Leonard Woolley
Encyclopedia
Sir Charles Leonard Woolley (17 April 1880 – 20 February 1960) was a British archaeologist best known for his excavations at Ur
in Mesopotamia
. He is considered to have been one of the first "modern" archaeologists, and was knighted in 1935 for his contributions to the discipline of archaeology
.
and George Cathcart Woolley
. He was born at 13 Southwold Road, Upper Clapton
, in the modern London Borough of Hackney
and educated at St John's School, Leatherhead and New College, Oxford
. He was interested in excavations from a young age.
, Oxford
. Volunteered by Arthur Evans
to run the excavations on the Roman
site at Corbridge
for Francis Haverfield
, Woolley began his excavation career there in 1906, later admitting in Spadework that "I had never studied archaeological methods even from books... and I had not any idea how to make a survey or a ground-plan" (Woolley 1953:15). T. E. Lawrence
worked with Woolley on the excavation of the Hittite
city of Carchemish
from 1912 to 1914. His work at Ur (in charge of the joint venture between the British Museum
and the University of Pennsylvania
) began in 1922, and he made important discoveries in the course of excavating the royal cemeteries there, including the Copper Bull
and the pair of Ram in a Thicket
figurines, one of which is in the British Museum
and the other in the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
. Agatha Christie
's novel, Murder in Mesopotamia
, was inspired by the discovery of the royal tombs. Christie later married Woolley's young assistant, Max Mallowan
.
Ur, found in present-day Iraq
, was the burial site of what may have been many Sumer
ian royals. Woolley discovered tombs of great material wealth. Inside these tombs were large paintings (this is not demonstrated in the archaeological record; the strata were highly compressed and wall painting is not demonstrated elsewhere in ancient Sumer) were compressed of ancient Sumer
ian culture at its zenith, along with gold and silver jewelry, cups and other furnishings. The most extravagant tomb was that of “Queen” Pu-Abi. Amazingly enough, Queen Pu-Abi’s tomb was untouched by looters. Inside the tomb, many well-preserved items were found, including a cylindrical seal bearing her name in Sumerian
. Her body was found buried along with those of two attendants, who had presumably been poisoned in order to continue to serve her after death. Woolley was able to reconstruct Pu-Abi's funeral ceremony from objects found in her tomb. Her headdress, cylinder seal and body were formerly on display at the University of Pennsylvania, however they are currently being displayed in the British Museum in London.
In 1936, after his discoveries at Ur, Woolley was interested in finding ties between the ancient Aegean
and Mesopotamian civilizations. This led him to the Syria
n city of Al Mina
. From 1937 to 1939, he was in Tell Atchana.
: "...400 miles long and 100 miles wide; but for the occupants of the valley that was the whole world".
, and he became part of the Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives Section
of the Allied armies.
After the war, he returned to Tell Atchana, where he continued to work from 1946 until 1949.
Ur
Ur was an important city-state in ancient Sumer located at the site of modern Tell el-Muqayyar in Iraq's Dhi Qar Governorate...
in Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia is a toponym for the area of the Tigris–Euphrates river system, largely corresponding to modern-day Iraq, northeastern Syria, southeastern Turkey and southwestern Iran.Widely considered to be the cradle of civilization, Bronze Age Mesopotamia included Sumer and the...
. He is considered to have been one of the first "modern" archaeologists, and was knighted in 1935 for his contributions to the discipline of archaeology
Archaeology
Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...
.
Life
Leonard Woolley was the son of a clergyman and was brother to Geoffrey Harold WoolleyGeoffrey Harold Woolley
Geoffrey Harold Woolley VC OBE MC was the first Territorial Army officer to be awarded the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.Woolley was the son of a clergyman, Rev...
and George Cathcart Woolley
George Cathcart Woolley
George Cathcart Woolley was a British colonial administrator in North Borneo in the early part on the twentieth century...
