Woolley at Ur

From 1922-1934, archaeologist C. Leonard Woolley excavated at the Sumerian city of Ur, an ancient tell located in what is today very southern Iraq, funded by the British Museum and the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.

Plan of the "Great Death Pit," so called because it held the bodies of seventy-three retainers. Reprinted from Woolley's The Royal Cemetery, Ur Excavations, Vol. 2, published in 1934.

Five of those seasons were spent excavating what Woolley called the Royal Cemetery, including sixteen Royal Tombs, all dated to the early dynastic period of Mesopotamia, ~2500-2350 BC. The artifacts recovered there are some of the most amazing ever discovered, which I capitalized on for my photo essay last week on The Artifacts of the Royal Cemetery.

Woolley's excavations were remarkable even for their time, and the discoveries of Queen Puabi's tomb and the Great Pit of Death captured the imaginations of the general public, as much as they do today. In late October, 2009, the Penn Museum opened a new exhibit entitled "Iraq's Ancient Past: Rediscovering Ur's Royal Cemetery", and their press kit included a handful of photos from Woolley excavations, worth another photo essay.

Read the new photo essay: Leonard Woolley at the Royal Cemetery of Ur

More on Ancient Ur and the Royal Cemetery

• Iraq's Ancient Past: Rediscovering Ur's Royal Cemetery
• Artifacts of the Royal Cemetery of Ur, photo essay
• Ancient Ur, Iraq, glossary entry
• Timeline and Description of Mesopotamia
• C. Leonard Woolley