Excavated from the royal tombs of Ur by British archaeologist Leonard Woolley in the 1920s, the Standard of Ur is a box, decorated with images of how an ancient city state was organised. The scenes provide opportunities to explore different aspects of life in an ancient Mesopotamian city, such as banqueting, war, dress and social structure as well as the earliest known image of a wheel in human history.
From
Ur, southern Iraq
Date
2600 – 2400 BC
Culture
Sumerian
Material
wooden box inlaid with mosaic in shell, red limestone and lapis set in bitumen
Dimensions
height: 21.5 cm
length: 49.5 cm
Museum
British Museum
(Please always check with the museum that the object is on display before travelling)