Archaeology of the Anunnaki Sumerians

By Faruq Zamani

Leonard Woolley, an archaeologist from Britain, returned to Iraq in 1922, almost 4,000 years after the nuclear ancient catastrophe, to uncover ancient Mesopotamia.An imposing ziggurat standing out in the desert plain drew him to the nearby site of Tell el-Muqayyar, where he began excavating. As old walls, artifacts, and inscriptions were unearthed, he realized he was digging up ancient Ur-Ur of the Chaldees.

Twelve years of his work were conducted through a joint expedition between the British Museum in London and the University of Pennsylvania Museum in Philadelphia. For those institutions, Sir Leonard Woolley found some of the most dramatic objects and artifacts in Ur. However, what he discovered may well surpass anything ever exhibited before.

In the course of removing layers of soil deposited by desert sands, the elements, and time from the ruins, the ancient city began to take shape-here were the walls, there were the harbors and canals, the residential quarters, the palace, and the Tummal, the elevated sacred area. Woolley's discovery of a cemetery dated thousands of years ago included unique 'royal' tombs discovered by digging at its edge is the find of the century.

The excavations in the city's residential sections established that Ur's inhabitants followed the Sumerian custom of burying their dead right under the floors of their dwellings, where families continued to live. It was thus highly unusual to find a cemetery with as many as 1,800 graves in it. From predynastic (before Kingship began) to Seleucid times, they were concentrated mainly within the sacred precinct. The graves were buried on top of each other, burials were interred in another grave, and some graves were apparently re-interred. To date graves more accurately, Woolley's workers dug trenches of up to fifty feet deep to cut through layers.

• Language: English
• Publisher: DTTV PUBLICATIONS
• Release date: Jun 14, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201167097

Faruq Zamani

Faruq Zamani is the world's foremost expert on the oldest known language. Sumerian is said to have been understood by the scholar better than anyone since the beginning of the second millennium B.C. His academic contributions are nothing short of incredible. Unlike any other scholar, he helped shape the modern study of Sumerology. Using modern linguistics and fundamental principles about how languages are structured, Faruq Zamani forged new territory in the understanding of the language by looking at it in a more sophisticated way than had been done before.Faruq Zamani is the world's foremost expert on the oldest known language. Sumerian is said to have been understood by the scholar better than anyone since the beginning of the second millennium B.C. His academic contributions are nothing short of incredible. Unlike any other scholar, he helped shape the modern study of Sumerology. Using modern linguistics and fundamental principles about how languages are structured, Faruq Zamani forged new territory in the understanding of the language by looking at it in a more sophisticated way than had been done before.

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FARUQ ZAMANI

Leonard Woolley, an archaeologist from Britain, returned to Iraq in 1922, almost 4,000 years after the nuclear ancient catastrophe, to uncover ancient Mesopotamia.An imposing ziggurat standing out in the desert plain drew him to the nearby site of Tell el-Muqayyar, where he began excavating. As old walls, artifacts, and inscriptions were unearthed, he realized he was digging up ancient Ur-Ur of the Chaldees.

Twelve years of his work were conducted through a joint expedition between the British Museum in London and the University of Pennsylvania Museum in Philadelphia. For those institutions, Sir Leonard Woolley found some of the most dramatic objects and artifacts in Ur. However, what he discovered may well surpass anything ever exhibited before.

In the course of removing layers of soil deposited by desert sands, the elements, and time from the ruins, the ancient city began to take shape-here were the walls, there were the harbors and canals, the residential quarters, the palace, and the Tummal, the elevated sacred area. Woolley's discovery of a cemetery dated thousands of years ago included unique 'royal' tombs discovered by digging at its edge is the find of the century.

The excavations in the city's residential sections established that Ur's inhabitants followed the Sumerian custom of burying their dead right under the floors of their dwellings, where families continued to live. It was thus highly unusual to find a cemetery with as many as 1,800 graves in it. From predynastic (before Kingship began) to Seleucid times, they were concentrated mainly within the sacred precinct. The graves were buried on top of each other, burials were interred in another grave, and some graves were apparently re-interred. To date graves more accurately, Woolley's workers dug trenches of up to fifty feet deep to cut through layers.

The bodies were typically buried in hollows in the ground, lying on their backs. Woolley believed that these different 'inhumations' were accorded based on social or religious status. In the southeastern part of the sacred precinct, Wolfley discovered 660 completely different burials. With 16 exceptions, the bodies were either wrapped in reed mats as a kind of shroud or encased in wooden coffins, a more substantial distinction because the wood was scarce and relatively expensive in Sumer. After their death, each of them was buried in a rectangular pit deep enough to hold them. Men and women were thus buried sideways, not on their backs as in common burials; their arms and hands were flexed in front of their chests, while their legs were slightly bent. Jewelry, a cylinder seal, a cup or bowl were found lying beside the bodies or on them; these objects enabled dating these graves to the Early Dynastic Period, roughly 2650 B.C. to 2350 B.C.; it was when Ur's First Dynasty (Ur I) was founded, and the Kingship was transferred to Ur from Uruk.

Woolley concluded that these particular 660 tombs were resting places for the city's ruling class. Woolley discovered a group of sixteen tombs grouped together and made an unprecedented discovery. Sumer was unique in Mesopotamia and throughout the ancient Near East; remarkable not only for their period but also for all periods. It was evident that only someone of the most significant importance had been buried in such unique tombs and burials, and who was more important than the king or his consort, the Queen? Cylinder seals inscribed with names and titles Nin and Luga convinced Woolley that the Royal Tombs of Ur had been discovered.

One of his most significant discoveries was the tomb designated PG-800. The unearthing and entrance of this tomb are comparable to Howard Carter's discovery and entry of Tut-Ankh-Amen's tomb in Egypt's Valley of the Kings in 1922. Woolley sent his sponsors a telegram in Latin on January 4, 1928, to protect the find from modern thieves.

This unique group of tombs has been referred to as the Royal Tombs of Ur by subsequent scholars, despite some who have wondered-because of what the tombs contained-who was buried in them. Scholars who believe that ancient 'gods' are myths are left bewildered. Those who accept the reality