Standard of Ur

Take one side at a time. On one face, warfare leads to the handling of prisoners. On the other, people bring tribute and gather for a banquet. Small pieces of mosaic build the figures into horizontal rows, making a crowded scene readable. The object dates to about 2550–2400 BC and comes from Ur, a city in southern Mesopotamia. It is far earlier than the Assyrian palace sculptures elsewhere in the Museum. The scenes connect fighting, resources and the status of the people who command them. A banquet can be an image of authority as much as a battle. The original wooden structure decayed. The support you see today reconstructs its shape around the surviving decoration. Its traditional name, Standard of Ur, comes from an early interpretation of its function. We still do not know exactly how it was used. The object entered the Museum through the division of finds from the excavations at Ur. Compare the figures’ sizes and positions to see how the makers arranged rank within the scene.