of minor
rank. Their cult was maintained by private
charity and not by state funds. The
buildings are distinguished from ordinary
homes by their somewhat grander entrances—elaborate
doorways decorated with reveals and
guarded by terracotta images of protective
demons (like the one shown right). Moreover,
shrines invariably sit at a higher level
than the street while houses are generally
lower.
The
basic form of such chapels consisted
of a small open courtyard with a small
room which served as the shrine (such
as the one known as Bazaar Chapel) but
any number of other rooms could be added—
lobbies; antechambers; storerooms; etc.
Typical is the Hendursag Chapel
at the corner of Straight Street
and Church Lane, fronting on the open
space Woolley called Carfax. A short
flight of steps led through the front
door and into a small lobby which opened
directly onto the courtyard (Room 1).
Next
to the lobby was a small storage room
(Room 3) which contained cult paraphernalia
and objects dedicated as votive offerings
to the god.
The
cult room lay on the opposite side of
the courtyard, directly opposite the
outer door. A brick altar stood in the
courtyard in front of the entrance and
there was a pedestal on either side.
Burnt offerings were placed on the altar
while the pedestals, one of which had
been hollowed out at the top to form
a bitumen-lined cup, was used for libations
(liquid offerings). Against the |
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northeast
wall, a short distance from the east corner,
there was a gap in the pavement measuring
1.20 x 0.65 metres which may have been the
site of a brick installation, possibly a statue
base. In fact, the broken statue of a goddess
was found lying in the courtyard a short distance
away. Woolley also found a number of other
objects including the skull of a water buffalo
and grinding equipment. More grinding equipment
was found in the passage (Room 5) running
from the northern corner of the court. This
corridor led to a pair of rooms with their
own entrance off Straight Street (No. 1 Straight
Street, Rooms 1 & 2) which probably served
as a robing room for the priests and a waiting
room.
Plan
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Figure
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Figure
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Figure
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Figure
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The
cult room (Room 4) was closed by a pair of
doors— a heavy wooden door which swung
outwards and a light screen door (a wooden
frame with a panel of reeds, the impression
of which was found in the soil) which opened
inwards. The entrance was decorated with reveals.
There was a niche in the wall opposite which
contained a mud brick platform for the cult
statue. The latter had been broken in antiquity
and crudely mended using bitumen. The feet
were missing and it was embedded in the whitewashed
mud base to keep it upright. A number of tablets
found scattered on the floor deal with, among
other things, the scheduling of a number of
priests. They seem to indicate that the chapel
and its staff were supported from the revenues
of property owned by the shrine and not by
the city.
The
only other deity that can be identified in
any of the shrines was Nin-shubur whose statue
was found in the chapel at No. 1 Paternoster
Row (also facing onto Carfax. The figure of
a ram which was apparently meant to be mounted
on a pole was found at No. 11 Church Lane—
the Ram Chapel. Generally speaking, the excavated
chapels are very small and somewhat irregular
in their layout. Like the buildings around
them (and unlike the great civic temples)
they had to accommodate themselves to the
space available. In the case of Bazaar Chapel,
the corner of No. 14 Paternoster Row was torn
down to provide space for it.
Shops
and Businesses
Shops
and other commercial enterprises were relatively
common in ancient Ur and a number have identified.
They are generally long and very narrow buildings
with a small room at the front and one or
more storerooms or workshops at the back.
Typical examples are the shops at No. 2 New
Street (EM) and at No.'s 5, 7 & 9 Paternoster
Row (AH). Woolley suggests that there may
have been low windows at the front which served
as counters for displaying goods. With shutters
and awnings, these would have looked much
like the shops still seen in the bazaars and
souks of the region today. However, the walls
do not survive to a sufficient height to confirm
Woolley's interpretation.
Sometimes
the shop was right next door to the owner's
house, as appears to be the case at No. 1
Boundary Street (AH) and at No.'s 2 &
3 New Street (EM). In both cases a small shop
is linked to the house next door by a short
passage. Other houses seem to have been at
least partly commercial in nature. No. 9 Church
Lane (AH), next to the Ram Chapel, contained
a number of storage magazines (although what
was kept there is unknown). At No. 1 Boundary
Street (AH) a doorway was cut through Room
3 to the street, converting the room into
a small shop with a separate entrance. The
cellar rooms at No. 5 Store Street produced
quantities of carbonized grain suggesting
that the occupant may have been a dealer.
A
number of domestic houses were extensively
remodelled and turned into business enterprises
during this period. No. 14 Paternoster Row
(AH) was converted into a 'fast-food' restaurant.
A bread oven was built in the corner of the
front room (Room 3) so that the food could
be prepared in full view of passers-by and
sold over the counter. At some point, a hatch
was cut through the wall of the courtyard
(2) to the old domestic chapel (Room 5). Woolley
suggests that this was done to provide indoor
seating.
The
house at No. 1B Baker's Square (AH) had been
converted into some sort of manufacturing
business. The entrance passage led to an open
court which contained a pair of large furnaces.
The stoke holes for these were in an adjacent
room (3) which also contained the opening
to another furnace in Room 4. Between the
stoke holes was a 1 metre square basin completely
paved and edged with baked bricks. What appeared
to be lime was found nearby. The walls of
the three rooms at the back of the house (Rooms
2, 5 & 6) were razed to turn the whole
area into one large courtyard. Miniature
tools found in a grave beneath the house may
represent those of a coppersmith.
Plan
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Figure
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Figure
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No.
1 Broad St. (AH) had been remodelled so that
the courtyard and guest room could be used
as a school. Over 2000 exercise tablets; math
tables; religious texts and copy inscriptions
were found. The teacher was apparently a man
named Imgil-Sin since letters addressed to
him were found in the building. An alik
Tilmun (i.e. a merchant) named Eanasir
lived at 7 Church Lane. Much of his business
correspondence has survived indicating he
was in the copper trade.
No.
11 Paternoster Row was far and away the largest
house found having no less than 19 ground
floor rooms. It is also unusual in that it
had three separate entrances, side by side,
along Paternoster Row. Woolley reckons it
must have been three storeys high and thought
it was most likely a 'Khan', the sort of inn
that was common in the Middle East in his
day. However,
there is no direct evidence of this.
Further
Reading
The
primary sources for the excavation of Ur are
the volumes published by C. Leonard Woolley
and others in the years since work at the
site ended. The most important of these, as
far as this period is concerned, are Volume
VII, The Old Babylonian Period (by
Woolley and Max Mallowan) which deals with
the Giparu and Residential areas of
the city and Volume V, The Ziggurat
and Its Surroundings which covers
the excavation of the ziggurat.
Also
available is Woolley's popular account of
his excavations, Ur of the Chaldees,
the most recent version of which has been
revised by P.R.R. Moorey in light of more
recent evidence.
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