The people buried at the Royal Cemetery were members of the elite classes, who held ritual or managerial roles in the temples or palaces at Ur. Evidence suggests that feasts were associated with royal tomb burials, with guests who included the family of the high-status person who had died, plus the persons who would be sacrificed to lie with the royal head of household. Many of the banquet attendees still hold a cup or bowl in their hands.
Figure Caption: Vessel in the shape of an ostrich egg (Height: 4.6 cm; Diameter: 13 cm) of gold, lapis lazuli, red limestone, shell, and bitumen, hammered from a single sheet of gold and with geometric mosaics at the top and bottom of the egg. The dazzling array of materials came from trade with neighbors in Afghanistan, Iran, Anatolia, and perhaps Egypt and Nubia. From the Royal Cemetery of Ur, ca 2550 BCE.
Sources
Pollock, Susan. 2007. The Royal Cemetery of Ur: Ritual, Tradition, and the Creation of Subjects. pp 89-110 In Representations of Political Power: Case Histories from Times of Change and Dissolving Order in the Ancient Near East, Marlies Heinz and Marian H. Feldman, editors. Eisenbrauns: Winona Lake, Indiana.
- Iraq's Ancient Past: Rediscovering Ur's Royal Cemetery, Penn Museum Press Release
- Ancient Ur, Iraq, more details about the Mesopotamian city state
- Timeline and Description of Mesopotamia
- C. Leonard Woolley
