When and Where?

Before the time of classical Greece and Rome, before Biblical times, even before the time of the great pyramids in Egypt, the very first urban culture in the Western tradition developed in the city-state of Ur, some 200,000 inhabitants strong. It flourished around 2500 BC.

It was located between the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers, virtually on the Persian Gulf, in modern-day Iraq. (The Euphrates changed course in antiquity; the gulf reached about 100 miles further inland then.)

Often referred to as the "cradle of civilization," this area is fabled as the location of the Biblical Garden of Eden. In fact, it is known that the people of Ur believed in a magical garden and in a story of man made from clay. A hero like Noah and a cataclysmic flood are also among Sumerian stories echoed in Judeo-Christian scriptures.

Following explorations there in the mid 19^th century and in 1918-19, one of the greatest archaeological discoveries of all time emerged from a joint expedition between 1922 and 1934 by the University of Pennsylvania Museum and the British Museum, led by Sir Leonard Woolley. Woolley's workers first uncovered a ziggurat, the high mound of which lent the site its modern Arab moniker of Tel al-Muqayyar (Mound of Pitch). They also uncovered various architectural remnants of smaller temples and homes.

Most dramatically, archaeologists found tombs containing the remains of nearly 2,000 people, including royalty whose scores of attendants apparently committed mass ritual suicide for the royal burials. Woolley wrote the following telegram to the University Museum on Jan. 4, 1928--in Latin, to protect his news from interception: "I found the intact tomb, stone built and vaulted with bricks, of Queen Puabi adorned with a dress in which gems, flower crown, and animal figures are woven. Tomb magnificent with jewels and golden cups."

Woolley's subsequent notoriety led to his own program on BBC radio, but worldwide economic depression--and lack of the private sponsorship that benefited Howard Carter's 1922 "King Tut" discovery in Egypt--ultimately shrouded for the general public for many years the extraordinary beauty and historic importance of the finds at Ur.