The hidden treasure from the royal cemetery of Ur

Angel Otalora

Archaeology

As one of the most important archaeological collections, the Royal Treasure of Ur is one of the
most complete archaeological collections from Sumer.

The Royal Treasure of Ur was discovered by Leonard Woolley, between 1922 and 1936, whose
expedition was sponsored by the British Museum and the University of Pennsylvania, The
cemetery was found on the autumn of 1922, on the first week of work, the excavation was
directed by Woolley, the excavation began with the digging of two narrow trail trenches: the first
trench know as A trench , which ran to the south of the Nanna’s temple platform, and the trench B
was located to the east of the Ziggurat. The B trench was made to explore the superficial buildings,
Woolley decided not to excavate immediately despite the foresight of finding gold.

Woolley’s interest was the architecture of the city. During his second season, on the winter of
1929, he went out of funds, recurring to the baksheesh to pay the workers with the valuable items
that were unearthed, in January, Woolley sent two ciphered telegrams to secure more funds.

The cemetery contained more of two thousand burials, identify due to the burials that are
limitated by a layer of debris, and by being mentioned on the clay tablets, using as reference the
epic of Gilgamesh, Woolley found that that cemetery belonged to a monarch and all the human
remains found belonged to his favorite servants.

Also, with the use of x-rays, a team of archaeologists explained the process of construction, and
burial of the tomb and the ceremonial rites with some of the priest/priestesses after the dead of
the monarch.
As the most complete burial context on Mesopotamian record found, was one of the most
remarkable study subjects for the archaeologist, to begin as a complex graveyard that contains all
the treasures of the king, that not only contain all the jewels, weapons and other material
possessions, but also contains the rests of the favorites of the king, all the favorites servants,
warriors, concubines and priests/priestesses who were beloved for the king, this at the beginning
of the discovery of the graveyard was impressive to find a lot of human remains which meaning
was hard to understand the large number of human remains on the tomb, but the answer couldn’t
be respond after the archaeologist take the Epic of Gilgamesh as the most concrete source for
understand the context of the burial, after read the epic, the archaeologist realize the reason of
the human remains on the Royal Cemetery of Ur, at the end of the life of Gilgamesh, the legendary
king of Uruk , after he accept his mortality as his fate, he decide to commit suicide with his most
beloved servants, warriors and priestesses, and being buried with all his most valuable treasures
and possessions, became a type of cemetery that would be related with some of the most
powerful rulers of certain civilizations , that occasionally will appear on other places like Egypt or
in China with the tomb of Qui Shi Huang, the first emperor of China and his unifier.

At the end this context might have a hidden context of a certain power related with the royalty
that could last after the dead of the monarch, that somehow could manifest the authority of the
monarch and preserve some of the legacy of his history
Somehow the treasure of the Roya Cemetery of Ur have became one of the most important
archaeological discoveries, because is one of the most complete funerary archaeological context
that could be find, somehow it contributes to ponder the characterization of the firsts kings of the
mankind, show them more as complex individuals that have rule over an authority that currently
might not be easy to understand, therefore the treasure that were found on this cemetery was
truly amazing even nowadays, since the treasure not only contained jewels and weapons, but also
some objects that today have a certain ordinary meaning, like the Royal Game of UR, and some
Harps and Lyres, being some of this items truly important, since they are the first item that are
related with the leisure, but the most complex part of the Cemetery was the large number of
human remains founded, for this reason this discovery is one of the most important as one of the
most complex, because found a huge number of human remains with a lot of wealth can represent
a certain authority that some ruler had, that was the most challenging part for investigate,
because the archaeologist couldn’t seek a social meaning or a historic record that could give a
explanation of this practice that nowadays can be seen as morbid and aberrant, but with the
translate of the Epic of Gilgamesh, that answer was solved, The Epic of Gilgamesh brings about
Gilgamesh, the legendary demigod king of Uruk that after the dead of his friend Enkidu for defied
the gods, he decide to seek the immortality, after travel to find Utnapishtim, the survivor of the
great flood who was granted the immortality with his wife, Utnapishtim gave to Gilgamesh the
location of the plant that grants the eternal youth, after obtains the plant from the sea, he
returned triumphant from his quest until he decide to take a bath and a snake steal and eat the
plant, changing the skin as sign of recover the youth, Gilgamesh after he saw how he lost the only
way to avoid his dead, he decide to accept his fate and he commit suicide to be buried with all his
treasure, among those treasure were his most beloved servants.

As result of the related fate of King Gilgamesh described on the Epic, Archaeologist find the way to
answer and understand the Royal Cemetery of UR, due to the x rays of the remains of the treasure
they can confirm that the remain belonged to the most beloved and important servants of the
king, because of this the authority of the ruler can be understand as a divine privilege that was
present on the king bloodline, somehow this type of royal burry can lead to an authority that was
granted with a divine privilege that only few can manifest, this contribute to understand a later
discovery, the tomb of the first emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang, whose tomb have a similarity
with the Royal tomb of Ur since they both contain the beloved and loyal servants of a ruler, but
the Tomb of Qin Shi Huang have a more curious representation of his servants, that there despite
as the Terracotta Army.

This kind of tombs may represent a undying authority that would manifested even the end of the
empire of this kind of rulers.