Ur Notebook Scan -- 1924 - Box: 7 Folder: 2 - Page: 068a | Ur Notebook Scan -- 1924 - Box: 7 Folde
| Omeka Title: | PA-CU-B07-F002-068a-1924.jpg |
| Omeka ID: | 4428 |
| Transcription: | Ur Junction Archaeological Mission Iraq- Mesopotamia Dec. 12 1924Dear Dr. Gordon Despite all bad rumors of letters being stopped and lost coming to or from Iraq, I hope this will reach you, if not for Christmas at least for the New Year. It is a good season in Scotland. And I send to you and to the Museum staff my best greeting. I have been awfully busy of late, brushing mud from dirty bricks and copying all sort of inscriptions. Thanks to the weather being colder we are [?quit?] from all kind of pests: mosquitoes, sand flies, or common and most obstinate flies. The nights are cold, and there are some splendid sun rises and sun sets the only real beauty of the land. But this has nothing to do with archaeology. The big work is carried round the old Ziggurat tower. I do not know whether you care for plans or not, but a plan is a good guide and L.C.W. hopes to fix this year the four corners- or towers- at the four point of the compass, and[Page 2] at the four angles of the terrace on which rests the Ziggurat. Your know all details from his reports. One particular building or gate on the E. corner, has remarkable architectural features, a central large gate, and two side doors vaulted over, and T shape decorated walls outside. It still an open question whether it was a gate or a tribunal. But since we have courts and supreme courts, why not supreme gates! In Stambul there used to be a sublime gate. The aspect of the building is surprisingly good. The office - or mud room- affected to the cuneiformist - myself in the present case, is mud and bricks all over. I ought like a true Sumerian to walk on my bare feet, with head all shaven and shorn. It is quite the opposite, and my hair grows like the hair of the Bedani- anyhow the office has the aspect of a Museum. In a corner there is a pile of door sockets of old King Ur-Engur. Next come the green serpent, the top of an old [?Kudursa?] sawn in two and inscribed by the vice regent |
| Media Title: | Ur Notebook Scan -- 1924 - Box: 7 Folder: 2 - Page: 068a |
| Page Number: | 068a |
| Project: | CU |
| Date: | 1924 |
| Author: | Leon Legrain |
| Penn Archival Box Number: | 7 |
| Penn Archival Folder Number: | 2 |
| Crowdsource Tags: | handwritten, Legrain |
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| People | Full Name | Biography |
|---|---|---|
| Leon Legrain | Father Legrain was born in France, ordained as a priest there in 1904, and studied at the Catholic University of Lille and at the Collegium Appolinare in Rome. Assyriology professor at the Catholic Institute in Paris until WWI, he was then an interpreter in the war. He became curator of the Babylonian Section of the University of Pennsylvania Museum in 1920 and retired in 1952. A specialist in cuneiform, he was the epigraphist at Ur during the 1924-25 and 1925-26 field seasons. He published widely on texts and engraved seals, both in his time before the Penn Museum and after. He published seals and sealings from Ur (Ur Excavations volume 10), some of the tablets (Ur Excavations Texts volume 3) and was slated to publish a volume on the figurines from the site. His research and even an unpublished catalogue for this volume are in archives at the Penn Museum and now available on this website. Even after his two years at the site of Ur, Legrain played an integral role in the excavations. Not only did he research, publish, and display artifacts in the Penn Museum, but he was also the Museum's representative in the division of objects from Ur conducted almost every year in London. Legrain's letters about this process are very interesting, often in a more personal tone than Woolley's. In fact, many of his colleagues declared that Legrain was particularly entertaining and jovial, if cynical. His photographs at Ur are some of the only images we have of daily life, with many pictures of local Iraqis. |
- 1 Person
