Royal Graves in Ancient Mesopotamia

"Of the history of the Sumerians, we know nothing." This was stated in a text titled History of the World published in the 1920's. Yet a mere forty years later the civilization was literally unearthed and mankind added several thousnad years to his knowledge of human history. It is inthe valley of the Tigris and Euphrates---in modern Iraq-- that the secrets of one of the most advanced civilizations has been WRESTED from the very desert. The Greek historian Herodotus (whom you will learn about later) knew nothing of these people. It was really not until the mid point of the last century that these people were rediscovered. Besides being inventers of the wheel and constructing the first multi-storied buildings, the Sumerians were interested in ASTROLOGY and also had an amaz-ingly sound knowledge of ASTRONOMY.

Some two hundred miles south of modern Baghdad lie the ruins of the city of Ur. There, in the fall of 1922, Professor Leonard Woolley excavated a royal cemetery. During the following decade he METHODICALLY dug up this burial ground, thereby revealing for the first time the true spirit of Sumerian culture. Woolley found l,850 graves. From the burial offerings in these graves, scholars were able to place most of them in their CHRONOLOGICAL order, for only 751 out of the 1,850 contained no objects of a datable nature.

Sixteen graves were distinguished from the rest by their special OPULENCE, construction and manner of burial. In these "royal" graves Woolley found human sacrifices whose number varied between six and eight. Woolley established that in every case only one of the bodies had been buried, while the rest had been sacrificed. Archaeological evidence suggests that this sacrifice was not made under duress.

Human sacrifices were found only in those graves which contained stone VAULTS, but they were by no means confined to graves provided with rich offerings. For instance, Prince Mes-Kalam-Dug's grave was far more SUMPTUOUS than the king's grave, which Woolley designated as PG/1054. But whereas no human skeletons were found in the prince's grave, PG/1054 contained eight. Woolley also unearthed the queen's burial chamber. This grave, too, has been catalogued; in the archaeological records it is entered as PG/800. The queen's name was Shub-ad.

Woolley determined her name from a cylinder seal on the queen's right shoulder. But he provided us with still more: the queen was four feet, eleven and one-half inches tall, of delicate bone structure, and with small feet, small hands and a large, narrow head. Woolley also believes he can establish that the queen spent most of her time in a kneeling position, in the manner of Japanese women. Prince Mes-Kalam-Dug was about five feet, five inches tall, and Woolley has DEDUCED from his skull structure that he was left-handed. According to Woolley, both queen and prince belonged to the "proto-Arabian" race. The graves are about 4,000 years old, and date from the first dynasty of Ur.

What was the manner of burial in those ancient days?

Queen Shub-ad was found stretched out on her back. Her body had simply been put on a wooden BIER. At her head crouched a female attendant, while the remains of a second were found at her feet. These attendants died a sacrificial death, for the burial chamber had been ceremonially sealed.

After the sealing of the grave, down the ramp leading to the chamber, there followed a procession of COURTIERS, soldiers and other male and female attendants. The latter had donned brightly colored robes, and wore golden hair ornaments and golden earrings, CHAPLETS of lapis lazuli, cornelian and gold leaf, silver hairpins and ornamental combs, necklaces and large robe clasps. They all took up their positions around the grave pit, as carts drawn by oxen and donkeys followed them down. Each man and woman held a small receptacle of stone, earthenware or metal in their hands. In the middle of the vault stood a large copper vessel. Apparently, all beakers were filled and each person drank the poison. The animals, too, must have been killed in some manner or other. The whole grave was then filled up with earth. This is the only way in which Professor Woolley can explain why he found the victims ranged in tidy rows, looking completely calm, and why he was unable to detect any signs of violence whatsoever. Not even the women's COIFFURES had been disarranged. Probably all died in a PRONE or seated position, as though they had quietly and suddenly decided to take leave of life. Indeed, Woolley DISCERNED that the musicians must have been playing up to the very end.

Every member of the king's RETINUE in every royal grave, without exception, was found holding a cup in his hand, and the copper vessel was always down there, too. This has convinced Woolley that the courtiers not only died peacefully, but also of their own free will. He thinks that the animals apparently died after their grooms, but they, too, died in their allotted places.

These live burials were certainly not bridal sacrifices to the gods, as many scholars have supposed, for actually, more men than women were found among the principal victims. A bride for a deity would have had to be young and beautiful, yet Woolley ASCERTAINED that Queen Shub-ad was about forty years old. It should of course be remembered that he based this opinion on the examination of a woman who had been dead for almost 5,000 years.

The other treasures that Woolley brought to light from the royal burial ground stagger the imagination. Queen Shub-ad's shell powder box, her little RETICULE of blue malachite, golden pins, rings, bracelets and necklaces, the lovely bright-colored amulets, the queen's diadem, the many different head ornaments made of finest gold leaf-all these things are so unique, even by present-day standards, that no modern jeweler could even begin to duplicate them. Woolley found massive golden bowls of beautiful design in the queen's and the prince's graves, as well as innumerable other precious objects: harps and lyres, checker boards, figurines of wood, metal, shell-encrusted stone and lapis lazuli, miniature boats, an ornamented royal standard of white marble, goblets of lapis lazuli, bowls and basins. All these things are designed with an exquisite simplicity which gives them a timeless elegance.

Woolley found many other objects: golden daggers, axes, lance heads, carriage shafts and bridle rings, and, finally, the famous "Ram in the Blossoming Tree," a magnificent work of art made of precious metals and colored stones.

It is difficult to imagine how it must feel to discover such untouched graves. There lie the dead, undisturbed, their servants still inside the tomb, soldiers still guarding the entrance, grooms holding their animals' bridles, musicians at their instruments, and the ladies-in-waiting still grouped respectfully near the royal chamber-the mass burial of a whole retinue, loyal to their sovereign lord even in death. These people entered the vault firmly believing in a life after death; they must have felt completely secure in the close proximity of their god-prince, and immune to the dread of eternal night.