On Leonard Woolley there will be a lot of information about his life to work through. For more information look in a good Bible Dictionary or Encyclopedia LINK under the sites (i.e., Ur) that he excavated. The best source of information will be in his biographies. Questions that you should answer in your paper include
Sir Leonard Woolley, the renown explorer and excavator of “Ur of the Chaldees”, was himself close friends with such celebrities as Agatha Christie, T.E. Lawrence, Gertrude Bell, Winston Churchill and even England’s Queen Mary.[1] He continued exploring, producing books, and generally “enjoying life to the fullest” until his death at age eighty in 1960.” [2]
He
was born in London in 1880 to a strict clerical family fallen on hard times.[3] Woolley spent much of his youth focused on
school. He won a scholarship to Oxford
in 1899, where he studied theology with William Archibald Spooner. [4]
During the spring of 1904, at New College, Oxford, he discovered to his dismay that theology really did not interest him. He was, during that last semester, moving through life like a rudderless ship, without a decided course. Fortunately his anxiety did not go unnoticed, and so it was that he received a summons to the office of Warden Spooner.
“Ah, Mr. Woolley,” began the warden, “am I correct in saying that when you came here to Oxford, you had every intention of taking the holy orders?”
“That is correct,” Woolley said.
“And am I correct in saying that you are now having second thoughts?” Woolley weighed truth against caution.
“Perhaps.”
“Then what do you propose to do with the rest of your life?”
“I might become a schoolmaster,” the student murmured, almost at a whisper.
“Oh, yes, a schoolmaster, really,” Spooner said flatly. “Well, Mr. Woolley, I have decided that you shall become an archaeologist.”
At
the time Woolley was not entirely certain what an archaeologist was. The only thing 
he was sure of was that one did
not argue with Spooner, that was the long and short of it, plain and
simple. So he shifted his attention
toward vanished civilizations, and never regretted it.[5]
From 1905 to 1908, Woolley worked for Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum, where he came to value artefacts for bringing what he called the “dead-and –gone” back to life. After that he worked almost exclusively for museums.[6]
For over forty years he was to excavate ancient sites, remaining a free lance throughout, although he received support from the British Museum and other institutions.[7]
Drawn further and further into the world of antiquity, Woolley finally took to the field. His first earned his stripes participating in field projects in England, Nubia and Italy.[8] In 1912-1913, Woolley led well-publicized archaeological investigations at the Hittite site of Carchemish in Syria, where he worked closely with another young excavator from Oxford, T.E. Lawrence, soon to be famous for his exploits in assisting Arab resistance against the Turkish Empire.[9]
During World War I, both Woolley and Lawrence were called upon to serve in British intelligence. In 1916, Woolley’s ship, apparently, was hit and sunk by a mine. He and several others were captured and spent the next two years in Turkey as POW’s.[10]
Soon after his release near the
end of the war, Woolley used his war-time contacts to begin excavating again,
first in Syria and later in Egypt. But
it was in southern Iraq at ancient Ur [11]
– home of the patriarch Abraham, according to Genesis 11:27-29 that Woolley
first made his mark on the scientific community, sparking the world’s
imagination.[12]
In 1849 the English geologist William
Kennet Loftus saw the ruins known as Tell el-Muqqayar (the 'pitch-built hill'
also Mukayyar) and wrote an enthusiastic account of the possibilities they
might present. However, the main excavations at Ur were not undertaken until
1922-34 when Leonard Woolley led a joint expedition under the sponsorship of
the British Museum and the University Museum, Pennsylvania. Occupied from about
5000 BC to 300 BC. Burned by the Elamites in 2004
B.C. Abram was born in about 1952 B.C.
Ur was well developed and cultured
.
With a superbly organized crew of hundreds of local workers, headed by the formidable foreman Hammoudi, Woolley uncovered the imposing Ziggurat of Ur, as well as several impressive temples, thousands of graves, an extensive residential area and many public buildings. These 12 seasons of excavations at Ur revolutionized contemporary understanding of ancient Mesopotamia.[13]
Two-storied houses. Drainage system. Commercial system based on written contracts, money & receipts
Woolley’s most spectacular finds were 16 “Royal Tombs,” dated to around 2600 B.C. (Early Dynastic IIIa). These tombs contained an astonishing group of finely crafted items made of precious stones, metals or wood: earrings, daggers, ribbons, vessels, harps, beads and bracelets. The tombs yielded evidence of mass burials, and Woolley quickly linked this practice to human sacrifice, suggesting that the scores of attendants found in some of the tombs were killed or drugged before these “death pits” were sealed.[14]
The cemetery also yielded two 1.5 foot- tall fertility sculptures of rams nibbling at flowering trees. The rams and trees were originally carved in wood and covered with a sheet of hammered gold; the ram’s horns were carved from lapis lazuli.
