The King of Ur
lyHEN the King of Ur was buried between five and six thousand years ago, the civilization of Sumeria was already old and complex. Caravans set out for Asia Minor and Egypt. Boats sailed down the Persian Gulf. It seems likely that trade was carried on even with India and Central Turkestan.
The first thing to show Mr. C. Leonard Woolley that the expedition of the British Museum and the University of Pennsylvania engaged in excavating the grave areas of Ur had hit upon a notable discovery was that they struck the stone roof of an underground chamber. In this alluvial plain of Southern Mesopotamia there is no stone ; and the costs of transport have always made it a rare and precious material. It was almost as astonishing as if. they had found a roof of gold ; and no one but a great king could have afforded such a tomb.
Let us continue the story as it unfolded itself before the excavators. The king died and was buried with the honours fitting a great emperor. A deep shaft was sunk ; a room was built of unhewn limestone blocks, with walls more than three feet thick ; and a small inner chamber was constructed for the king himself. Treasures that had come from all the world known to these ancient Sumerians were placed in the chamber. Amongst them was a beautiful silver model of a boat, a long shallow craft; With leaf-bladed Oars and an arch to support a mat. It was in a boat of this type that the king's soul was to be ferried to the next world.
A sad and savage rite followed. Outside the burial chamber were ranged eleven of the ladies of the court.
Along the wall of the ante-room a rank of his servants were drawn up. Two wagons of wood, each drawn by three oxen, were backed down the slope into the middle of the assembly. At the entrance six soldiers were drawn up, their spears on their shoulders, great copper helmets on their heads. The ladies of the court stood with their little gold cockle-shells at their feet, containing their face-paints, and little alabaster vases of ointments. The grooms stood by the heads of the oxen ; the drivers were upright in the wagons. One by one the attendants were massacred to accompany the king on his journey.
Queen Shubad survived her husband and when she died gave orders that a new shaft should be sunk near to the king's burial chamber in order that she should rest by him. As the workers dug the shaft they came upon the roof of the king's tomb, and temptation was too much for them. They broke through unobserved, and robbed the treasures of the king, covered over the hole they had made with a box of garments, and continued with their work.
At the queen's burial the same sacrifices took place. Five guards were killed at her tomb entrance. Her sledge was in the ante-chamber drawn by two asses, with great collars of decorated copper. The queen's waiting women, with great headdresses of gold ribbon and wreaths of cornelian and lapis lazuli beads from which hung gold mulberry leaves, were drawn up in two rows, Attendants crouched by the bier-side, one at the head and one at the foot.
For the next month or two the discoveries are to be seen in the British Museum. It will be some time before their significance is fully explored. They bring us news of a civilization earlier than most archaeologists have suspected, prior in time to civilization in Egypt. There is bound to be much discussion before we learn the full tale of religion and manners of the Sumerians.
But something can be said at first sight. Apart from the massacre of the attendants, there is no such harshness and grandeur as we associate with Assyria and Babylonia. The picture we gather is one of more domesticity and lightheartedness. Many of the animal carvings and engravings, of antelopes, goats, bears, wild asses and lions, show a very high standard of craftsman- ship. Mr. Woolley believes that some of the work is conventionalized ; not conventionalized in the magnificent and artificial styles of Egypt or Assyria, but reproduced from models after an already fixed fashion of workmanship. He gathers, therefore, that the civilization of Ur was already decadent. There is, however, an admirable bull's head in silver, one of the most beautiful of the dis- coveries, and a small carving of a wild ass which is instinct with life.
There are vessels of gold, silver, bronze and translucent stone ; drinking pots, bowls, jars, and lamps ; daggers and spears of bronze ; flint arrow-heads ; toilet sets of gold ; a gaming board inlaid with shell, on which are engraved scenes of animals. One of the oddest of the discoveries was a set of tools made of gold with four chisels and a saw. In one grave, the deepest and earliest of all, was found a mass of mosaic which proved to be a highly. decorated boxlike standard, composed of two pieces of wood back to back, inlaid with red stone, lapis lazuli and shell. In the panels we see the royal family sitting down to table, with servants bringing up sheep, cattle, fish and vegetables for the feast ; the army of Sumeria, heavy troops, skirmishers • and chariots ; and a line of prisoners being brought before the King. TIM mosaic is beautifully executed, and historically of the first importance. In the damp and salty soil of Iraq, the woodwork and the fabrics have all decayed, leaving nothing but an impress, or at most a black stain on the soil, thinner than a coating of whitewash. But even here, from the marks in the soil and from the position of shell inlay or metal binding, the shape of the woodwork can be recovered and in the exhibition at the Museum the objects have been restored. But the exhibits of most general interest are bound to be the relics of the dead Queen Shubad. An artist at the exhibition has moulded a head from one of the ladies' skulls in the queen's burial chamber ; the queen's own skull was too fragmentary. Over this frank and beautiful face, with its masses of dark hair and long arched eye- brows, has been set the queen's head-dress. Coils of beaten red gold wind round the head ; across the brow is a band of beads and heavy rings of gold. Higher up is 'wreath upon wreath of beads and gold mulberry and willow leaves ; and to crown all a great golden comb, seven-pointed, with a star-shaped golden flower dangling from each point. In a case near by can be seen the short, beaded cloak which hung from the shoulders of the queen, open over the right arm and held there with long golden pins. It is hard, seeing every-thing in such living colours, to realize that the queen died so long ago.
ALAN PORTER.
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