No. 4 Straight Street

Context Title: No. 4 Straight Street     
Context Name (Publication): No. 4 Straight Street1     
Context Name (Excavation): House I     
Context Description: A solidly built and compact house with rooms symmetrically arranged about a central court: the exceptionally heavy walls suggest that this house may have stood to a considerable height, and that there may have been a heavy roof to support. The site was nearly rectangular but the SE wall ran askew, following the angle of Paternoster Row. The burnt-brick superstructure of the house stood in places as much as twenty-two courses high, and the high level of the top pavement suggests that most of this superstructure belonged to the end of the Larsa period, shortly before the destruction by Samsu-iluna. On the tops of some of the Larsa walls there were flimsy remains of burnt-brick walls of the Kassite period, and much of the Larsa brick-work had been torn down and levelled to make an even foundation for the walls of the Kassite house. On the other hand much of the evidence suggests that this house dated back to an ancient foundation in Third Dynasty times. The burnt-brick walls of the Larsa period followed along the lines of an older mud-brick structure, and between the pavement associated with this older building and that of the end of the Larsa period, there was an accumulation of more than 1.6 metres of debris. The rubbish in the courtyard underneath the late Larsa pavement consisted of decayed mud brick and contained carinated saucers of Third Dynasty type. In the SW wall there was an inscribed brick of Amar-Suena, but the fact that this wall did not go as deep as the boundary wall of No. 4 Paternoster Row and that the foundations of No. 4 Straight Street appeared to overlap the burnt-brick work of No. 4 Paternoster Row indicates that the latter was an earlier foundation still.2     
Context Description: The brickwork and pavements in this room give a convenient summary of the history of this house which divides itself into four main periods: 1. The earliest foundation, mud brick walls and burnt brick pavements, probably going back to Third Dynasty; 2. Burnt brick superstructure erected over the mud brick foundations in the Larsa period, good burnt brick pavements associated, access given to No. 2 Straight Street by doorways in the SE wall; 3. Burnt brick pavement slightly raised, following the rise of Straight Street, doors in SE wall blocked up, end of the Larsa period; 4. Kassite period, flimsy burnt brick walls erected over the more solid foundations of the Larsa period. 3     
Culture/Period: Isin-Larsa1     
[1] Imported from BM list of contexts.
[2] p. 161-2
[3] UE 7 p.163