. He was born at 13 Southwold Road, Upper Clapton
Upper Clapton
Upper Clapton is a district in the London Borough of Hackney. It is bounded by the Hackney districts of Stamford Hill to the west, Lower Clapton and Lea Bridge to the south and the Haringey district of South Tottenham to the north...
, in the modern London Borough of Hackney
London Borough of Hackney
The London Borough of Hackney is a London borough of North/North East London, and forms part of inner London. The local authority is Hackney London Borough Council....
and educated at St John's School, Leatherhead and New College, Oxford
New College, Oxford
New College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.- Overview :The College's official name, College of St Mary, is the same as that of the older Oriel College; hence, it has been referred to as the "New College of St Mary", and is now almost always...
. He was interested in excavations from a young age.
Work
In 1905, Woolley became assistant of the Ashmolean MuseumAshmolean Museum
The Ashmolean Museum on Beaumont Street, Oxford, England, is the world's first university museum...
, Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
. Volunteered by Arthur Evans
Arthur Evans
Sir Arthur John Evans FRS was a British archaeologist most famous for unearthing the palace of Knossos on the Greek island of Crete and for developing the concept of Minoan civilization from the structures and artifacts found there and elsewhere throughout eastern Mediterranean...
to run the excavations on the Roman
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
site at Corbridge
Corbridge
Corbridge is a village in Northumberland, England, situated west of Newcastle and east of Hexham. Villages in the vicinity include Halton, Acomb, Aydon and Sandhoe.-Roman fort and town:...
for Francis Haverfield
Francis J. Haverfield
Francis John Haverfield was a British historian and archaeologist.Educated at the University of Oxford, he also worked under Theodor Mommsen...
, Woolley began his excavation career there in 1906, later admitting in Spadework that "I had never studied archaeological methods even from books... and I had not any idea how to make a survey or a ground-plan" (Woolley 1953:15). T. E. Lawrence
T. E. Lawrence
Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Edward Lawrence, CB, DSO , known professionally as T. E. Lawrence, was a British Army officer renowned especially for his liaison role during the Arab Revolt against Ottoman Turkish rule of 1916–18...
worked with Woolley on the excavation of the Hittite
Hittites
The Hittites were a Bronze Age people of Anatolia.They established a kingdom centered at Hattusa in north-central Anatolia c. the 18th century BC. The Hittite empire reached its height c...
city of Carchemish
Carchemish
Carchemish or Kargamış was an important ancient city of the Mitanni, Hittite and Neo Assyrian Empires, now on the frontier between Turkey and Syria. It was the location of an important battle between the Babylonians and Egyptians, mentioned in the Bible...
from 1912 to 1914. His work at Ur (in charge of the joint venture between the British Museum
British Museum
The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...
and the University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
) began in 1922, and he made important discoveries in the course of excavating the royal cemeteries there, including the Copper Bull
Copper Bull
The Copper Bull is a sculpture in copper found near the ancient Sumerian city of Ur, now in southern Iraq, by Sir Leonard Woolley in 1923. The sculpture, which dates from about 2600 BCE, is now in the British Museum.-Discovery:...
and the pair of Ram in a Thicket
Ram in a Thicket
The Ram in a Thicket is one of a pair of figures excavated in Ur, in southern Iraq, and which date from about 2600-2400 BC. One is currently exhibited in the Mesopotamia Gallery in Room 56 in the British Museum in London; the other is in the University of Pennsylvania Museum in Philadelphia,...
figurines, one of which is in the British Museum
British Museum
The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...
and the other in the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
The University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, commonly called The Penn Museum, is an archaeology and anthropology museum that is part of the University of Pennsylvania in the University City neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.-History:An internationally renowned...
. Agatha Christie
Agatha Christie
Dame Agatha Christie DBE was a British crime writer of novels, short stories, and plays. She also wrote romances under the name Mary Westmacott, but she is best remembered for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections , and her successful West End plays.According to...
