ROYAL TOMBS OF UR It is some time around 2000 BCE On the banks of the Euphrates River in the region called Mesopotamia stands a city made of mud bricks Its name is Ur Around it is rich and fertile farmland watered by the great river Flash forward 3,000 years All that is left of Ur are a few ruins surrounded by hot desert It was these ruins that brought British archaeologist Charles Leonard Woolley to Iraq in 1922 Woolley had permission to start excavations at the site of the ancient city He and his team began digging in 1923 Little did they know that their work at the site was to continue for another 11 years Mesopotamia meaning land between rivers was the name given to the region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers which today lies mostly in Iraq
GREAT ZIGGURAT OF UR DIGGING STARTS Woolley started excavating near the ruined Great Ziggurat see the picture at left His workers uncovered the ruins of ancient buildings human burials and precious jewelry But by March the desert was too hot for them to continue digging Woolley went back to England eager to return in the fall when it would be cool enough for work to start again
Leonard Woolley carefully brushes sand and earth off 4,000 year-old discoveries at Ur HUMAN SACRIFICE Woolley eventually uncovered around 1,840 human bodies at Ur including those in 17 royal tombs He believed _that some of the bodies were those of servants who had been sacrificed killed and buried to care for their dead rulers in the afterlife
ROYAL TOMBS Over the next few years Woolley unearthed the remains of houses and everyday objects that told him a lot about how the people of Ur the Sumerians lived From 1926 Ur’s Royal Cemetery was excavated which revealed spectacular objects These included a gold necklace decorated with precious stones as well as a small wooden box beautifully decorated with shell and the blue gemstone lapis lazuli Woolley and his team were amazed They were sure these objects came from the tombs of kings and queens The little wooden box found by Woolley was covered with pictures of soldiers and their chariots
