388 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.— H. 



was discussed. At Kish the existence of painted pottery as late as 3000 B.C. is 

 proven by the recovery of a fragmentary vessel vfith palm-leaf designs in black paint 

 on a natural clay base. Fine stone bowls and copper objects were recovered from 

 graves beside the great stage tower of Harsagkalama. At Jemdet Nasr the Expedition 

 recovered a mass of the earliest-known monochrome and polychrome painted ware 

 in Sumer, pictographic tablets, seals, and copper objects. The following couclusiona 

 was drawn from the discoveries. 



1. Sumerian civilisation was older than Elamitic, and no influence can be traced 

 to Syria and Cappadocia, whose pottery and glyptic appear 2,000 years later. 



2. Borrowing and cultural influence are principles employed far too much in the 

 study of ancient history. 



3. Sumer and Egypt are the only possible claimants to precedence in the origin of 

 civilisation. 



4. In Sumer, Elam, and Egypt, the period of the best art came at the beginning. 



13. Mr. C. Leonard Woolley. — Excavations at Ur of the Chaldees, 



1925-26. 



On a prominent mound in the south corner of the Sacred Temenos we found a 

 building of Dungi, about 2400 B.C., attested by the copper figures and inscribed stone 

 tablets found in its foundations. This seems to have been a temple. Cut into the 

 ruins of this building were many tombs, brick-built, corbel- vaulted tombs or plain 

 clay coiBns, which yielded a rich store of pottery and other grave-furniture. We dug 

 down 36 feet below the floors of buildings put up in 2100 B.C., finding a succession 

 of stratified constructions of unknown date, the earliest yet discovered at Ur, but 

 still in a metal-using age and not yet down to the level to which belongs the painted 

 pottery of Al Ubaid. A number of vertical drains, made of terra-cotta pipes, riddled 

 the soil. Of the same sort as the drains commonly employed for domestic sanitation, 

 here apparently they were the channels down which were poured libations to the 

 nether gods — a cheap form of the ' apsu ' made by kings in honour of Ea. 



The main site excavated lay to the north-west. In the upper levels below the 

 floors of a building dating from about 650 B.C., a quantity of the mud figures of 

 Papsugal and other minor deities were found, which served as protective amulets for 

 the house. Below this we discovered two magnificent copper coffins containing the 

 bones of women, with their jewellery, work-baskets, copper bowls, etc. The lowest 

 building of the site was a large temple of the goddess Nin-Gal, built originally by 

 Bur-Sin (c. 2350 B.C.) and rebuilt a hundred and fifty years later by a certain 

 Enanatum, son of the King of Isin and High Priest of the god Nannar at Ur. The 

 building was a fortified square measuring some 250 feet each way. It comprised two 

 distinct temples of the goddess, a shrine to Bur-Sin, the deified founder, and a dwelling 

 for the priest. It was sacked and overthrown probably as the result of a rebellion 

 of the city against the Babylonians in the twelfth year of Samsu-iluna, the son of 

 Hammurabi. In the ruins we found a quantity of the votive objects from the sanctuary 

 broken and flung away by the troops. The peculiar interest of the temple lay in the 

 good preservation of its internal fittings, and in the extraordinarily modern kitchen 

 attached to it, where the well, the ovens, and the cooking-range were still in service- 

 able state. As regards objects, we have a complete diorite statue of the goddess Bau, 

 a marble head of Nin-Gal with inlaid eyes, a masterpiece of Third Dynasty art,, 

 another fine diorite head, an intact limestone plaque with two scenes of sacrifice in 

 relief, the oldest example of sculpture yet found on the site, an alabaster disk with a 

 scene of sacrifice in which the principal part is played by the daughter of Sargon the 

 Great of Akkad, fragments of a historical stela of Hammurabi, two gypsum rams from 

 the throne of a statue dating to before 3000 B.C., and a vast mass of other monuments 

 of art and history. 



Saturday, August 7. 



14. Miss Violet Alford. — The Ritual Dances. (With illustrations by 



Members of the English Folk-Dance Society.) 

 (a) The Invocation Dance. 



An exceedingly primitive type, used as a magical rite to call within range the 

 desired animal food — the animal probably being the god as well as the food of the 

 tribe which invokes it. 



