Ur Digitization Project: November 2013
By: Brad Hafford
Father Legrain’s Records Spotlight on travel sketches Trip back from Ur, 1925 In both the 1924-25 and the 1925-26 seasons, Father León Legrain was the epigrapher at Ur–the person whose expertise was in cuneiform script and whose duty it was to investigate the clay tablets as they were found. Father Legrain was curator of the […]
Ur Digitization Project: September 2013
By: Brad Hafford
Excavation of the ancient city, 1930-31 Season Spotlight on Domestic Area AH Reconstructing original house numbers and the process of their excavation One of the great accomplishments of the Ur excavation was the large extent of domestic architecture it revealed. Many early archaeological efforts focused almost exclusively on monumental structures and grandiose tombs. Woolley certainly […]
Ur Digitization Project: August 2013
By: Brad Hafford
Reconstructing Excavation Processes Spotlight on Division of Finds: Penn’s acquisition of its Ur material Tens of thousands of artifacts were uncovered in the twelve years of excavation at the ancient city of Ur, from 1922-1934. The Ur of the Chaldees project, with lead funding from the Leon Levy Foundation, is still uncovering exactly where each […]
Ur Digitization Project: July 2013
By: Brad Hafford
Documents of the month Spotlight on archival records of the Ur excavations With special thanks to all the volunteers transcribing them Cablegrams announcing finds (PA1-11-7-1927 and PA1-12-14a-1927) Not only were thousands of ancient tablets excavated at the ancient site of Ur, but thousands of modern documents were created in the process of excavating them and […]
Ur Digitization Project: June 2013
By: Brad Hafford
Artwork of the month Spotlight on museum number 31-10-1 Oil Painting of Ur It’s not often that I can discuss an oil painting that relates to the site of Ur, but this month I’m doing just that. In the 1930-31 season, the Woolleys received a distinguished artist guest, one Joseph Lindon Smith. Mr. Smith was […]
Ur Digitization Project: May 2013
By: Brad Hafford
Artifact of the month Spotlight on field number U.8847 (museum number B17313) Bitumen Model Boat This is a model of a marsh or river boat that was found in Trial Trench G in the Royal Cemetery area of Ur. Woolley in his field card does not record the exact tomb of this example, though U.8846, […]
Ur Digitization Project: April 2013
By: Brad Hafford
This month we have begun examining clay figurines from Ur. Our goal is to confirm museum object associations with field records. Here are two examples to show the process, challenges, and a little detail on the imagery: Artifacts of the month Spotlight on field number U.1527 (museum number B15689) and field number U.18001B? (museum number […]
Ur Digitization Project: March 2013
By: Brad Hafford
This month we had a week-long visit from archaeo-metallurgists from the Deutches Bergbau-Museum, the University of Franfurt am Main, and the University of Toulouse, Le Mirail. They brought with them some impressive equipment for spot analysis of many metal objects from Ur and will do more in-depth studies of the results back in their home […]
Ur Digitization Project: February 2013
By: Brad Hafford
Archival documents of the month Spotlight on Maps of Excavated Domestic Areas EM and AH Published in Antiquaries Journal 1927, 1931, and in Ur Excavations volume 7 My last blog post concerned the questions of the standard house in the period most revealed in Woolley’s excavations. Now I want to cover the larger concept of […]
Ur Digitization Project: January 2013
By: Brad Hafford
Archival document of the month Spotlight on A.S. Whitburn reconstruction drawing of No. 3 Gay Street Early archaeologists often concentrated on temples, palaces and cemeteries, since these were most likely to contain impressive artifacts for museums. Woolley dug his fair share of these areas, but to his great credit, he did not overlook the more […]