The Excavations at Ur, 1933–4

Extract

The twelfth season of work carried out at Ur by the Joint Expedition was also its last, and from this time onwards excavation will give way to the final publication of the results already obtained. It was indeed with a view of completing the material required for such publication that a twelfth season was undertaken and its scope was strictly limited by those needs. Of the many periods illustrated by our work the very important one known, since Professor Langdon's first discovery of it, as the Jemdet Nasr period was inadequately represented; but there seemed every likelihood that much light might be thrown upon it by the further investigation of the cemetery whose existence had been proved in the course of our season 1932–3, and this, therefore, was to be our main objective. Further, in 1932–3 we had found and cleared the north-west side of the Third Dynasty Temenos; but though the corners of it had been fixed, the direction and extent of the walls on the other three sides remained to be determined. The planning of these would complete our knowledge of the Temenos in historic times so far as the ruined state of its buildings allowed: this, then, was our second objective.