article
Of priestesses, princes and poor relations: the dead in the royal cemetery of Ur
Cambridge archaeological journal • 1 (2) • Published In 1991 • Pages: 171-189
By: Pollock, Susan.
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
Pollock re-examines Woolley's data from the Royal Cemeteries of Ur. Woolley excavated the cemetery between 1922 and 1934 but did not save the skeletons. The most well known graves (the ones with great wealth and with human sacrifices) date from the Early Dynastic III period. In her article, Pollock proposes that objects buried with the dead may only have been on loan to them, that the human sacrifice seen in the cemetery may have been a short-lived phenomena, and that the Sumerians viewed being naked as being powerless. Pollock also points out that there are too few individuals buried in the cemetery to account for all of Ur's dead during the time period the cemetery was in use and she proposes some alternate ways the dead may have been disposed. Her article is followed by comments from five other anthropologists and her reply to them.
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Status, role, and prestige
- Life and death
- Burial practices and funerals
- Prayers and sacrifices
- traditionCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Early Dynastic Mesopotamia
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 2003
- RegionThe area the document pertains to
- Middle East
- Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
- Middle East
- Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
- article
- Evaluation
- Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
- Archaeologist
- Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
- 4: Excellent Secondary Data
- AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
- Sarah Berry ; 2001
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- no date
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- Early Dynastic Period III (2600-2350 B.C.)
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- Royal Cemetery of Ur; Iraq
- NotesAdditional notes
- Susan Pollock
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 188-189)
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 91658653
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Iraq--Civilization--To 634