Great
Lyre from the "King's Grave"
Object ID B17694
"Ram
in the Thicket"
Object ID 30-12-702
For enlarged view, visit the online
gallery. Also, read about the conservation of the Ram here.
Electrum Tumbler
Object ID B17691
For
enlarged view, visit the online gallery
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"Treasures
from the Royal Tombs of Ur"
Full Exhibition Returning to Penn Museum on or after 2012
Special Display of Selected Objects Now On View
ABOUT THE COLLECTION AND ITS EXHIBITION HISTORY
For years, the materials from the royal tombs at Ur in modern-day
Iraq—the city famed in the Bible as the home of the patriarch
Abraham—have been a highlight at the University of Pennsylvania
Museum. In 1998, a new traveling exhibition of the materials,
complete with a reappraisal of the 1920s excavations that uncovered
the treasures, and a first-time catalogue, was developed. Since
1998, Treasures from the Royal Tombs of Ur has toured
eleven sites in ten American cities, including selected pieces of the exhibition as part of the summer 2004 "Art
of the First Cities" exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum
of Art in New York City.
The late 1920s excavation of royal tombs at Ur, in southern Iraq, provided one of the most renowned discoveries in the history of archaeology. Extravagant jewelry of gold, lapis-lazuli, and carnelian, cups of gold and silver, and extraordinary objects of art and culture were among the Mesopotamian treasures uncovered by renowned British archaeologist C. Leonard Woolley in a joint expedition by the British Museum and Penn Museum. The remarkable tombs opened the world's eyes to the full glory of ancient Sumerian culture (2600-2500 B.C.) at its zenith. Penn Museum's display--the highlights of a 1990s exhibition which traveled around the country--features several objects, including a bull-headed lyre, one of the oldest musical instruments in the world; the famed, misnamed "Ram-Caught-in-the-Thicket" statuette (it is actually a goat); and the elaborate headdress of the Queen Puabi, as well as excavation photographs and text retelling the story of the famous expedition.
Treasures
from the Royal Tombs of Ur was again exhibited at Penn Museum in March 2004 and ran through June 2005 before traveling to additional sites. Visitors had an opportunity to see what art
critic and former Metropolitan Museum of Art Director Thomas Hoving
called "the finest, most resplendent and magical works
of art in all of America" (artnet.com): the Ram-in-the-Thicket,
the Great Lyre with a gold and lapis lazuli bull's head, Lady
Puabi’s lapis lazuli and carnelian jewelry, an electrum drinking
tumbler, and a gold ostrich egg—as well as Lady Puabi’s
headdress and other treasures, large and small—from this
world famous, 4500-year-old Sumerian collection.
Extravagant jewelry of gold, lapis-lazuli, and carnelian, cups
of gold and silver, bowls of alabaster, and extraordinary objects
of art and culture were among the Mesopotamian treasures uncovered
in the late 1920s by renowned British archaeologist C. Leonard
Woolley in a joint expedition by the British Museum and the University
of Pennsylvania Museum. The royal tombs at Ur opened the world's
eyes to the full glory of ancient Sumerian culture (2600-2500
B.C.) at its zenith.
A spectacular find, the royal cemetery excavations of that early
era in archaeology remain one of the most remarkable technical
achievements of Near Eastern archaeology, and they helped to catapult
Woolley's career. Indeed at the time of its discovery, the royal
cemetery at Ur competed only with Howard Carter's discovery of
the intact tomb of the boy pharaoh, Tutankhamen, for public attention.
By the end of the excavation in 1934 Woolley had become, as The
Illustrated London News termed him, a "famous archaeologist,"
with his own series on BBC Radio, and in little more than a year
he was awarded knighthood.
The royal cemetery tomb of Queen Puabi, like the tomb of King Tutankhamen,
was an especially extraordinary find for being intact, having
escaped looting through the millennia. The tomb featured a vaulted
chamber set at the bottom of a deep "death pit"; the
lady was buried lying on a wooden bier. She was identified by
a cylinder seal bearing her name and found on her body. The seal
is carved in cuneiform and written in Sumerian, the world's first
written language.
Queen Puabi wore an elaborate headdress of gold leaves, gold ribbons,
strands of lapis lazuli and carnelian beads, a tall comb of gold,
chokers, necklaces, and a pair of large, crescent-shaped earrings.
Her upper body was covered in strings of beads made of precious
metals and semi-precious stones stretching from her shoulders
to her belt, while rings decorated all her fingers. An ornate
diadem made of thousands of small lapis lazuli beads with gold
pendants of animals and plants was on a table near her head.
Many more artifacts, now world famous in the fields of art, history
and archaeology, were found by Woolley in the larger cemetery.
The University of Pennsylvania Museum collection includes several
of the world's earliest known musical instruments–bull’s
headed lyres in silver, gold or bronze. A famed "Ram-in-the-Thicket"
statuette of a goat (misnamed with a Biblical reference) also
attests to the exceptional artistry of the period.
The Ur treasures were divided in the 1920s and 1930s amongst the
University of Pennsylvania Museum in Philadelphia, the British
Museum in London and the Iraq Museum in Baghdad and remained in
those institutions—until Penn Museum's traveling exhibition
tour.
* * *
Dr. Richard Zettler, Associate Curator-in-Charge of the Near East Section, Dr.
Holly Pittman, Penn Museum Associate Curator, Near East Section,
and Dr. Donald P. Hansen, the Stephen Chan Professor of Ancient
Middle Eastern Archaeology at the Institute of Fine Arts, New
York University, are exhibition co-curated the traveling exhibit.
The exhibition co-curators are also chapter authors of the exhibition's
catalogue, Treasures from the Royal Tombs of Ur, edited by Richard
L. Zettler and Lee Horne and on sale in the Museum Shop ($75 cloth;
$49.95 paper), through the Museum's Publications website,
and by phone through the distributor at 1-800-537-5487. The book
includes color photographs of 230 objects excavated in the 1920s-1930s,
plus archival black and white photographs from the famous excavation.
Curator Richard Zettler sets the stage with a history of Ur in
the third millennium and the details of the actual excavations.
Renowned 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.
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