UR EXCAVATIONS

Hokitika Guardian, 8 January 1930, Page 3

UR EXCAVATIONS

FIVE PERIODS REVEALED. [United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.] LONDON, Jan. 6. , Mr Leonard Woolley, describing the continuation of the British Museum's expedition’s excavations at Ur, relates: the discovery of drains which could date from the first dynasty at Ur ;roo b.c. He,says: “We have dug down fifteen feet over the whole area, and the hollow adjacent to the Temenos Wall, built by Nebuchadnezzar. 600 B.C. Already we have the ground plans of five qistinct buildings, superimposed one upon the other, each of which enjoyed a fairly long life. The levels which we have now reached must take us back to the early part of the fourth milleniuni of Christ. The building of the four later periods showed a certain Uniformity,, but in the fifth level we have entirely different houses, the ruins of which contain new types of clay vases. It is not yet the pre-Flood city, . which lies deeper, but; it is the work of a civilisation almost .as old, as these walls are built of small mud bricks.' They are the monuments to an era new to Mesopotamia archology.” . Referring to evacuations on a cemetery site, Mr Woolley says that they have found fragments of clay jar stoppers, stamped with the seals of Messani Padda, the first King of the First Dynasty of Ur.