The ancient city of Ur lies in the desert of Southern Iraq. The city was inhibited from the Ubaid period, ca. 5900-4300 BCE, until the fourth century BCE when it appears to have been abandoned after the river Euphrates changed its course. The site is still dominated by the remains of Ziggurat, or temple-tower, dedicated to the Moon God Nanna and built by the rulers of the Third Dynasty of Ur, 2111-2004 BCE. Ur was the subject of extensive excavation between 1922 and 1934 by the joint expeditions of the British Museum, London and the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia. Leonard Woolley directed the excavations and thanks to his care and methodical approaches that the great variety of evidence…show more content… Queen Puabi’s Beaded Cape and Jewelry: It includes pins of gold and lapis lazuli (Length: 16cm), a gold, lapis lazuli and carnelian garter (Length: 38cm), lapis lazuli and carnelian cuff (Length: 14.5cm), gold finger rings (Diameter: 2 - 2.2 cm), and more from the Royal Cemetery of Ur, ca 2550…show more content… These heads were 45cm apart and had originally been attached to a wooden object. Woolley suggested that they might have been the finials for the arms of a chair. The head is one of many masterpieces of art from the Royal Cemetery of Ur, ca 2550 BCE.
Bull-Headed Lyre: (Head Height: 35.6cm; Plaque Height: 33cm) from the Woolley-coined “King’s Grave” royal tome of Private Grave (PG) 789, constructed with gold, silver, lapis lazuli, shell , bitumen and wood, ca 2550 BCE at Ur. The lyre’s panel depicts a hero grasping animals and animals acting like humans-serving at a banquet and playing music typically associated with banquets. The bottom panel shows a scorpion-man and a gazelle with human features. The scorpion-man is a creature associated with the mountains of sunrise and sunset, distant lands of wild animals and demons, a place passed by the dead on their way to the
