Description (Catalog Card): Cylinder seal. Diorite. Damaged, and part of the surface gone. Design worked entirely with the drill: a standing figure with arms raised and two seated figures, and an object which may be a libation vase.1     
Find Context (Catalog Card): Ziggurat NW 1931, under pavement of room III level II     
Material (Catalog Card): Diorite2     
Measurement (Catalog Card): L. 53mm, D. 36mm     
U Number: 17872     
Object Type: Seals, Stamps, and Sealings >> Cylinder Seals      
Museum: University of Pennsylvania Museum      
Season Number: 10: 1931-1932      
Description (Modern): worked by drill, standing figure, arms raised, two seated figures. UE X: a human figure stands facing front, with hands raised on either side as if praying. Two men are squatting beside him apparently on a dais above the level of the jars placed on the ground, and a canopy seems to extend over their heads. Their mode of sitting with one leg doubled under them, and the other knee half raised, is found only on archaic monuments, seals, and statues. Group of dots on the other side of the standing man may perhaps represent a goat (?) on a much-damaged background. Diorite cylinder.     
Material: Inorganic Remains >> Stones and Minerals >> Stone >> Igneous >> Diorite      
Museum Number (UPM Date Reg Number): 32-40-334     
Measurement (X): 53     
Measurement (X): 55     
Measurement (Y): 36     
Measurement (Y): 42     
[1] Woolley's description
[2] Material as described by Woolley

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Locations: 17872 | 32-40-334 Export: JSON - XML - CSV

Location Context Title Context Description Description (Modern)
Ziggurat Terrace | ZT The excavation area abbreviation ZT stands for Ziggurat Terrace. It was used for any portion of the terrace on which the ziggurat stood, though other more specific abbreviations were also used. For example, the abbreviation PDW refers to the northern side of the terrace, west of the Great Nannar Courtyard (PD), and HD refers to the southern part of the terrace. Early references using the abbreviation ZT refer specifically to excavations along the terrace retaining wall itself. Later references, however, mention specific areas on top the terrace such as the so-called 'boat shrine.' The abbreviation also refers to deep clearing of the terrace fill, particularly on the north side in later excavation seasons, though the abbreviation Zig.31 was most often used for this. Woolley uncovered large areas of the retaining wall that supported the platform known as the ziggurat terrace. He found that it was decorated with large wall cones. These cones bore an inscription of Urnamma but there is evidence that the terrace in some form existed in the Early Dynastic period as well. The Urnamma retaining wall was slanted to support the terrace, was 1.7 meters high, 34 meters wide, and was decorated with 5-meter-wide buttresses about 4 meters apart. The inscribed cones dedicate the terrace to the moon god, Nanna, and show that it was called e-temen-ni-gur, which translates as, "house, foundation platform clad in terror." (Woolley read this e-temen-ni-il). (none)
  • 1 Location

Media: 17872 | 32-40-334 Export: JSON - XML - CSV

Media Media Title Title Label Author Omeka Label
Field Photographs Field Photographs (none) (none) (none)
Ur Excavations X; Seal Cylinders Ur Excavations X; Seal Cylinders 1951 Legrain, Leon, and Woolley, Leonard (none)
Woolley's Catalog Cards Woolley's Catalog Cards Card -- BM ID:194 Box:70 Page:71 Card -- BM ID:194 Box:70 Page:71 (none)
  • 3 Media