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Early Dynastic III, roughly contemporary with Eannatum.
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c. 2500 BCE
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Principle occupants = private graves.
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Second + Third Dynasty kings and queens, provides insight on political structure of Ur.
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Also important because it could provide concrete evidence of chronology to compare to available king lists.
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Most famous grave = Queen Puabi, identified by a cylinder seal she was wearing.
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Found in association with the Royal Tombs of Ur, provide insight on social organisation or Ur societies.
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Evidence included human remains, ornaments and grave goods.
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Inform us about class structure, religious order and traditions (+ human sacrifice?).
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Blunt force trauma on victims in Great Death Pit suggest mass sacrifice of subjects.
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Identity of individuals = uncertain (consorts?). One pit contained only women, interpreted as a sacrifice to the moon god of Ur - Nanna.
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General consensus is that death pits were a common practice of acient Sumerian societies.
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Puabi's grave = most insightful info regarding identification of cemetery occupants.
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Puabi's grave = situated above death pit.
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Puabi identified through elaborate and ornate headdress.
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Individuals in death pit found to have overdeveloped back and leg muscles and signs of repeated knee and ankle strain -> chariot riders?
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Evidence of postmortem heating of skulls - indicates practice of heating/smoking bodies after death?
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Naram-Sin = Akkadian ruler. Significant for his deification.
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c. 2334-2154
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Evidence from inscriptions in statue base of teh deification of Naram-Sin and the erection of a temple in his honour by the people of Agade.
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Sippar stele (or victory stele) - represents Naram-Sin defeating Lullubi people from Zagros Mountains.
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Represents Naram-Sin both as god and king:
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- Horned helmet - reserved for deities and gods, but worn here by Naram-Sin.
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- Size - Naram-Sin is depicted bigger than all others on stele and towers over the Lullubi enemies, themselves small, broken and being stepped on.
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- Shamash - depicted as a sun over the mountains, on the same side of the stele as Naram-Sin. Previous depictions would have separated the divine and kingship on different sides (e.g. Eannatum and the stele of the vultures).
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Depictions of the "others"
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Lullubi warriors differentiated by size and posture, but alos by different hairstyles and dress.
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Aruz, J. and Wallenfels, R. (eds) (2003) Art of the first cities: The Third Millennium B.C. from the Mediterranean to the Indus. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art (Museum of Art Series).
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Reade, J. (2001) ‘Assyrian King-Lists, the Royal Tombs of Ur, and Indus Origins’, Journal of Near Eastern Studies, 60(1), pp. 1–29. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1086/468883.
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