One of the most famous discoveries made in the Royal Cemetery of Ur came from PG 779, probably one of the oldest tombs in cemetery. This tomb may have belonged to Ur-Pabilsag (c. 2500 BC in the short chronology). It has been suggested that he was the father of Meskalamdug, and therefore the grandfather of Mesannepada.¹Hamblin 2006, 49 Inside the tomb Woolley found a wooden box inlaid with lapis lazuli, shell, and red limestone. He could tell that the inlayed pieces formed a mosaic, although of what exactly, he could not determine. It was like finding an assembled jigsaw puzzle buried upside down in the sand. Any movement of the puzzle would result in the whole thing coming apart. And since Woolley had no way of knowing what picture it formed, there was no way he could reassemble it later.

A true pioneer in his field, Woolley devised a brilliant method for preserving the mosaic. He uncovered a panel, bathed it in wax, and lifted it from the ground in one piece. The mosaic was restored by placing it face down on a piece of glass which was subsequently heated until the wax grew soft enough that the pieces of the mosaic lay flat on the glass. No reassembly was necessary.

Thanks to Woolley’s careful work, a remarkably vivid and colorful picture of Sumerian court life was preserved for posterity. One side shows shows men clad in military gear, marching into battle; the other shows men seated at a banquet celebrating a victory. Woolley thought the box may have been mounted on a pole and carried as a standard since it was found next to the shoulder of a young retainer. Thus he named it the “Standard of Ur.” The name has stuck although no one really knows if that is how the box was used.

The War Side

The War Side of the box preserves the earliest known representation of chariot warfare.²There are scenes of individual chariots on pottery jars and archaic cylinder seals which predate the Standard of Ur slightly (perhaps), but no other depictions of warfare. “War cart” is a better term than “chariot” for the vehicles the Sumerian rode into battle. They were relatively heavy vehicles, fitted with four solid wooden wheels (spoked wheels were not invented until the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC), that did not pivot. The cart could not have been easy to maneuver.

The war-carts were drawn by what appears to have been four wild asses. Of course, this is oxymoronic since any asses pulling a cart into battle cannot be wild. Therein lies the mystery. The animals really do look like wild Asian asses (see below), known also as onagers (Greek onos “ass” and ger “wild”). The English word “ass” comes from the Latin asinus and the Greek ónos. Both terms appear to be derived from the Sumerian word for wild ass: AN.ŠU.³Parpola and Janhunen 2011, 61 The Greek general, Xenophon (born c. 430 BC), claimed that the Asian wild ass was swifter than a horse and endowed with incredible endurance. More recent scientific studies have documented wild asses running at sustained speeds of around 45 mph for 6 miles without flagging. A female wild ass was chased for three-quarters of an hour at speeds averaging 28 mph!⁴Groves 1986, 38; see also Parpola and Janhunen 2011, 65 The mature wild ass has a vicious nature, like a zebra. The Indian army unsuccessfully attempted to use them as pack animals but quickly discovered that they were all but untamable. One early traveler in Asia, writing in the late 19th century, recounts having seen domesticated wild asses that had been caught as foals.

It has also been suggested the Sumerian asses were a cross between a wild ass and a donkey. These hybrids are supposed to have fetched a price forty times that of a normal donkey.⁶Hamblin 2006, 130 Whatever their origin, the breeding and taming of these animals is an impressive achievement. That four of them were hitched to a cart and driven into battle is quite astonishing. The animals were not controlled by a bit and bridle, but by nose rings which were attached to reigns that passed through reign guides.

Despite their lack of maneuverability, the war cart must have been a formidable weapon on the battlefield. We know it served as a mobile platform for throwing javelins since depictions of the carts always display a multiple javelins mounted to the front of the cart. The carts could also be used as a vehicle for breaking enemy lines. The sequence of images in the bottom register of the Standard of Ur appear to show a war cart in each stage of a charge: from walk, to trot, to full gallop, trampling the enemy underfoot as it passes through the enemy lines. The last image in the series shows the asses coming to a rearing halt.

The textual evidence suggests that Sumerian kings were able to field a considerable numbers of chariots. One text, composed during the reign of Entemena, king of Lagash (c. 2200 BC), says that the king captured sixty war-carts in battle—that is no small number!⁷Hamblin 2006, 140 There is no evidence that the wild ass (or hybrid) was ever used for battle, or for any other purpose, after the Sumerians.

The Peace Side

The “Peace” side of the box records a victory feast celebrated in the presence of the king. All of the figures are male with the possible exception of a female singer (depicted in the upper right corner standing next to the harpist). If so then it is unusual since women are not normally shown partially nude in Sumerian art.  The king is shown larger than life in the upper left-hand corner of the box. Each of the banqueters holds a conical cup in their right hand. They are served by men of slightly smaller stature. Thus the scale of the figures is directly related to their status, with the king at the top, his head bumping up against the border of the register.  The two lower registers celebrate the bounty of the land. The overall scheme does not differ greatly from the Warka Vase.