Amid the extensive remains of cemeteries, the most recently found graves, which lis south-east of the sacred enclosure, are the most interesting. The graves fall into three periods, and are dated provisionally by Woolley at 3500 B.C., the second series are comparable with Cemetery A at Kish, and are dated by Woolley at about three centuries later, while the third series are some centuries later, but at present are undated.
The richest graves of all belong to the earliest period. Their wealth of precious metal shows that there was a very consider able and prosperous civilization, while the settled style of the art shows that this civilization was already an old one. The graves antedate the first dynasty of Ur by 400 years, they come therefore in the period subsequent to "the flood," a period in which Sumerian historians placed two dynasties, those of Kish and Erech. For these periods and for the first dynasty of Ur they record only the names of the kings, often exaggerating the length of their reigns to an absurdly great degree. The excavations at Ur have, however, produced inscriptions of the first dynasty and these early graves show that the occupation of the lower river valley is extremely ancient, while additional confirmatory evidence of an early date has recently been found at Kish.
The great temple area at Ur is both striking and has had many archaeological results. The temenos or sacred enclosure as it exists to-day is the work of Nebuchadrezzar. The outer wall appears to have been pierced by six great gateways. On the north-east side the more northerly had a corner stone with an inscription of Bur-Sin. The southerly was restored by Cyrus, the son of Cambyses. On the south-western side the gateway opposite the ziggurat had an inscription of Nabonidus.
The ziggurat stands in the north-west corner of the sacred area. It consists of three stories. The lowest, which measures 210 X 140 X 20 feet, was built by Ur-Nammu and Dungi and was built so well that further restoration was apparently never needed. The second stage was restored by Nabonidus. A small building crowned the third stage. This was the bedchamber of the god and goddess, not a temple as Herodotus supposed. The face of the first stage was blackened, the second and third was of red stone, while the shrine on the top was encased in blue brick, the work of Nabonidus. On the north-east side there were three stairways, leading from the platform to the second stage, two ran along the face of the tower from the north and east angles respectively and met in the middle, from which point there was a third stairway, running towards the face of the tower, at right angles to the other two.
East of the ziggurat lay the great temple of E-num-mah. The ruin is of three periods, prehistoric to Neobabylonian, and of the time of Cyrus. The old Sumerian foundation wall was made of unbaked brick built on a foundation of clay which had been beaten hard. On this there were two courses of unbaked bricks of Bur-Sin, 8 ft. 9 in. thick and 8 ft. 5 in. high, which had been restored at various times. On either side there are a row of rooms. The temple was laid in ruins between the time of Hammurabi and the Kassite dynasty. Nebuchadrezzar II. made a complete restoration. The old temple had no great open court, an obvious need in a great temple ; for this Nebuchadrezzar made provision.
South-east of the ziggurat was a much ruined temple of Ningal. The middle cella and the side chapels lie on the north-west side of the court, and the entrance, through a great recessed doorway is on this side. On either side there were two rooms connecting with antechamber and chapels and the plan recalls the temple of Ishtar at Babylon. A roadway led from the south-east of the temple of Ningal, ending in a great double gateway which gave access to the court of a great rectangular building east of the temple. There was communication from the south corner of the temple court to this street through a pair of recessed gates. At the other end of the roadway the excavators found a recess with a door opening on to a building of the Kassite period.
Between the temple of Ningal and E-num-mah lay the shrine of Nannar, E-dub-lal-mah. This is mentioned in an old liturgy as a temple of Ur and buildings of this name occur in other cities, such as Adab, Larsa, Lagash and Isin. The town itself was ex cavated by Woolley. It has been shown that the old town of Ur, as it presented itself to Abraham's view, cannot have differed much from the modern mudbrick towns of Mesopotamia.
See, for earlier excavations, Cambridge Ancient History, vol. 1, 1923 (bibliography) ; H. R. Hall, Museum Journal, XV. Woolley's reports are appearing annually in the Antiquaries Journal (Vol. III. onwards). See also C. Leonard Woolley, Ur of the Chaldees (193o); S. Langdon, Der alte Orient. 26 (1928). (L. H. D. B.)