Sumerian History Lesson

So that ziggurat that was pictured in some of the shots when we initially got down here? Finally got over there. Due to some unruly behavior during OIF I by some of the other coalition forces, and because of fears of looting of the archaelogical treasures sure to still be buried here, the entire compound is inside the security perimeter of the airbase here at Tallil, and all visits must be coordinated through the post chaplain’s office. The post borders the ancient city of Ur, which was abandoned when the Euphrates shifted course northward to where current-day Nasiriyah is located.

Dawn at Tallil:

We met up over at the battalion we’re attached to here, and loaded up for the drive over to the site:

Our guide for the tour is a 3rd generation excavator. His father worked with the group that dug and did some reconstruction in the ’60s, and his grandfather worked on the original dig in 1922. He began working there in 1995. On arriving, we received a brief from the chaplain regarding protocol on the site, and were then led southeast from the ziggurat. The first building we came upon was unearthed in the 1922 excavations, and contains one of the world’s oldest known standing arches:

The British excavators layered concrete across the top of the original work and reconstructed the facing bricks in order to prevent erosion from destroying the arch. The first layer of brick is held together with processed asphalt, while the orignal brickwork further into the building is mortared with bitumen, the raw tar as extracted from the earth to the north near Baghdad. The building was a smaller temple to the sun god while the ziggurat was considered the earthly seat of the moon god ‘Nanna’.

Moving further southeast, we came upon the partially reconstructed foundations of the royal palace. Believed to be built by the same father and son kings who constructed the ziggurat, the palace contained a large number of rooms, with a thick outer wall and only one entrance. The two kings were Ur-Nammu, and his son Shulgi. Shulgi ruled for some 48 years, and it was under his reign that the zigurrat is presumed to have ben completed (appx 2113 BC). The reconstruction at the palace occured again using processed asphalt instead of bitumen as mortar, however the foundations were clearly mortared with bitumen. Here our guide shows us one of the door hinge stones which was used to hold a pole to which the door was attached and on which said pole would rotate (note the pen at the bottom of his book, used as an example):

Of course I couldn’t very well make this trip without my travel companion, Quirk (the short one), and his current house guest, Igor. Here they are surveying the layout of the royal palace:

From here we continued further to the southeast, to a necropolis. The large pit to the right hand side of this photo contained the remains of some 1600 commoners, presumed to be associated with the kings’ households, while the structure on the left contains the tombs of King Shulgi and his queen:

For the next sequence, I will simply relate the position I am in, and the direction the camera is facing, to walk you into the tombs. First, atop the tomb of King Shulgi, camera facing southeast (entrance to servant’s tomb is visible in lower right):

Directly underneath the above photo, camera facing Northwest:

Again, looking back toward where I was standing in the immediately previous photo, camera pointing southwest (note the shoring timbers, installed during the excavations in the 1920’s):

Now the rear of the burial chamber, camera facing Northeast. I am standing approximately where the body of King Shulgi was found, and the raised platform at the rear of the chamber contained gifts and treasure which had been buried with the king:

Last, Igor and Quirk inspect the bricked-over doorway to the servants’ tomb. They were unearthed along with food, drink, and poison, which they apparently consumed immediately prior to being bricked in from the outside by other workers. This chamber continued straight from the bottom of the stairs, unlike the king’s chamber which was offset to the northeast 90 degrees:

Just behind the king’s tomb (from the panorama shot) was his queen’s tomb, which was closed due to a cave-in during the work in the 60s. However, on some of the bricks lining the chamber just above the stairs into the queen’s tomb there were Sumerian cuniform texts stamped into the brick faces. Here Quirk and Igor check out one such brick:

Having cleared the tomb complex, we continued further southeast to “Abraham’s house”. The foundation of this building was unearthed during the 1922 excavation, and bore an inscription reading ‘Abraham’. Locals maintain that it was the house of Abraham, mentioned in Genesis 11:28, in Ur of the Chaldees. It was rebuilt on the original foundation at the direction of Saddam Hussein, who then invited the pope to visit. Because he would not guarantee the Pope’s safety, the offer was never accepted. Of course basic deductive skills would necessitate that were this indeed the actual house of Abram (prior to his name-change), the house would be labeled as belonging to Terah, Abram’s father. Minor historical misrepresentation aside, it was indeed a very interesting house, as it contained some 20+ rooms, 3 courtyards, and the floors and drainage work were all still original. While I have no doubt that there is a large volume of evidence suggesting that this general area was the “Ur of the Chaldees” mentioned in Genesis, I’m fairly certain this house wasn’t Terah’s. Still cool though:

What I found even more enlightening than the house itself was the tiny 4′ walkway between that house and the two to the left and right in the above photo. Ur must have been cramped indeed! And having seen the living conditions in modern Iraqi villiages, I can only imagine as to the state of the interior of the houses when occupied by a huge extended family… with multiple families very nearby next door. There are 3 staircases leading to the second level, which was not reconstructed. Here the gnomes check out the stairs leading off the interior courtyard with the largest drainage pit (appx 20″ across), presumably the cooking center of the house:

Finally, we were off to the main attraction. Of course by this time I had seen way more than I expected, and had been far more enlightened by the other ‘exhibits’ than by the ziggurat itself. But it was what we were there to see, and I would be remiss for not posting a bunch of pictures. First, the gnomes survey the staircase ‘railing’ from the bottom:

Next, here is Kevin with the temple of the sun and the royal palace in the background, and the square building which is behind me in the first picture of Abraham’s house is just visible on the horizon:

Now of course being the skeptic that I am, I could not believe that the Zigurrat had survived in its current state. After some quick Google-fu, I was able to track down some photos of the building when the lower portions were unearthed in the 1920’s:

I was not able to (at least not in the last day and a half using the retard-strength internet here) find any further information as to whether the current reconstructed state was accomplished in the excavations in the 1960’s, or the mid 1990’s. However, here is a large panoramic shot of the current building frontage, circa 31 Jan, 2009:

Overall, I have to say this was a very enlightening experience. At the same time, to be perfectly honest, it kinda pisses me off that there is such a vast expanse of archaeological history in this country, and people can’t stop disagreeing about the minor nuances of history that don’t really matter to allow folks with some sense time and security to explore the volumes of history that do. It is an international treasure, and I am glad to have been able to have seen it. However, I will be even more glad when I see it out the window of a C-130 as I leave this country. It’s time to go home. . .