 | Palace of Bel-Shalti-Nannar | AD | The excavation area abbreviation AD was apparently duplicated by accident and thus refers to two different areas of the site. At the excavation, the designation was used to refer to a large Neo-Babylonian structure in the northern portion of the site that was eventually dubbed the 'Palace of Bel-Shalti-Nannar.' The horizontal extent of this building is one of the largest at Ur and the layout resembles that of the 'Great House' in Merkes at Babylon. The building's foundations were preserved to a great depth (over 3 meters) and paved floors sat at the top of the intentional fill of these foundations. Walls did not extend much above this level and excavation consisted mostly of following the outlines in order to determine the ground plan. A few artifacts were recovered, primarily from intrusive graves and from foundation deposits.
Inscribed bricks in the preserved floor led Woolley to identify the building with the residence of the entu priestess in the Neo-Babylonian period. It was built for the daughter of Nabonidus, whose name we now read as Ennigaldi-Nanna but which in Woolley's day was read Bel-Shalti-Nannar. It may have had some administrative functions but it mainly appears to have been a large-scale residence.
Legrain, in his museum work on inscribed materials, used the excavation area abbreviation AD to refer to a subsection of area BC (the mausoleum of the Ur III kings). Artifacts from the two separate AD contexts have been divided in the digital data wherever possible. | (none) |
