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Texts and archaeology: The Third Dynasty of Ur

Texts and archaeology: The Third Dynasty of Ur. Introduction to the Ancient Near East Brown University ~ Fall 2009. October 22, 2009. When the house is on fire and the children are gone Ur-Utu’s house and archive in Sippar-Amnanum (Tell ed Der) 17 th c. BC

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Texts and archaeology: The Third Dynasty of Ur

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  1. Texts and archaeology: The Third Dynasty of Ur Introduction to the Ancient Near East Brown University ~ Fall 2009 October 22, 2009

  2. When the house is on fire and the children are gone Ur-Utu’s house and archive in Sippar-Amnanum (Tell ed Der) 17th c. BC Ur-Utu was a landholder and the “kalamahhum-priest of Annunitum” (chief lamentation priest) the house 225 m2 was excavated in mid 1970s by Belgian archaeologists ca 2000 tablets burnt with the house

  3. In 1975 the house was fully exposed. In four rooms to the northwest tablets were found, many belonging to distinct "archives," which were sealed by the fire that destroyed the building. Altogether about 2,000 documents were found in the "house of Ur-Utu," mainly dating to the last phase of occupation (IIIb), Ur-Utu's house renovation. Some tablets were, however, archived in distinct groups for several hundred years. 1283 texts have been dated. Most of these tablets in this large house were found in room 22 (which could have served as a [sealed] storeroom), to the northwest of the central court, while the rooms 17 and 18 (forming one large residential room in phase IIId, but apparently not communicating with each other in IIIb) contained "archived" material....

  4. Archaeology and Text a difficult relationship • texts as archaeological artifacts – information about their findspot, archaeological context is vital • for their proper interpretation • this fact is often denied and challenged by certain antiquities collectors, dealers and museums in the West. • treating texts as excavated artifacts helps us avoid the 19th century prioritization of texts over other artifacts, and archaeology as a subservient to history • holistic histories: integration of text and material culture • texts, pictorial representations and archaeological artifacts- they are all residues of past cultures and they speak to that past in their own way, always incomplete. • agenda: texts as material culture, material culture as text Tell Ta’yinat- uncovering a tablet

  5. an unfortunate statement ... the texts on clay tablets are far more valuable, far more relevant, than the monuments that have been discovered, although the latter, especially the famous reliefs on the walls of Assyrian palaces and the countless products of glyptic art, offer welcome illustration to the wealth of factual information contained on clay tablets, stelae, and votive offerings... Leo Oppenheim

  6. Gudea, king of Lagash ruled 11 years at Girsu, sponsored many temple building projects probably a contemporary of Ur III king Ur-Namma (ca 2127-2110 BC?) • construction of several temples • sponsoring lengthy literary compositions • making of his kingly image, many diorite • sculptures to be placed in temples

  7. Gudea’s Cylinder A Lengthy royal hymnic compositions inscribed on monumental clay cylinders and commemorate Gudea’s rebuilding of é-ninnu (temple) dedicated to Ningirsu in Girsu. Gudea’s Cylinder B Otto Edzard, Gudea and his dynasty

  8. Strong armed Gudea...

  9. King of Lagash Gudea and his inscribed bodies

  10. Gudea’s inscribed statue with a tablet on his lap featuring an architectural plan

  11. The Third Dynasty of Ur Conventional (high) chronology: 2119-2004 BC. Low Chronology 2055-1940 BC Kings: Utu-hegal 2055-2048 BC (low chr.) Ur-Namma 2047-2030 BC Shulgi 2029-1982 BC Amar Sin 1981-1973 BC Shu Sin 1972-1964 BC Ibbi Sin 1963-1940 BC The king as builder: Foundation figurine of Ur-Namma

  12. Ur: Tell al Mugayyar

  13. Three moments in the urban/archaeological • history of Ur: • The royal tombs of the Early Dynastic Period city (early to mid 3rd millennium BC) • The sanctuary of Nanna complex and the massive urban construction in the city at the time of the Third Dynasty kings (late 3rd millennium BC) • Residential neighborhoods (early 2nd millennium BC)

  14. Ur III Period ziqqurat in Ur, built at the time of Ur Namma (2047-2030 BC)

  15. Bitumen Baked brick on the facade with cuneiform Sumerian inscription Baked brick on Ur Namma’s ziqqurat facade

  16. Ziqqurat of Ur and contemporary imaginations

  17. Ziqqurat of Ur and military tourism

  18. Stele of Gudea, limestone fragment, from Girsu (Tello) Ca 2090 BC.

  19. Stele, From Ur (Tell al Mugayyar)

  20. Disk of Enheduanna, Calcite, found at Ur (Tell al Mugayyar) University of Pennsylvania Museum

  21. Nippurdur.an.ki=“Bond of Heaven and Earth” • pan-Mesopotamian ceremonial/cult center: residence of Enlil (DINGIREN.LILKI = URUNIB.RUKI = Nippur) • city of decisions: place of divine and human assemblies • ukkin :divine assembly • èš nam tar.ra : “shrine where destinies are decreed” • (puhrumat Nippur’s Ubsu-ukkinak). • center of the Kengir league: supra-political center • city of scribes and scholars: a giant library, a center of learning

  22. Nippur: cities and imagination Nippur Kassite map superimposed with topography and excavated areas. Nippur Kassite map of the city on clay tablet.

