Splendours of the Past

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 678, 1 June 1929, Page 2 (Supplement)

Splendours of the Past

“Dandy” Who Lived in 2650 B.C.

MPORTANT discoveries ftU, revealing a high form lint of civilisation which iJJ/-, existed more than 2,000 years before the Christian era have been made at Ur of fee Chaldees by the Joint Expedition of the British Museum and the Museum of Pennsylvania. They include the remains, in a wonderful state of preservation, of a man who lived in the Sargonid Age—about 2.650 B.C.—who wore beautiful ornaments of gold and precious stones. The remains were found in the last grave of an ancient cemetery, described as the richest of its period yet brought to light. A large number of copper weapons were placed at the head and along the side of the wooden coffin in which were the crumbling bones. Amongst them were three of the largest spears that the cemetery had produced. - A number of copper vessels, some unusually large, and a copper tray made to imitate basket-work, aud piled with bowls and vases of novel form, were also found in the grave. Rare Adornments Adorning the head of the man were six fillets of gold, while round his neck were three strings of beads of gold and coloured stone, agate, caruelian, jasper, chalcedony and sard, stones which are rarely found before the time of Sargon of Akkad. On the wrists were four heavy gold bangles and lour of silver, and gold rings on the fingers. Near by lay two engraved cylinder

seals of lapis lazuli capped with gold, and from one of the strings of beads hung a gold amulet in the form of a standing goat exquisitely modelled in the round—a real gem of miniature sculpture. During excavation work on the rubbish heaps in which the graves are set some 200 tablets, written in a very archaic script—one of the oldest forms of writing known in Mesopotamia—were found in a ruined, house. Beginning of Things Other remains went back . even further, and certain grotesque sealimpressions on clay ancl types of decorated pottery extinct long before the age of the royal tombs are stated to supply material for a relative c-hron- j ology which goes back almost to the ' beginnings of things in the lower i Euphrates Valley. An examination of the city wall j showed that the original wall stood j some 26ft high and had a width of j no less than 24yds. This wall was of mud bricks, and 1 dated from about 2300 B.C. Military Defence Aloug the top of it ran a superstructure in burnt brick, and overlying these early remains were walls of a different plan, of which the last, perhaps, had been built almost at the close of the city’s history. Concluding, the report states: “if we clear the whole circuit of the walled town, we shall not only have a very wonderful monument, but for the first time we .shall obtain an adequate picture of the system of military defence employed by the great builders of Sumer.”