Files

Objects: No. 4 Straight Street Export: JSON - XML - CSV

Object U Number Museum Number (UPM Date Reg Number) Museum Number (BM Registration Number) Museum Number (UPM B-number) Description (Catalog Card)
15179 (none) (none) (none) Stamp seal. Conical. Chalcedony. Persian. Engraved with design of winged monster: bearded male head with conical hat, bulls body, bull feet. In front an altar, and above a cresent moon. [drawing 1:1]
16305 31-43-506 (none) (none) Bowl. Bronze. [drawing]
16307A 31-43-237.1 (none) (none) [A-B] Scale-Pans, Bronze, Pair. Each pierced with 4 holes for suspension. Also fragments of wooden balance arm. cf. 16308
16307B 31-43-237.2 (none) (none) [A-B] Scale-Pans, Bronze, Pair. Each pierced with 4 holes for suspension. Also [C] fragments of wooden balance arm. cf. 16308
16308B 31-43-109 (none) (none) 4 weights. Hematite. (A) long flattened lentoid. Type III, weight 1.82 grs. - 13 little sheqels (exactly); (B) lentoid (in 2 pieces) Type II weight 5.184 grs - 37 little sheqels (exactly); (C) lentoid, Type II weight 2.56 grs. - 18 little sheqels (Nominal weight 2.52 grs); (D) long lentoid, Type III weight 0.96 grs. - 7 little sheqels (nominal weight 0.95 grs). [E] Also fragment of ovoid weight Type I cf 16307
16308D 31-43-109 (none) (none) 4 weights. Hematite. (A) long flattened lentoid. Type III, weight 1.82 grs. - 13 little sheqels (exactly); (B) lentoid (in 2 pieces) Type II weight 5.184 grs - 37 little sheqels (exactly); (C) lentoid, Type II weight 2.56 grs. - 18 little sheqels (Nominal weight 2.52 grs); (D) long lentoid, Type III weight 0.96 grs. - 7 little sheqels (nominal weight 0.95 grs). [E] Also fragment of ovoid weight Type I cf 16307
16308A 31-43-109 (none) (none) 4 weights. Hematite. (A) long flattened lentoid. Type III, weight 1.82 grs. - 13 little sheqels (exactly); (B) lentoid (in 2 pieces) Type II weight 5.184 grs - 37 little sheqels (exactly); (C) lentoid, Type II weight 2.56 grs. - 18 little sheqels (Nominal weight 2.52 grs); (D) long lentoid, Type III weight 0.96 grs. - 7 little sheqels (nominal weight 0.95 grs). [E] Also fragment of ovoid weight Type I cf 16307
16315 (none) (none) (none) Vase. Miniature. Baked clay. Yelllowish drab with clay slip. Type IDLIX.
16319 (none) (none) (none) Necklace. 37 beads. Agate lentoids, carnelian balls, glazed frit double conoids, 1 lapis lazuli double conoid, 1 rectangular calcite bead, carnelian barrels, 1 gold double conoid with ridged ends.
16320 (none) (none) (none) Finger ring. silver. 3 strands of wire and fine embossed work in between.
16321 (none) (none) (none) Bangle. Bronze. Plain circular with ends slightly overlapping.
16412B (none) (none) (none) Set of 3 weights: (A) Haematite. Long Ovoid. Black. To Be Weighed. Type ? (B) Haematite. Ovoid. Black. To be Weighed. Type I (C) Steatite. Lentoid. Black. Weight=0.896 GRS 6 "Little Sheqels" (Nominal Weight=0.84)
16412C (none) (none) (none) Set of 3 weights: (A) Haematite. Long Ovoid. Black. To Be Weighed. Type ? (B) Haematite. Ovoid. Black. To be Weighed. Type I (C) Steatite. Lentoid. Black. Weight=0.896 GRS 6 "Little Sheqels" (Nominal Weight=0.84)
16537 (none) (none) (none) Clay cone. Fragment of base. (Libit-Ishtar) building of (E-gig-par) (cf. Ur Inscription 106).
16538 (none) (none) (none) Clay cone. Fragment of apex. [CARD MISSING Typed Transcription from British Museum Card]
16671 (none) (none) (none) Copper bangle. Circular. Ends overlapping.
16816 (none) (none) (none) Clay Tablet. Babylonian Letter. [CARD MISSING Typed Transcription from British Museum Card]
17204A 47-29-123 (none) (none) [A-C] 3 clay tablets. (A) Commercial: receipt. Date: Ibi-Sin (Ur Inscription 200). [CARD MISSING Typed Transcription from British Museum Card]
17204B (none) (none) (none) [A-C] 3 clay tablets. (A) Commercial: receipt. Date: Ibi-Sin (Ur Inscription 200). [CARD MISSING Typed Transcription from British Museum Card]
17329 (none) (none) (none) Cylinder seal. Shell. White. Presentation scene.
16308C 31-43-109 (none) (none) 4 weights. Hematite. (A) long flattened lentoid. Type III, weight 1.82 grs. - 13 little sheqels (exactly); (B) lentoid (in 2 pieces) Type II weight 5.184 grs - 37 little sheqels (exactly); (C) lentoid, Type II weight 2.56 grs. - 18 little sheqels (Nominal weight 2.52 grs); (D) long lentoid, Type III weight 0.96 grs. - 7 little sheqels (nominal weight 0.95 grs). [E] Also fragment of ovoid weight Type I cf 16307
16322B (none) (none) (none) Miniature tools. Bronze. [A-D] 4 model adzes and [E] 1 other instrument. Adze: thin metal. [drawing]
16322C (none) (none) (none) Miniature tools. Bronze. [A-D] 4 model adzes and [E] 1 other instrument. Adze: thin metal. [drawing]
16322D (none) (none) (none) Miniature tools. Bronze. [A-D] 4 model adzes and [E] 1 other instrument. Adze: thin metal. [drawing]
16322E (none) (none) (none) Miniature tools. Bronze. [A-D] 4 model adzes and [E] 1 other instrument. Adze: thin metal. [drawing]
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Media: No. 4 Straight Street Export: JSON - XML - CSV

Media Media Title Title Label Author Omeka Label
Social Variation in Ancient Mesopotamia: An Architectural and Mortuary Analysis of Ur in the Early S Social Variation in Ancient Mesopotamia: An Architectural and Mortuary Analysis of Ur in the Early Second Millenium B.C. 1990 Luby, Edward Michael (none)
Ur Excavations VII; The Old Babylonian Period Ur Excavations VII; The Old Babylonian Period 1976 Woolley, L. and M. Mallowan (none)
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Context

Ur > AH Site | AH > Straight Street | Division Street > No. 4 Straight Street

References

Luby, Edward Michael. (1990) Social Variation in Ancient Mesopotamia: An Architectural and Mortuary Analysis of Ur in the Early Second Millenium B.C., UMI Dissertation Services.

Woolley, L. and M. Mallowan . (1976) Ur Excavations VII; The Old Babylonian Period, Oxford: Oxford University Press.