  23. What does one represent on a city map? “Nergal Gate” “Ekur” “Gate of the Ritually Impure Woman” “Gate Facing Ur” “Canal that runs through the city” “Exalted Gate” “Gate Facing Uruk” “Gula Gate” “(Enclosure of) An.nigin.na” “Gardens in the city” Nippur Kassite (Late Bronze Age) map of the city on clay tablet.

  24. Nippur The archaeological site. Excavated areas Area WA Temple to Gula?. Excavated by University of Chicago in mid 1970s. Founded in 21st c. BC, several rebuildings down to 7th c. BC. Dur-an-ki: (Bond of Heaven and Earth) Sacred Quarter Tablet Hill/East mound (Areas TA – TB): Scribal quarter Area TB Level VII Administrative complex with large quantities of tablets of agriculatural production, esp. beans and flax Euphrathes canal Mound X: Private houses, residential quarter.

  25. Archaeological Projects at Nippur: A frustrated Austin Henry Layard (1851) dug some holes. University of Pennsylvania (1889-1900), Oriental Institute, University of Chicago (1948-2002) E.kur (House, the Mountain) Sanctuary of Enlil [Construction activity by Kings of Ur: Ur-Namma, Shulgi, Amar-Suen late 21st c. and early 20th BC] E.bara.dur.gar.ra Sanctuary of Inanna Shulgi (2029-1982) Fortification walls. Begun by Ur-Nammu (2047-2030 BC), repaired by Ibbi-Suen (1963-1940 BC) Euphrathes canals.

  26. E.kur (House, the Mountain) Sanctuary of Enlil [Construction activity by Kings of Ur: Ur-Namma, Shulgi, Amar-Suen late 21st c. and early 20th BC] Kitchen temple (food offerings, storehouse) Ziqqurat

  27. E.bara.dur.gar.ra Sanctuary of Inanna Construction activity by the king of Ur Shulgi (2029-1982 BC) “The plan looks better on paper than in actuality and is a reconstructor’s dream... I have never seen a building where so little will look like so much after it is drawn in good black ink” Richard C. Haines, architect at Nippur excavations 1956

  28. E.bara.dur.gar.ra Sanctuary of Inanna Stratigraphy Levels XXI-XV. Private houses. Levels XIV-IX. Neighborhood shrine with some continuity in plan Level VIII (ED II). Slightly monumentalized temple. Levels VII (ED IIIA-B). Temple complex massive and complex in design, layout, architectural technologies, with a series of phases. Long time span. Levels VI-V. Akkadian period levels of the temple, mostlt destroyed by late building phase. Level IV. Shulgi’s reconstruction of the temple (Ur III Period). In the 20th year of his reign (2009 BC), rebuilding with an extraordinarily regularized orthogonal layout, razing two levels beneath the foundation surface. Finds: texts in context Clay sealings (over a hundred) and 200 Sumerian texts (ca 1100) in the administrartive archive of the temple. Zettler’s analysis of the finds shows the monopolization of the temple institution by one of the Nippur families during the Third Dynasty of Ur

  29. E.bara.dur.gar.ra Sanctuary of Inanna Stratigraphy Levels XXI-XV. Private houses. Levels XIV-IX. Neighborhood shrine with some continuity in plan Level VIII (ED II). Slightly monumentalized temple. Levels VII (ED IIIA-B). Temple complex massive and complex in design, layout, architectural technologies, with a series of phases. Long time span. Levels VI-V. Akkadian period levels of the temple, mostly destroyed by late building phase. Level IV. Shulgi’s reconstruction of the temple (Ur III Period). In the 20th year of his reign (2009 BC), rebuilding with an extraordinarily regularized orthogonal layout, razing two levels beneath the foundation surface.

  30. Area WA Temple to Gula. (Probably house of the asu, the healerand the asipu, the magician) Excavated by University of Chicago in mid-1970s to 1990s. Dedication uncertain. Founded in 21st c. BC, several rebuildings down to the Neo-Babylonian period. Kassite level architecture shown here (ca 1250 BC). Several clay figurines were found in the temple. Area WA. Temple. Anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figurines, especially dogs buried in walls, as well as found on floors.

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