ARTH 522 401
Course Description:
The Royal Cemetery of Ur: Making an Exhibition
The University of Pennsylvania Museum has in its collections a large
number of artifacts from the Royal Cemetery at Ur. This cemetery is the
most spectacular of any found in the ancient Near East. The burials were
made sometime around 2500 B.C. and they remained undistrubed until they
were excavated in the 1920's by Sir Leonard Woolley in a joint expedition
between the British Museum and the University of Pennnyslvania. In this
seminar we will study both the graves themselves and the the works of art
and artifacts that were found in the Royal Cemetery.
We will study them in as testimony of the long lost civilization of the
City States of Ancient Sumer interpreting them in light of their broader
cultural context. This seminar will be the foundation out of which an
exhibition of will be organized. Members of the seminar will be
encouraged to consider ways to present this fascinating material to a
wider public.