Richard L. Zettler – författare

This stunning catalogue includes color photographs of more than 230 objects, excavated in the 1930s by renowned British archaeologist Sir Leonard Woolley, from the third-millennium-B.C. Sumerian city of Ur. Learn the fascinating story of the excavation and preservation of these magnificent artifacts. Many of the objects are published in color and fully described for the first time-jewelry of gold and semiprecious stones, engraved seal stones, spectacular gold and lapis lazuli statuettes and musical instruments; and vessels of gold, silver, and alabaster. Curator Richard Zettler sets the stage with a history of Ur in the third millennium and the details of the actual excavations. Art historians Donald Hansen and Holly Pittman discuss the historical importance and significance of the many motifs on the most spectacular finds from the tombs.

As the first of the final reports related to the current program of research at Nippur, this volume is crucial for understanding the Kassite assemblage at Nippur, especially for ceramics. This monograph emends and expands the assemblage that appeared in preliminary reports and details the construction and rebuildings of a large Kassite private house near the western city wall (Area WC-1), which furnished information on Kassite architectural practice as well as unanticipated patterning in intramural burials. Cuneiform texts, though mostly fragmentary and almost all from secondary contexts, allow some suggestions on the occupants of the sequence of houses and their activities. The plates include photographs of all the texts. An introductory chapter reconsiders the evidence for the correct orientation of the famous "Kassite" city map. Faunal reports are given in the appendices.