Standard of Ur

"War side"

"Peace side"

The Ur standard is a wooden box from a royal grave (No. 779) in the royal cemetery in Ur , today Iraq . The grave is dated to the early dynastic period , which was roughly the period from 2850 to 2350 BC. Corresponds to.

description

It is a wooden box that is decorated on the long and short sides with three friezes arranged one below the other. The picture is an inlay of shell (partly engraved) and sandstone on a lapis lazuli base . It shows people both in peace and in war, including images of donkey teams . On one side, the "war side", a battle is shown. You can see the use of four-wheeled war chariots, a scuffle and how the prisoners are led in front of the oversized king. On the other, the “peace side”, there is a symposium or festival scene that corresponds to the war scene. The supra-regional relationship between the Sumerian small states is probably shown here. The function of the object itself is unknown. Excavator / Finder: Leonard Woolley , after 1920. It is now in the British Museum in London .

Dating

Back of the largest fragment

By John Boese was Standard of Ur in his dissertation of 1970 in the style of Mesilim , a king of the 3rd Dynasty of Kish asked. Mesilim was a very recognized city prince in his time who was able to settle the border dispute between Lagaš and Umma for some time. It may be that the standard of Ur represents this event of war and unification . The term Mesilim style is an old-numeric style of representation that is used immediately before the Akkad period.

The so-called vulture stele , which also shows an early carriage, belongs to the same style , although the main part has unfortunately been broken off. This is attributed to a successor to Mesilim, King Eanatum of Lagaš, who ultimately defeated Umma. The vulture stele documents his victories and reports of a treaty that obligated the Ummah to pay tributes and threatened destruction. The standard could also represent this. His son Entemena actually destroyed Umma. The reign of Eanatum is dated to 2470 BC. BC. The reign of Mesilim is dated to 2530 and 2500 BC. BC, which would be the earliest dating of the Ur standard.

literature

Neil MacGregor : A history of the world in 100 objects , Beck, Munich, 2011. ISBN 978-3-406-62147-5 . Pages 103–113 (with illus.)
Eva Strommenger , photos by Max Hirmer : Ur , Munich, 1964, pp. 17–18, plates 13–15
Johannes Boese : Old Mesopotamian consecration plates. A Sumerian type of monument from the 3rd millennium. (= Studies on Assyriology and Near Eastern Archeology , Volume 6) De Gruyter, Berlin and New York 1971, ISBN 3-11-002484-5 [Reprint 2011, ISBN 978-3-11-081831-4 ].

Web links

Commons : Standard of original collections of images, videos and audio files

Picture of the standard of Ur

Footnotes

^ British Museum: Collection online. The Standard of Ur. Retrieved April 20, 2020 .
↑ Johannes Boese : Old Mesopotamian consecration plates. A Sumerian type of monument from the 3rd millennium. (= Studies on Assyriology and Near Eastern Archeology , Volume 6) De Gruyter, Berlin 1970, ISBN 3-11-002484-5 .

[1] British Museum: Collection online. The Standard of Ur. Retrieved April 20, 2020 .

[2] Johannes Boese : Old Mesopotamian consecration plates. A Sumerian type of monument from the 3rd millennium. (= Studies on Assyriology and Near Eastern Archeology , Volume 6) De Gruyter, Berlin 1970, ISBN 3-11-002484-5 .