Leonard Woolleys Contribution to the Archeology of Ancient near East - Essay Example

Leonard Woolley’s Contribution to the Archeology of Ancient Near East (Ur and Alalakh) Leonard Woolley’s contribution to the Archeology of Ancient near East (Ur and Alalakh) Early Life Leonard Woolley (1880-1960), was a British Archeologist whose discoveries of ancient cultures in the Ancient East attracted worldwide attention. In his early life he was enlisted in the British army and assigned with intelligence work, which is the gathering of secret information. He enhanced his career in 1922 when he was chosen to head up an archeological team going to Ur, in southern Iraq. The project was a joint venture between the British Museum and the University of Pennsylvania, in the process making tremendous discoveries on the Sumerian culture. (Fagan, 2007) Ancient city Ur The Ancient city of Ur is more than six thousand years old and is located in a region that was once Mesopotamia. In the Bible, the city is called, Ur of the Chaldees, named after the Chaldeans. They were the people that settled in that region around 900 B.C. Ur is the capital city of the Sumerian people who were highly intelligent and educated (Constable, 2000). Their arts were more developed and they practiced trade with countries far from their location. Leonard Woolley excavated a cemetery in Ur that was approximated to be 3500 BCE. He discovered tombs of local kings that were not recorded in the Sumerian list. The royal cemetery In 1927, Woolley started to dig in the royal cemetery and he tried to bring into light the strange funeral practices that were not talked about in the Sumer text. Since the Sumer text did not mention these rites, some scholars would not believe that there were burials of real kings. The scholars insisted that the burials were for temporary festival monarchs; which was part of common myths and reflected the worship of fertility gods who die each winter and are reborn in the spring. Woolley and his team found sixteen graves and the number of victims varied from half a dozen to between seventy and eighty (Woolley, 1965) Stairways leading to tomb chamber Source: Archeologists-explorers of the human past by Brian Fagan Using specially trained teams, Woolley cleared up to 2000 civilian and 16 royal graves. The king would be buried at the bottom part of the chamber and other chambers of the kings attendants would spread out from that one. There was evidence that human sacrifice had taken place in the Sumerian community and the people were sacrificed in their ranking and occasions. In the royal burials ornaments and jewelry were found indicating the importance of the individuals from others. Woolley also established that a chapel of some sort would be erected on top of the chamber, to signify the place. Same as today people put gravestone on top of the soil when burying their loved ones. (Woolley, 1960) Limestone statue of a woman from a soldier’s grave in the royal cemetery. (Source: Woolley, Leonard. Excavations at Ur Pg 86) This was the only statue of a woman excavated from the tomb where a male body was buried. Soldiers buried by the queen’s side had swords and spears while the rest of the victims had cups and bowls made of clay. Ornaments and cups buried with victims in the cemetery Source: sumerianshakespear.com fig 3.7 Queen Paubi Headdress. Woolley discovered thousands of pieces of jewelry next to the head of Queen Paubi and recreated the pieces together to form what he identified as diadem, a type of crown or headdress. The plants, goats and cows parts used to assemble the jewelry had decomposed and therefore he had to replace them to make up the diadem. (Woolley, 1930) Queen Paubi’s Headdress Source: coursesa.matrix.msu.edu Queen Harp The harp or lyre was also an important excavation in the royal graves. In that death pit, a small number of lyres were found since most of them had been stolen by the tomb robbers. This particular one is shaped like a boat with a head of an animal at one end. The wooden beam that points upwards is decorated with a ring of gold and the strings are fastened on it with golden nails. The sounding box pattern is gold, which makes it look like it was a lyre belonging in a royal and not common tomb (Matthews, 2012). Lyres were used during ceremonies to celebrate victory in the war or any other rites that were conducted. Ceremonial Dagger Woolley excavated a dagger that was made of pure solid gold and it was made over four thousand years ago. Its shaft was also decorated with gold and handle decorated with blue lapis lazuli, making it unlikely to be made in Ur because of the distinct nature with regards to other Sumerian art. It was discovered on the waist of a body in the cemetery but it did not mean anything because daggers were part of the burial (Oakes, 1994). The dagger is believed to be used in the sacrificial ceremony, but contrary to this opinion, the bodies were put in a certain way that seemed as a sleeping position which implied that they may have drunk poison and lay quietly to die. Ceremonial dagger Source: ancient-egypt.co.uk fig 4.3 Spouted vessel of gold from the cemetery at Ur The vessels and the cups were found on all of the chambers in the cemetery, implying that they were used to take poison for those willing to die. Most people would take the poison if the king died or left because to them the king was immortal and they had to follow him. Golden vessel buried with victims Source: sumerianshakespear.com fig 5.4 Goat in tree statue The statue is made up of gold, lapis lazuli and white shell. The goat is standing erect on its two behind legs in front of a tree, with the golden head peers between the branches of the tree. The tree is most likely symbolizing everlasting life by giving food. Woolley relates the goat in the tree to the story of the Bible where Abraham was given a lamb to sacrifice. (Stefoff, 1997) He named it the lamb in the thicket after the biblical story. This statue was found together with another identical one and the only difference was in their sizes. The statue was found in a corner in the royal cemetery at Ur while the king and his attendants were found much deeper. Animals were