UR OF THE CHALDEES

Evening Star, Issue 19763, 13 January 1928, Page 6

UR OF THE CHALDEES

A ROYAL BURIAL REMARKABLE DISCOVERIES NEW YORK, January 12. (Received January 13, at 1 p.m.) Further details of a grave discovered in Ur of the Chaldees shows that, besides being rich in treasures, it is strewn with the bodies of musicians, servants, and gold-decked women of the harem, who accompanied their master in his death. The body of the king himself has not been found. The discoveries offer proof that in the fourth millennium n.c., there were practised in Mesopotamia burial ceremonies about which later traditions were silent and arch. to legists hitherto knew nothing. Two grooms stood at the head of an ass in each chariot, still holding the reins. A third lay by their side. Piled against the clothes was a chest in which human bodies were huddled up as if they had been suddenly smitten by death. Thirteen more bodies were found near the chariots; two of these being children. The others were apparently women. All were dressed alike, with elaborate headdresses and veils, from which hung gold pendants. Undoubtedly these belonged to the dead king’s harem. In the rectangle stood large limestone blocks, probably forming the altar on which the victims were sacrificed. The Royal grave illustrates in an extraordinary degree the material civilisation that Mesopotamia enjoyed in the fourth millenium. It seems to have been far in advance of contemporary Egypt, and shows art already old, stereotyped, and even decadent.— Sydney ‘ Sun ’ Cable.