The Man Who Dug Up Abraham's UR, Sir Leonard Woolley and His Excavations at Ur

 Nadene Goldfoot                                               

     Ur of the Chaldees (Kasdim in Hebrew), in its heyday.  before Abram in 3rd millennium BCE. Abram was born in about 1948 BCE (2nd millennium) The Chaldeans were a Semitic tribe that migrated in S. Babylonia and adopted the ancient Babylonian culture.  Gradually, they gained  supremacy over the native people their name, Chaldees, was used for the entire area.  Their astrologers became famous, even after they were gone. The Assyrians' Nebuchadnezzar in 7th century BCE came along and established an empire. This is the group evidently that Abram was originally from.   

Sir Charles Leonard Woolley (17 April 1880 – 20 February 1960) was a British archaeologist best known for his excavations at Ur in Mesopotamia. He is recognized as one of the first "modern" archaeologists who excavated in a methodical way, keeping careful records, and using them to reconstruct ancient life and history.  He was the son of a clergyman, so should have wondered about Abraham's city that he was born and raised in by Terah.  Abraham is mentioned in the Editor's preface, p. 8 &9.  Woolley has written a whole book about him called "Abraham."  

Sumer was humanity's first great civilization. Sumeria was a part of Babylonia that was not Semitic.  Even in today’s society you can still find traces of Sumerian inventions in agriculture, language, mathematics, religion and astronomy. Names like Nimrod and Cush  are connected to Sumerian tradition.  

Woolley (right) and T. E. Lawrence with a Hittite slab at Carchemish during excavation, between 1912 and 1914.

He gained experience by working  with TE Lawrence at the Hittite city of  Carchemish, the location of an important battle, about 605 BCE, between the Babylonians and Egyptians, mentioned in the Bible (Jer. 46:2). in Syria and Armarna in Egypt; The city was established in 1346 BC, built at the direction of the Pharaoh Akhenaten, and abandoned shortly after his death in 1332 BC. among other places.  Then he went to Ur, Abram's birth city where he lived before departing for Haran of ancient Babylonia. Woolley's finds will show Ur had a highly civilized nature of rich artwork made of gold and silver and other beautiful jewels as well as evidence of having a flood at an earlier date. "Woolley was one of the first archaeologists to propose that the flood described in the Book of Genesis was local after identifying a flood-stratum at Ur "400 miles long and 100 miles wide; but for the occupants of the valley that was the whole world". 

                         Woolley in Syria 1912

Woolley led a joint expedition of the British Museum and the University of Pennsylvania to Ur, beginning in 1922, which included his wife, the British archaeologist Katharine Woolley. There, they made important discoveries, including the Copper Bull and the Bull-Headed Lyre, 4 lyres in a pit holding a massive group of people with the queen, as if at a party, and each holding a cup as if to drink wine or poison, we don't know.  Was it a death party or were they tricked in dying with each other-including oxen and their wagons.  It was a shocking find that included all their gold and silver goods as well, a burial site unknown to the many looters of that period.                                

        Ur:  The editors say in the book's preface,  that contrary to the view consistently argued by Woolley, there is no actual proof that Tell el-Mukayyar, the Ur of his book, Ur, was identical with "Ur of the Chaldees' in Genesis 11:29-32.  Nor is there any agreed opinion on the existence of Abraham himself with these non-Jewish researchers, but we are aware of their disbeliefs. We're lucky that Wooley had a religious background and was curious.                                                                                      

Ur and its ziggurat, now in Iraq,  dedicated to the moon god , Nanna.  The city's patron deity was Nanna (in Akkadian, Sin), the Sumerian and Akkadian moon god, and the name of the city is in origin derived from the god's name, UNUG^KI, literally "the abode (UNUG) of Nanna". The site is marked by the partially restored ruins of the Ziggurat of Ur, which contained the shrine of Nanna, excavated in the 1930s. The temple was built in the 21st century BC (short chronology), during the reign of Ur-Nammu and was reconstructed in the 6th century BC by Nabonidus, the last king of Babylon. The ruins cover an area of 1,200 metres (3,900 ft) northwest to southeast by 800 metres (2,600 ft) northeast to southwest and rise up to about 20 metres (66 ft) above the present plain level.  As with many Mesopotamian gods, Nanna was incorporated into the Assyrian pantheon and, when the Neo-Assyrian Empire fell in 612 BCE, a great number of these deities lost favor. Nanna continued to be recognized, however, and was still worshiped in the region of Syria as late as the 3rd century CE when he was replaced by the Christian God.  In 637, Babylonia was conquered by the Arabs who followed Mohammad (d: 632  CE)  

These tombs, which date to the Early Dynastic IIIa period (approximately in the 25th or 24th century BCE), contained an immense treasure of luxury items made of precious metals and semi-precious stones imported from long distances (Ancient Iran, Afghanistan, India, Asia Minor, the Levant and the Persian Gulf). This wealth, unparalleled up to then, is a testimony of Ur's economic importance during the Early Bronze Age.           

"Ur was the burial site of what may have been many Sumerian royals. The Woolleys discovered tombs of great material wealth, containing large paintings of ancient Sumerian culture at its zenith, along with gold and silver jewelry, cups and other furnishings. The most extravagant tomb was that of "Queen" Pu-Abi. Amazingly enough, Queen Pu-Abi's tomb was untouched by looters. Inside the tomb, many well-preserved items were found, including a cylindrical seal bearing her name in Sumerian. Her body was found buried along with those of two attendants, who had presumably been poisoned to continue to serve her after death. Woolley was able to reconstruct Pu-Abi's funeral ceremony from objects found in her tomb."

 Gold helmet of Meskalamdug, ruler of the First Dynasty of Ur, 26th century BCE.

"It is thought that Ur had a stratified social system including slaves (captured foreigners), farmers, artisans, doctors, scribes, and priests. High-ranking priests apparently enjoyed great luxury and splendid mansions. Tens of thousands of cuneiform texts have been recovered from temples, the palace, and individual houses, recording contracts, inventories, and court documents, evidence of the city's complex economic and legal systems.

                                 

              Typical lyre of today  "The lyre has its origins in ancient history. Lyres were used in several ancient cultures surrounding the Mediterranean Sea. The earliest known examples of the lyre have been recovered at archeological sites that date to c. 2700 BCE in Mesopotamia."

I am left with Woolley's description of finding the huge party of dead people who joined the queen either willingly or by her plan of awe and shock with their deaths as well.  They all seemed to be dressed in their party clothing and jewelry, with their oxen and wagons, all dead in their natural repose.  4 lyres, their music accompanied them in death, giving us a real glimpse into their last moments.  Those people must have walked down a path to a lower level and that level gave way for the huge vaulted area below it.  Egypt had its pyramids above ground and Sumeria had theirs below ground. So shocking to me and for those poor people.  No wonder Abram wanted to leave this town of wealth.  

Abraham was originally from the Semitic tribe of Chaldea/Chaldees and settled in Ur, populated by a non-Semitic people.  They eventually became the dominant group, but by the time Abram was a young married man, of deplorable morals according to Abraham's beliefs.  The question now is--where did this tribe come from which we understand was in the East somewhere?  This is why we signify Ur as Ur of the Chaldees, different from any other Ur.  

Resource:

https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/chaldeans-kaldu-west-semitic-tribes#:~:text=CHALDEANS%20(Kaldu)%2C%20West%20Semitic,in%20the%20population%20of%20Babylonia.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEtasd52cfg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ur

Book: UR "of the Chaldees", a revised and updated edition of Sir Leonard Woolley's Excavations at Ur, by PRS Moorey.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Sumer