usually the last ones to be sacrificed in the ritual and they were intended for the gods. Goat in tree Source: britishmuseum.org The standard of Ur It was among the most iconic excavations for Sir Leonard Woolley. He called it standard, because he thought that it was carried a lot on a pole during procession of the king. Many theories have been developed to bring meaning to the standard including, being a cash box or a sound box for a musical instrument. It is made of shell, red limestone and lapis lazuli laid over the wood. (Woolley, 1965) Woolley’s standard of the Sumerians Source: sumerianshakespeare.com The dark lines that add detail to the shell figures were made with the application of a hot iron. The front panel is called “War” while the back panel is called “Peace”. War: in the top row the king is centered stands with his troops and chariots while prisoners are paraded before him. The middle row is depicted of Sumerian soldiers on the attack while the last row depicts them trampling over the bodies of their enemies. Peace: The king top row, third from left, drinks and celebrates his victory while listening to the music of a bull headed lyre. The last row shows his subjects in ceremonial victory possession. (Woolley, 1930) The golden helmet It was discovered in the royal cemetery by Woolley. The helmet is designed to look like the wearers hair with a knotted bun on the back and a woven band on top. The holes on the helmet are used to hold lining or cloths trim. This helmet was found in an extremely lavish burial and it was held by any king that ruled over Sumer and Akkad. It was meant to be a symbol of royalty to those that were buried with it. It was assumed to be worn by a younger adult and who was well respected in the Sumerian community. (Matthews, 2012) Royal helmet Source: Sumerianshakespear.com Ziggurat of Ur The remains were excavated by Leonard Woolley between 1920 and 1930. The Ancient near Eastern ziggurat has four sides and rises up to the realm of the gods similarly to the Egyptian pyramids (Woolley, 1965). According to the structure, the ziggurat was made under a lot of skill and power by the ancient people of Sumerian. Woolley found that was a massive rectangular pyramidal structure that oriented to true north, 210 by 150 feet. It was constructed with three levels of terraces, standing originally between 70 and 100 feet high. There were also three monumental staircases that led up to the gate. A single staircase then rose to a second terrace that supported the temple on top. 1. The north east side of the ziggurat with workmen on stairs. 2. A bird’s eye view of the excavations from the top of the ziggurat. Source: Woolley photo album Archeology in Alalakh Statue of Idrimi This statue represents Idrimi, a king of Alalakh and was discovered by the archeologist Leonard Woolley in the ruins of a temple at the site of Tell Atchana (Ancient Alalakh). It was toppled from its top stone during the destruction of the city in 1100 BC. The statue is inscribed in faulty Akkadian using poor cuneiform script, with an autobiography of Idrimi. The text is unique and signed by the scribe who wrote it. Idrimi was one of the royal sons of the house of Aleppo that was subject to one of the powerful kingdom in Mitanni. The territory of Aleppo included the smaller city state of Alalakh. After a failed revolt, idrimi fled to Emar ruled by his mother then went south and gathered troops and gained control of Alalakh. The statue begins with words stating that he had ruled for thirty years before it was made but it is proven to have been added three hundred years after his death. The ending words are a curse to anyone who will destroy the statue. Statue of Idrimi Source: britishmuseum.org Tell Achana Excavation The aim of Woolley’s excavation in Tell Achana was to trace the cultural interconnections between the Minoan civilization and the near East. The site itself presented a midway point on one of the principle trade routes of the Mediterranean in the Amuq valley. The volume and variety of the finds from Alalakh combined with the possibility of dating them on the basis of historical evidence made the site of the utmost importance. (Fagan, 2007) The Cypriot bronze age pottery The pottery excavated by Woolley in Tell Achana, was of different variety and makes that made them distinct in culture of specific groups in the region. He identified the site as one of economic significance due to its location in the principal trade route of the Mediterranean and Mesopotamia. In level four and seven, Woolley discovered the remains of Middle and Late Bronze ages palaces and temples. Evidence from textual data showed that the kings in the region had close contact for economic and political purposes. Among the remains in the site were the imported Cypriot potteries. They shed light on the dining practices in that region as well as the ancient fashions and tastes. (Constable, 2000) The pottery will be useful in establishing what happened in the trade between Syria and Cyprus. The kind of goods that were exchanged between the two areas was not significant but not until the discovery of the Tell Achana site that had some of the important goods. References Constable, N. (2000). The world Atlas of archeology. New York: Lyons Press. Fagan, B. M. (2007). Return to Babylon: Travelers, archaeologists, and monuments in Mesopotamia. Boulder, CO: University Press of Colorado. International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East, & Matthews, R. (2012). Proceedings of the 7th International Congress of the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East: 12 April -16 April 2010, the British Museum and UCL, London. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. Oakes, E. T. (1994). Pattern of redemption: The theology of Hans Urs von Balthasar. New York: Continuum. Stefoff, R. (1997). Finding the lost cities. New York: Oxford University Press. Woolley, Leonard. The Sumerians. London: Oxford University Press,1965. Woolley, L. (1960). Digging up the past. Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin Books. Woolley, L. (1930). Ur of thr Chaldees: More royal tombs. Washington: Government Printing Office. Read More