More on Ur

Report from Discovery News on the threats (both man-made and natural) to the archaeological sites at Ur, and on plans for future excavations and tourism in the region

Was the world's first museum in Ur?

Report on Sir Leonard Woolley's excavations at Ur in the 1920's, focusing on the discovery of what seems to be the world's oldest museum, dating from around 530 BC.
Artifacts from Ur's earlier history seem to have been purposefully collected by Princess Ennigaldi, daughter of Nabonidus, the last king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire.
The article also discusses the motives for making such a collection. Ur in this last phase of its development was, according to Woolley, obsessed by its history. The rulers of the city preferred to dwell on past glories and not look to the threatening future ...

The royal cemetery of Ur: exhibition

For those of you who can't make it to the University of Pennsylvania on 30th April for the grand re-opening of the Penn Museum's "Iraq's ancient past" exhibition focusing on the discovery and excavation of the royal cemetery of Ur by C. Leonard Woolley in the 1920's, here's a link to the Museum's website for all the historical background and pictures of some of the treasures, including the famous bull-headed harp and the spectacular jewelery of Lady Pu-abi   
Archaeology website Past Horizons also discusses "Iraq's ancient past", with more photographs of the exhibits and of the excavations at Ur.

ARCHIBAB: new open-access database

ARCHIBAB is a database from the Archives Babyloniennes in Paris

It currently gives access to some 2,300 documents, most accompanied by transcripts (blue hyper-linked text). at present, documents from Mari form the core of the collection, with over 400 texts from Ur and Larsa, about 100 from Isin and Nippur and 100 from the two Sippurs.

Content is in French, and it is updated every 3 months.

You need to "accept terms and conditions" before entering the database

New material on Ur added to Sumerian Shakespeare site

Jerald Starr has recently added material on the Royal Tombs of Ur and the Standard of Ur to his Sumerian Shakespeare site
Link to the Sumerian Shakespeare website directly from http://sumerianshakespeare.com/58401.html or find it on the SOAS Library subject guide for the Ancient Near East