This magnificent goat is one of a pair which was discovered from the Great Death Pit in the Royal Cemetery of Ur. It was named the “Ram in the Thicket” by Sir Charles Leonard Woolley, who was reminded of the biblical account of the offering of Isaac by Abraham. While Woolley called it a “ram” it is more accurately identified as a goat.
In Genesis God ordered Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac, but at that moment “Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns; and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son”.
The goat is raised up on his hind legs to reach the best branches of a shrub. Goats were common animals in the ancient near east. They were common subjects for craftsmen to use for their projects.
When the goats were discovered in
the royal tomb it has been crushed by the weight of the soil and the wooden centre had deteriorated from rot. Archaeologists poured wax over the object to
hold it together while it was excavated and then it was restored to its
original shape.
The goat’s head is covered with gold leaf, its ears are copper (now green), its twisted horns and the fleece on its shoulders are of lapis lazuli and its body fleece is made of shell. Its genitals are gold. A gold-covered cylinder rising from its shoulders provided support for some object, now missing. The tree is covered in gold leaf, with golden flowers, the whole supported on a small, rectangular base decorated with a mosaic of shell, red limestone and lapis lazuli. The tube rising from the goat's shoulders suggests it was used to support something, most likely a bowl.
While this figure predates Abraham’s offering of Isaac, it indicates that this type of event is not uncommon. One is presently displayed in the British Museum while the other is now in the University of Pennsylvania Museum in Philadelphia.
2600 B.C.-Royal Cemetery at Ur Restored.
Leonard Woolley discovered eleven lyres in the royal Tombs in the cemetery at Ur. There was two silver lyres and this beautiful gold lyre or harp found in the grave of Queen Pu-abi. This was a typical Sumerian “bull-lyre” common to this period in Mesopotamian culture. By the first millennium these larger lyres were replaced by smaller, asymmetrical lyres pictured in some Assyrian reliefs.
It is clear that music played an
important part in the rituals of ancient courts and temples. Some of the oldest
musical notations have been discovered and deciphered from a Cuneiform (Ugarit)
tablet. The two theory tablets which
describe how to tune a lyre were found at Ur by Woolley and were the key which
unlocked the musical notations of the Hurrian Cult song to the goddess
Nikkal. The ancient music scale
comprised seven notes (nid-qabli) similar to our do-re-mi scale. The 3500 year old notation was capable of
producing melody and harmony. This
advancement was only thought to have advanced during the European Middle
Ages. This discovery further reinforces
the sophistication of the ancient culture which produced them.
Ten women were found lying along with the harp in the tomb. They are thought to be sacrifices adorned with beautiful jewellery and surrounded with stone and metal vessels. One woman’s hand was resting on the harp as though she was playing it. The strings varied but were usually between 8 and 13 in number. The lyre was tuned by turning the wooden pegs along the top tightening and loosening the strings.
The wooden frame had disintegrated so Woolley poured plaster of Paris into the cavity to preserve the structure. The four inlaid front panels are made of Lapis Lazuli, gold, shell and red limestone originally set in bitumen.
The first inlaid panel displays an unclothed man holding two bearded bulls with human faces. In the next scene, a wolf with a knife in his belt carries a table laden with a boar’s head and a sheep’s head and leg. Following a wolf, a lion carries a jar to the feast. The third scene, displays a donkey playing a harp. He shakes a rattle and beats a drum in his lap. The bottom scene shows a scorpion-man followed by a goat carrying two cups. This scene may be related to a passage in the Epic of Gilgamesh where a scorpion-man is a guardian at the place where the sun rises. The animal motifs are typical of ancient near eastern art.
