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Sources of Sumerjan Gold the Ur Goldwork from the Brotherton Library, University of Leeds. A Preliminary Report

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2014

K. R. Maxwell-Hyslop
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Extract

In Sir Leonard Woolley's account of the Royal Cemetery at Ur, Dr. Plenderleith mentions in his section on metal techniques a minute ring (diameter 2 mm) composed of six gold granules, which was found in the tomb of Queen Pu-Abi, and states, “The Sumerians were the first people we know to have shown skill in filigree and granulated work”. While there is no difficulty in finding examples of filigree or crude attempts at granulation in the Royal Cemetery, the six-granule ring is (with the strip discussed below) the only evidence that, in the Early Dynastic period, goldsmiths were able to produce the fine granulated work comparable to that known in the 3rd Dynasty of Ur and Early Babylonian periods. But until recently it was impossible to examine this celebrated piece because it could not be found among the collections of Ur jewellery in London, Baghdad or Philadelphia. To-day, however, it is on loan to the Institute of Archaeology in London from the Brotherton Library of the University of Leeds, (the gift of J. R. Ogden), where a search, lasting over ten years, for what must be the smallest piece of archaeological evidence for the earliest use of this intricate and highly skilled technique, unexpectedly ended. (Plate Ia).

A detailed scientific report by Dr. Seeley will be published when work on the entire Leeds collection is completed but to date we can say that while there is a variation of copper and silver in the granules of the six-granule ring one of the granules and a joint between two of the granules are virtually 100% gold (Appendix I). We may therefore conclude that the goldsmith was using extremely small quantities of native gold obtained either from different alluvial sources or from the same river source but varying in composition.

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 39 , Issue 1 , Spring 1977 , pp. 83 - 86
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 1977

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References

1 Woolley, C. L., Ur Excavations II (London, 1934), 297Google Scholar.

2 Karajian, H., Mineral Resources of Armenia and Anatolia (New York, 1920), 147Google Scholar; Lorenz, E. P., Mining and Metallurgy 29 (1948), 654–7Google Scholar.

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4 Falkenstein, A., Die Inschriften Gudeas von Lagaš, I (Rome, 1966), 53Google Scholar; Veenhof, K. R., Aspects of Old Assyrian trade and its terminology, (Leiden, 1972), 243Google Scholar; Garelli, P., Les Assyriens en Cappadoce (Paris, 1963), 97, 109Google Scholar; Güterbock, H. G., JCS 18 (1964) 4 ffGoogle Scholar; Larsen, M. T., The Old Assyrian City-state and its Colonies (Copenhagen, 1976), 237Google Scholar; Archi, A., Pecorella, P. and Salvini, M., in Gaziantep e la sua regione (Rome, 1971), 37 ff.Google Scholar, propose a location at or near Samsat; Orlin, L., Assyrian colonies in Cappadocia (Paris, 1970), 41 fCrossRefGoogle Scholar.

4a See the report given by Dr. M. S. Tite at the Symposium on Archaeometry and Archaeological Prospection, Philadelphia, 1977.

5 Wertime, T. A., Science 159 (1968), 929CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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9 Wertime, T. A., Science 182 (1973), 884CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

Acknowledgments. I am grateful to Dr. Nigel Seeley without whose guidance on the scientific aspect this article could not have been written; to Mr. Jack Ogden for his invaluable assistance in the discovery of his great-grandfather's collection of Ur goldwork now at Leeds and for information concerning platinum sources; also to Professor O. R. Gurney; and Mr. T. C. Mitchell, Department of Western Asiatic Antiquities for his ready co-operation in, arranging for the British Museum analyses to be carried out.