Ur: The First Phases

by C. Leonard Woolley

A brief archaeological description of artifacts recovered from the early phases of the ancient Mesopotamian city of Ur, with 16 pages of colour plates.

Genres: History

56 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1946

About the author

Sir Charles Leonard Woolley was a British archaeologist best known for his excavations at Ur in Mesopotamia. He is considered to have been one of the first "modern" archaeologists, and was knighted in 1935 for his contributions to the discipline of archaeology.

He was married to Katharine Woolley who worked as the illustrator for his excavations.

Reviews

[Kristin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting, readable look into archaeology in the early 20th century. I usually steer clear of archaeology and history books that weren't more recently published because so much changes in terms of how different fields approach their work, but it's an interesting venture in terms of historiography and was a fun read.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice little book. The illustrations show some of my favourite objects in the British Museum: The Ram in the Thicket, The Game Boards and the Standard of Ur.

The short section on royal burial sacrificial was particularly interesting.

[Marie LeRoux · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very short book, giving a brief synopsis of his excavations thus far. He later published Ur of the Chaldees, which covers the rest of the work done at Ur.