Royal Cemetery at Ur: A Photo Essay

Today, the University of Pennsylvania's Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology opens a new exhibit entitled Iraq's Ancient Past: Rediscovering Ur's Royal Cemetery. Ur was a Mesopotamian city-state dated to the 4th millennium BC, and its Royal Cemetery contained some of the most astoundingly beautiful artifacts ever discovered. Penn Museum provided lots of great photos of the artifacts and some of C. Leonard Woolley's early 20th century excavation plans, so I've (naturally) used them to create photo essays in celebration of this event.

Head of a Lion, adornment from the Great Death Pit at the Royal Cemetery of Ur. Photo courtesy Iraq's Ancient Past: Rediscovering Ur's Royal Cemetery, Penn Museum

The first photo essay, called Artifacts of the Royal Cemetery of Ur, features some of the fabulous jewelry, cups and objects of art recovered from the Royal Cemetery, including Queen Puabi's tomb and the dismayingly-named "Great Pit of Death". Later this week I'll post another essay on Woolley's excavations.

The exhibit opens today at the U Penn Museum. It must be an amazing collection, so get there if you can.

• Artifacts of the Royal Cemetery of Ur, a photo essay
• Iraq's Ancient Past: Rediscovering Ur's Royal Cemetery, home page at the Penn Museum
• The Ancient City of Ur, more on the site itself