The front sounding box displays a beautiful head of a bull in gold that was restored from its crushed remains. The beard, hair and eyes are made from Lapis Lazuli and the horns, wood and strings were made for the restoration in 1971-2 by Professor Robert R. Brown. The frame was built from red birth and the sound box was made from spruce. Professor Brown uses animal gut for the strings. It is presently displayed in the British Museum and dates from around 2685 Bc.
2600
B.C.- Royal Cemetery at Ur
This gold helmet dates from 2600 BC and was discovered in the Royal Graves at Ur. This would be for ceremonial purposes as gold would not provide enough protection given its soft nature. This helmet would have been worn by Mes-Kalam-Dug not the king and buried with him to use in the afterlife. It was hammered out of a single piece of gold. Notice the holes for the ears giving the wearer the ability to hear. The outside of the helmet resembles the owners own hair which may have been rolled up in a bun at the back. The holes below the ear were used to place a tie around the neck to keep the helmet from falling off. It is presently displayed in the British Museum.
2600 B.C.-Royal Cemetery Ur -Carnelian and Lapis Lazuli.
This
necklace from the Royal Graves at Ur. It was the burial place of Pu-abi, her
name recorded on a fine cylinder seal of lapis lazuli. She lay on a wooden
bier, a gold cup near her hand, the upper part of her body entirely hidden by
multi-coloured beads. She wore an elaborate headdress. Buried with her were the
bodies of 25 attendants, laid out in rows, and oxen which had been harnessed to
vehicles. An adjacent tomb with no principal occupant had 65 attendants. Even
more bodies were found in the tomb known as the Great Death Pit, which was
occupied by six servants, four women harpists and 64 other women, dressed in
scarlet and adorned with gold, silver, lapis lazuli and cornelian. The
attendants may have voluntarily taken poison and were buried while unconscious
or dead.
It is comprised of carnelian beads. There were various techniques used to create the numerous examples of jewellery discovered at the Royal Tombs of Ur. The jewellery found in the tomb came in many shapes and was made of Lapis Lazuli, gold, carnelian, and shells. Sometimes the carnelian was etched with an alkali to leave a white pattern.
These artefacts indicate the advanced culture of Ur. It further demonstrates the faith of Abraham who left, by the command of God, to go to a land that God would show him. He left the comfort of a sophisticated culture to live in an unknown land.
[1] Edward M. Luby, “The Ur-Archaeologist, Leonard Woolley and the Treasures of Mesopotamia, Biblical Archaeology Review, March April 1997, 60.
[2] Charles Pellegrino Return to Sodom and Gomorrah (New York: Random House, 1994), 359
[3] Edward M. Luby, “The Ur-Archaeologist, Leonard Woolley and the Treasures of Mesopotamia, Biblical Archaeology Review, March April 1997, 60; “His early life was spent in poor surroundings in Bethnal Green, London, and he was dependent on scholarships for education at St. John’s School, Leatherhead and at New College, Oxford, where he studied theology.” R.E.D. Clark, “Woolley, Sir Charles Leonard” The New International Dictionary of the Christian Church, ed., J. D. Douglas (Grand Rapids, Zondervan Publishing House, 1981)1059
[4] Edward M. Luby, “The Ur-Archaeologist, Leonard Woolley and the Treasures of Mesopotamia, Biblical Archaeology Review, March April 1997, 60.
[5] Charles Pellegrino Return to Sodom and Gomorrah (New York: Random House, 1994), 114.
[6] Edward M. Luby, “The Ur-Archaeologist, Leonard Woolley and the Treasures of Mesopotamia, Biblical Archaeology Review, March April 1997, 60.
[7] R.E.D. Clark, “Woolley, Sir Charles Leonard” The New International Dictionary of the Christian Church, ed., J. D. Douglas (Grand Rapids, Zondervan Publishing House, 1981)1059.
[8] Edward M. Luby, “The Ur-Archaeologist, Leonard Woolley and the Treasures of Mesopotamia, Biblical Archaeology Review, March April 1997, 60; “In 1907 Wooley excavated in Nubia, and in 1914 (with T.E. Lawrence) he studied the ancient routes between Egypt and Palestine.” R.E.D. Clark, “Woolley, Sir Charles Leonard” The New International Dictionary of the Christian Church, ed., J. D. Douglas (Grand Rapids, Zondervan Publishing House, 1981)1059.
