Standard of Ur and A Story of Social Organization

            In the late 1920s, British archaeologist Sir Leonard Woolley embarked on journey to complete an extensive excavation of the ancient city of Ur. The result of these excavations was the uncovering of several artifacts of tremendous historical importance to the study of the Early Dynastic Period of Mesopotamia. The prize discovery of Woolley’s dig was a trapezoidal wooden object that has become known as the Standard of Ur. The object was found in the tomb of next to a man who Woolley believed might have used the object as a standard used a symbol of the state in battle. Though this interpretation has become increasingly unpopular (due to the small images on the object that would not be visible from afar), the Standard of Ur is one of the earliest representations of a non-agrarian, state-like society. The Standard, both through its depictions and physical construction, reveals a great deal about the organization of Early Dynastic Sumerian society.

            There two main sides to the Standard – one side depicts a battle scene while the other seems to represent a society in relative peace. The battle scene has come to be known as the War side of the Standard, revealing a great deal about the customs of contemporary war as well as the use of technology in warfare; the depiction of chariots is one of the earliest such images known to historians and represents the advances made by the Sumerian state.  Though the War side often garners much of the already limited scholarly attention devoted to the Standard, the Peace side arguably reveals far more about the structure of Mesopotamian society in the early dynastic period. Indeed, the Peace side is a treasure trove of insights into the organization of the Sumerian city-state in Ur. The images suggest the adoption of a stratified class system built around a central ruler, presumably a monarchical figure who presided over not only the military but the economic and theocratic actors as well. Thus, the Standard of Ur clearly represents one of the earliest shifts to an internally organized, interdependent society in the broader historical record.