Bottom Register
Both sides of the Standard of Ur are split horizontally into three registers that each depict different scenes. On the Peace side, sometimes referred to as the Victory or Banquet side, each scene corresponds to a distinct class of the society. This section will discuss in detail the depictions in each register to better contextualize the larger claims about how they reflect other accounts of the Sumerian state. The analysis of each register will also reveal the ways in which the state organization differed from societies of the past in the complexity of its power structures and how those structures came about. From top to bottom, the registers seem to show differences in the lives of the upper, middle and lower classes loosely speaking[1]. This analysis will begin with the depictions of the laborer class.
The images in the bottom register depict a class of society that seems to carry the brunt of the state’s manual labor requirements. The only animals shown in this scene are the two mules walking with men who seem to be carrying “provisions, possibly war booty, on their backs.”[2] This interpretation supports the notion that Peace side may be a continuation of the narrative from the War side – hence, the alternate designation as the “Victory” side. The bottom register then would be part of the preparation of the forthcoming banquet shown in the top register. Perhaps more interesting though is the depiction of these men as physically smaller than the men in the above registers, presumably to place less importance on this class of people, especially when coupled with the images of manual labor.