[9] Edward M. Luby, “The Ur-Archaeologist, Leonard Woolley and the Treasures of Mesopotamia, Biblical Archaeology Review, March April 1997, 60.
[10] Edward M. Luby, “The Ur-Archaeologist, Leonard Woolley and the Treasures of Mesopotamia, Biblical Archaeology Review, March April 1997, 60; “He was taken prisoner (1916-1918) by the Turks, and when released worked on the ancient Sumerian civilization.” R.E.D. Clark, “Woolley, Sir Charles Leonard” The New International Dictionary of the Christian Church, ed., J. D. Douglas (Grand Rapids, Zondervan Publishing House, 1981)1059
[11] “He is best known for his excavations in Ur of the Chaldees (1922-34), where he discovered the royal cemetery.” R.E.D. Clark, “Woolley, Sir Charles Leonard” The New International Dictionary of the Christian Church, ed., J. D. Douglas (Grand Rapids, Zondervan Publishing House, 1981)1059.
[12] Edward M. Luby, “The Ur-Archaeologist, Leonard Woolley and the Treasures of Mesopotamia, Biblical Archaeology Review, March April 1997, 60.
[13] Edward M. Luby, “The Ur-Archaeologist, Leonard Woolley and the Treasures of Mesopotamia, Biblical Archaeology Review, March April 1997, 60.
[14] Edward M. Luby, “The Ur-Archaeologist, Leonard Woolley and the Treasures of Mesopotamia, Biblical Archaeology Review, March April 1997, 60.
- Where did he take his training?
- What was his specialty?
- Where did he excavate?
- Who did he excavate with?
- What discoveries did he make or was involved in?
- What was the Biblical impact of his research?
Available Sources:
- Fagan, Brian. “Leonard Woolley.” Pages 117-120 in Archaeologists: Explorers of the Human Past. Oxford Profiles. Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Press, 2003). Look Inside
- Brereton, Gareth. “Ur of the Chaldees. A Virtual Vision of Woolley’s Excavations at Ur.” The Ancient Near East Today 2, no. 8 (August 15, 2014): n.p. LINK
- Hafford, W. B. "Legacy Excavations and Linked Open Data: A Virtual Vision of Sir Leonard Woolley’s Ur," American School for Oriental Research Blog, June 19, 2013. LINK .
- Luby, Edward M. “Backward Glance: The Ur-Archaeologist: Leonard Woolley and the Treasures of Mesopotamia,” Biblical Archaeology Review 23 No. 2 (1997). BAR
- Mallowan, Max E. L. “Sir Leonard Woolley.” Expedition (Fall 1960): 25-28. PDF. Mallowan worked with Woolley at Ur so has first hand information.
- Mason, Doug. “C. Leonard Woolley -- Meticulous and Professional.” News Sentinel Knoxville, Tenn. 31 Jan 1999. ProQuest
- Richter, Tobias. “Espionage and Near Eastern Archaeology: A Historiographical Survey.” Public Archaeology 7, no. 4 (November 2008): 212–40. LINK
- Woolley, C. Leonard, and E. A. Speiser. Excavations at Ur: The Pottery of Tell Billa. London: Museum, 1933.
- Woolley, C. Leonard, and E. A. Speiser. Excavations at Ur
- Woolley, C. Leonard, and M. E. L. Mallowan. Ur Excavations: Ur Cemetery 9 vols. Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Press, 1927. PDF
- Woolley, C. Leonard, and P. R. S. Moorey. “Ur of the Chaldees” Revised and Updated. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1982.
- Woolley, C. Leonard. “Excavations at Tell El-Amarna.” Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 8 (Apr., 1922): 48-82. JSTOR
- _____. “Second Ordinary Meeting - ‘Excavations at Ur’.” Journal of the Royal Society of Arts 82, no. 4227 (Nov 24, 1933): 46 - 59. JSTOR
- _____. “The Royal Tombs of Ur.” Antiquity 2, no. 7 (Jan 1, 1928): 7-24. ProQuest
- _____. Ur Excavations: The Royal Cemetery. Vol. 2 London, UK: The Trustees of the Two Museums, 1934. PDF
- _____. Guide to the Archaeological Museum of the American University of Beirut. Classic Reprint. Forgotten Books, 2012. PDF
- _____. Ur of the Chaldees; A Record of Seven Years of Excavation. New York, N.Y.: C. Scribner’s sons, 1930. PDF
- _____. A Forgotten Kingdom. Being a Record of the Results Obtained from the Excavation of Two Mounds Atchana and Al Mina, in the Turkish Hatay. Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1953. PDF
- Winstone, H. V. F. Woolley of Ur: The Life of Sir Leonard Woolley. London, U.K.: Heinemann, 1992.
