Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-03-28
MODERN|TY LINKED
WITH ANTIQUITY BY
EXCAVATION OF UR
Egypt Seems Present Day
Compared With Ancient
Mesopotamia, WooIey Says.
MYSTERIOUS SUMERIANS
DEVELOPED ARTISTRY
Skill in Architecture and Painting
Is Revealed by Findings
of Scientists.
BY THOMAS r. HENRY.

BY THOMAS r. HENRY.
Man has been civilized for an meal
culably long time.
The buried City of Ur, in Southern
Mesopotamia, presents to eXcavators q
record of antiquity beside which the
antiquity of Egypt seems comparatively
modern, Prof. c. Leonard Wooley of Ok
ford University, told the Archaeological
Society of Washington last night. Prof.
Wooley led the British Museum and
University of Pennsylvania expeditions
which have worked for seven years on
the site of Ur, uncovering layer after
layer of civilization extending beyond
the dawn of history.
Ur was the great city of the Sumo
rians This mysterious people emerged
into history with many of the funda-
mental arts of today. Before the flood
of Noah they were painting beautiful
pictures and building comfortable houses.
The city passed through the hands of
various conquerors and finally diSap-
peared about 300 years B. C. One of its
last rulers was Nebuchannezzar, King
of Babylon. Prof. Wooley Illustrated the
great antiquity of Ur by pointing out
that Nebuchadnezzar was much closer
to the present than to King A-An-Ni-
Pad-Du, the first ruler of Ur of whom
there is record. He lived approximate
ly 800 3. G. Many dynasties of civil
lied kings may have preceded him.
Reached Peak 1900 B. C.
The city, said Prof. wooley, reached
its greatest prosperity about 1900 B. c.,
when it was the capital OF great
Sumerian kingdom. Here the patriarch
Abraham was born q few hundred years
later and he carried into the desert
with him the arts and culture of his
birthplace. The high state of civiliza-
ton in Ur in the days of Abraham, he
said, throws new light on the devef-
opment of the Jewish race, as told in
the Bible
Excavations thus far have been con-
fined largely to the sacred area in the
center of Ur, where was located the
temple of the Moon God, whom the
Sumerians worshiped 1t was sur
rounded by thick. high wall. When
! uncovered by excavators 1t presented
curiously modern picture, because 1t
| already had been restored by modern
! archeologists-thati is. by grandson of
| King Northumberland.
With the kingdom of Babylon already
shaking, the King to placate his SOUTH
ern subjects at Or, had restored the
old temple and made 1t private chapel
in the midst of nunnery presided over
by a Babylonian princess. In room
of the nunnery was found clay tablet
identified as a fragment of a dictionary.
In another room, dated about $50 Be,
was collection of art objects of about
1000 B. c. A clay inscription explained
that these had been collected by the
governor as examples of the antiquities
of Ur.
Lived in Comfortable Homes.
The people of Ur in Abraham's day,
said Prof. Wooley, lived in substantial
and comfortable houses with interior
courts, under the floors of which they
buried their dead. Many of these graves
were opened by the excavators. includ-
ing one of an ancient king. This re-
vealed for the first time that the Sumo
rianS practiced human sacrifice. Buried
with the King we're So human skeletons
slain to keep him company on his
Journey to the land of shadows. His
body was guarded by six slain soldiers,
each with his copper helmet over his
mead and his spear in the fighting posi-
ton. There also were skeletons OF oxen
drawing great wooden chariot, the
skeletons of their drivers and those of
nine women. probably the Kings favor
tie wives. Over the skull of the King
was helmet of gold made in the shape
of wig, each lock of hair being repre-
sented by delicate carving.
The grave of Queen yielded a choice
collection of alabaSter. copper. silver
and gold art objects and dishes. A
cockle-shell case contained green paint
for the Queens face. In many of the
women's graves were statues of lambs
caught in thickets of gold, apparently
some symbol of the Sumerian religion.
Under the graves, which go back to
$4,000 B. c.. Is great rubbish heap and
under that a water-laid deposit about
believed by Prof. Wooley to be the flood
of Noah, the legend OF which spread
from Ur to Babylon and eventually be-
came incorporated in the Bible. Even
below the flood deposit art objects were
recovered, showing that Or had -four
ishing civilization when 1t was wiped out
by this catastrophe.
Used Skyscraper Principle.
Ur, said Prof woolsey. passed on its
civilization to Egypt in Babylon, from
whom it was inherited by the Jews,
Greeks and Romans. From them it was
passed. Oh III u 0lICCk 10 tIlS DIGS6I1C.
The Sumerians, he said, knew the fun
damentals of architecture and some of
their earliest buildings show that they
had learned to construct arches, vaults
and domes. They were master gold and
silver smiths producing work which could
easily be mistaken for the best of the
Greek and Roman periods. Some of the
animal figures showed a mastery unex-
celled by modern sculptors and their
paintings showed an exquisite mastery
Of details.
The temples of the Sumerians made
use of some of the principles of the
modern skyscraper. Such was the
Tower of Babel of the Bible, probably
patterned after the principal temple Of
the Moon God in Or. The origin of the
Sumerians is unknown, but it Is be-
lieved they came into Mesopotania
from a region of high mountains, where
they had worshiped the Moon God.
When they came into the low, fiat
country of Southern Mesopotamia they
could not reconcile themselves to wor-
ship except on great heights. So they
built artificial hills of brick, upon which
they reared temples.
On top of this artificial mountain at
Ur the Babylonians under King Ham
of the Bible erected war me-
mortal following their capture of the
city. This makes 1t possible to date the
career of Abraham. one Of the citizens
of Ur. who met the enemy forces In
the plains outside of Ur.
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