The Standard of Ur is an ancient inlaid object excavated in Mesopotamia. Images on its two sides show scenes including military processions, captives, and a banquet.
Its images use materials such as shell and lapis lazuli. The name standard comes from an early interpretation, while its actual purpose remains debated.
The excavation at Ur
The artifact was found in one of the largest royal tombs in the Royal Cemetery at Ur, tomb PG 779, associated with Ur-Pabilsag, a king who died around 2550 BC. Sir Leonard Woolley's excavations in Mesopotamia from 1927–1928 uncovered the artifact in the corner of a chamber, lying close to the shoulder of a man who may have held it on a pole. For this reason, Woolley interpreted it as a standard, giving the object its popular name, although subsequent investigation has failed to confirm this assumption.
The discovery was quite unexpected, as the tomb in which it occurred had been thoroughly plundered by robbers in ancient times. As one corner of the last chamber was being cleared, a workman spotted a piece of shell inlay. Woolley later recalled that "the next minute the foreman's hand, carefully brushing away the earth, laid bare the corner of a mosaic in lapis lazuli and shell."
The Standard of Ur survived in only a fragmentary condition. The ravages of time over more than four thousand years caused the decay of the wooden frame and bitumen glue which had cemented the mosaics in place. The soil's weight had crushed the object, fragmenting it and breaking its end panels. This made excavating the Standard a challenging task. Woolley's excavators were instructed to look for hollows in the ground created by decayed objects and to fill them with plaster or wax to record the shape of the objects that had once filled them, rather like the famous plaster casts of the victims of Pompeii.
When the remains of the Standard were discovered by the excavators, they found that the mosaic pieces had kept their form in the soil, while their wooden frame had disintegrated. They carefully uncovered small sections measuring about 3 cm (0.47 sq in) and covered them with wax, enabling the mosaics to be lifted while maintaining their original designs. For display in 1928 the pieces were consolidated with paraffin which caused deterioration. The Standard was completely dismantled and reassembled in 1973, with the inlays on the end panels being adjusted at that time.
Mosaic scenes
"War" is one of the earliest representations of a Sumerian army, engaged in what is believed to be a border skirmish and its aftermath. Related scenes were shown on sealings found in the Royal Cemetery. The "War" panel shows a figure, often taken as a king though the figure lacks any of the standard indicator of kingship, in the middle of the top register, standing taller than any other figure, with his head projecting out of the frame to emphasize his supreme status – a device also used on the other panel.
He stands in front of his bodyguard and a four-wheeled wagon (vs cart or chariot), drawn by a team of some sort of equids, possibly onagers or domestic asses or even kunga; horses were only introduced in the region in the early 2nd millennium BC. He faces a row of prisoners, all of whom are portrayed as naked, bound and injured with large, bleeding gashes on their chests and thighs – a device indicating defeat and debasement.
In the middle register, eight virtually identically depicted soldiers give way to a battle scene, followed by a depiction of enemies being captured and led away. The soldiers are shown wearing leather cloaks and helmets; actual examples of the sort of helmet depicted in the mosaic were found in the same tomb.