Archaeology Tour Ur: Ancient Houses of Area AH

Sir Leonard Woolley excavated at Ur from 1922 to 1934. He was jointly sponsored by the Penn Museum and the British Museum. Now, Penn is back to excavate and I thought I would make some short videos of the current conditions of the site and explain what it's like and what it used to be like by comparing current work and old photographs.

In this video, I walk through an area that Woolley dug in the 1930-31 season, an area he called AH. It was a residential area with about 50 houses excavated, though some may have been shops and others were community chapels. Today, almost 100 years later, soil has washed back into the houses as Woolley had excavated them, and the portion that still sticks above that soil has largely collapsed, resulting in what often looks like a heap of brick rubble. Preservation of the site is necessary and we are currently looking at ways to help with this, especially in the more visited areas around the ziggurat. But we are also thinking of ways to perhaps preserve some of the houses and definitely to protect anything we uncover in modern excavations.

Ur is part of the Ahwar World Heritage site in southern Iraq and tourism is increasing. Protecting the site as well as helping people to understand it are major goals of our current work.

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[panqueque]

The man, the legend, the meme, Ea-Nasir lived here.
Imagine if you could go back in time and tell this guy that thousands of years in the future he'll be famous for his complaint receipts.

[buttercxpdraws]

Wow. What a privilege to be shown around this site! Thank you 🙏

[alexgustavsson]

It's great that we have tablets that describe ordinary life of the people of Ur. I imagine there's spin in the court documents, as they would have tight controls over how court officials/kings are portrayed, but these completely ordinary stories are likely true, or at least truer. The memes though.

[homeandalone]

For all the treasures found at various sites and buried with the wealthy of the day I love that it's a copper quality complaint letter that has captured the imaginations of so many to the point of becoming a meme. This is the true wonder of archeology, the ability to connect with the lives of ancient every day people not unlike ourselves and give us a glimpse into what it would have been like to live at that time. Thank you so much for the tour of Ea-Nasir's town.

[mohammedsalman]

I always wanted to visit this site, watching this video felt as if I were there myself. Thank you for the tour!

[tommihommi]

It's amazing how *dense* the this is, really allows one to imagine a bustling city

[tyoda]

9:11 Well done 10/10 memology! Great hourse tour too!

[gntkllrrbt]

This style of video is fantastic! It's the next best thing to walking a site with you. Thanks for sharing doc

[luochoa]

Thank you Professor Hartley for these amazing in-situ videos! They are incredible!

[kikivoorburg]

The decay that has occurred in the last 100 years is very sad to see, given that the site has been preserved for so long. If conservation cannot be undertaken soon, perhaps re-burial is the best approach?

I hope we gain more respect for these incredible sites than we show them now!!

[Mewpasaurus]

As a newer member to this little club, I just want to say I truly appreciate the tour and insight into the place and time period. Looking forward to the next video.

[themarine]

Since i was a kid in 5th grade and study the summerian i always had a facination for Ur

[ryanamendt]

The site overview was truly an Ur de force.

[jackdaniel]

Thank you for the tour! Considering the amoung you had to dig to get to the archaelology in the previous video, was a lot of what is seen here also buried to that depth? Has the uncovering of the walls accelerated the decomposition of the materials?

[Bildgesmythe]

Wonderful to see this close up, thank you!

[edwardspencer]

Great reading about the Great Kings, Scholars, Religious guys and so forth but, I have always been fascinated by how your average person lived their lives.. seeing their homes and neighborhood makes it so evident that they are just like Us...I love IT!

[SPACEWHALES]

Nice tour! I appreciate all the different media used to help visualize the layout, good job to who ever was editing!

[whitebird]

Nice on site narration. Amazing that much is left of such an ancient city. I suppose it was buried by sand for millennia.

[richfnev]

Thanks for taking us to UR!! It is fascinating to see and hear about. Please keep making these videos.

[noizeemama]

Thank you for these guided tours. We would never get to see this without you.