[1][1] Edward M. Luby, “The Ur-Archaeologist, Leonard Woolley and the Treasures of Mesopotamia, Biblical Archaeology Review, March April 1997, 60.
[2][2] Charles Pellegrino Return to Sodom and Gomorrah (New York: Random House, 1994), 359
[3][3] Edward M. Luby, “The Ur-Archaeologist, Leonard Woolley and the Treasures of Mesopotamia, Biblical Archaeology Review, March April 1997, 60; “His early life was spent in poor surroundings in Bethnal Green, London, and he was dependent on scholarships for education at St. John’s School, Leatherhead and at New College, Oxford, where he studied theology.” R.E.D. Clark, “Woolley, Sir Charles Leonard” The New International Dictionary of the Christian Church, ed., J. D. Douglas (Grand Rapids, Zondervan Publishing House, 1981)1059
[4][4] Edward M. Luby, “The Ur-Archaeologist, Leonard Woolley and the Treasures of Mesopotamia, Biblical Archaeology Review, March April 1997, 60.
[5][5] Charles Pellegrino Return to Sodom and Gomorrah (New York: Random House, 1994), 114.
[6][6] Edward M. Luby, “The Ur-Archaeologist, Leonard Woolley and the Treasures of Mesopotamia, Biblical Archaeology Review, March April 1997, 60.
[7][7] R.E.D. Clark, “Woolley, Sir Charles Leonard” The New International Dictionary of the Christian Church, ed., J. D. Douglas (Grand Rapids, Zondervan Publishing House, 1981)1059.
[8][8] Edward M. Luby, “The Ur-Archaeologist, Leonard Woolley and the Treasures of Mesopotamia, Biblical Archaeology Review, March April 1997, 60; “In 1907 Wooley excavated in Nubia, and in 1914 (with T.E. Lawrence) he studied the ancient routes between Egypt and Palestine.” R.E.D. Clark, “Woolley, Sir Charles Leonard” The New International Dictionary of the Christian Church, ed., J. D. Douglas (Grand Rapids, Zondervan Publishing House, 1981)1059.
[9][9] Edward M. Luby, “The Ur-Archaeologist, Leonard Woolley and the Treasures of Mesopotamia, Biblical Archaeology Review, March April 1997, 60.
[10][10] Edward M. Luby, “The Ur-Archaeologist, Leonard Woolley and the Treasures of Mesopotamia, Biblical Archaeology Review, March April 1997, 60; “He was taken prisoner (1916-1918) by the Turks, and when released worked on the ancient Sumerian civilization.” R.E.D. Clark, “Woolley, Sir Charles Leonard” The New International Dictionary of the Christian Church, ed., J. D. Douglas (Grand Rapids, Zondervan Publishing House, 1981)1059
[11][11] “He is best known for his excavations in Ur of the Chaldees (1922-34), where he discovered the royal cemetery.” R.E.D. Clark, “Woolley, Sir Charles Leonard” The New International Dictionary of the Christian Church, ed., J. D. Douglas (Grand Rapids, Zondervan Publishing House, 1981)1059.
[12][12] Edward M. Luby, “The Ur-Archaeologist, Leonard Woolley and the Treasures of Mesopotamia, Biblical Archaeology Review, March April 1997, 60.
[13][13] Edward M. Luby, “The Ur-Archaeologist, Leonard Woolley and the Treasures of Mesopotamia, Biblical Archaeology Review, March April 1997, 60.
[14][14] Edward M. Luby, “The Ur-Archaeologist, Leonard Woolley and the Treasures of Mesopotamia, Biblical Archaeology Review, March April 1997, 60.
Back to the Index
Modified Dec 11, 2018. Copyright © 2016 Electronic Christian Media.
No comments:
Post a Comment