's novel, Murder in Mesopotamia
Murder in Mesopotamia
Murder in Mesopotamia is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on July 6, 1936 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company later in the same year. The UK edition retailed at seven shillings and sixpence and the US edition at $2.00.The...
, was inspired by the discovery of the royal tombs. Christie later married Woolley's young assistant, Max Mallowan
Max Mallowan
Sir Max Edgar Lucien Mallowan, CBE was a prominent British archaeologist, specialising in ancient Middle Eastern history, and the second husband of Dame Agatha Christie.-Life and work:...
.
Ur, found in present-day Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
, was the burial site of what may have been many Sumer
Sumer
Sumer was a civilization and historical region in southern Mesopotamia, modern Iraq during the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age....
ian royals. Woolley discovered tombs of great material wealth. Inside these tombs were large paintings (this is not demonstrated in the archaeological record; the strata were highly compressed and wall painting is not demonstrated elsewhere in ancient Sumer) were compressed of ancient Sumer
Sumer
Sumer was a civilization and historical region in southern Mesopotamia, modern Iraq during the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age....
ian culture at its zenith, along with gold and silver jewelry, cups and other furnishings. The most extravagant tomb was that of “Queen” Pu-Abi. Amazingly enough, Queen Pu-Abi’s tomb was untouched by looters. Inside the tomb, many well-preserved items were found, including a cylindrical seal bearing her name in Sumerian
Sumerian language
Sumerian is the language of ancient Sumer, which was spoken in southern Mesopotamia since at least the 4th millennium BC. During the 3rd millennium BC, there developed a very intimate cultural symbiosis between the Sumerians and the Akkadians, which included widespread bilingualism...
. Her body was found buried along with those of two attendants, who had presumably been poisoned in order to continue to serve her after death. Woolley was able to reconstruct Pu-Abi's funeral ceremony from objects found in her tomb. Her headdress, cylinder seal and body were formerly on display at the University of Pennsylvania, however they are currently being displayed in the British Museum in London.
In 1936, after his discoveries at Ur, Woolley was interested in finding ties between the ancient Aegean
Aegean civilization
Aegean civilization is a general term for the Bronze Age civilizations of Greece around the Aegean Sea. There are three distinct but communicating and interacting geographic regions covered by this term: Crete, the Cyclades and the Greek mainland. Crete is associated with the Minoan civilization...
and Mesopotamian civilizations. This led him to the Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
n city of Al Mina
Al Mina
Al-Mina is the modern name given by Leonard Woolley to an ancient trading post on the Mediterranean coast of northern Syria, in the estuary of the Orontes, near present-day Samandag in Turkey's province of Hatay....
. From 1937 to 1939, he was in Tell Atchana.
Local Genesis Flood Theory
Woolley was one of the first archaeologists to propose that the flood described in the Book of Genesis was local after identifying a flood-strata at UrUr
Ur was an important city-state in ancient Sumer located at the site of modern Tell el-Muqayyar in Iraq's Dhi Qar Governorate...
: "...400 miles long and 100 miles wide; but for the occupants of the valley that was the whole world".
World War II
His archaeological career was interrupted by the United Kingdom's entry into World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, and he became part of the Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives Section
Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives program
The Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives program under the Civil Affairs and Military Government Sections of the Allied armies was established in 1943 to assist in the protection and restitution of cultural property in war areas during and following World War II...
of the Allied armies.
After the war, he returned to Tell Atchana, where he continued to work from 1946 until 1949.
Further Reading
- Winstone, H. V. F.H. V. F. WinstoneHarry Victor Frederick Winstone FRGS, known as Victor, was an English author and journalist, who specialised in Middle Eastern topics. He wrote biographies of several influential figures in the history of this region....
(1990). Woolley of Ur. London: Secker and Warburg.
External links
- PBSPublic Broadcasting ServiceThe Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
(WNETWNETWNET, channel 13 is a non-commercial educational public television station licensed to Newark, New Jersey. With its signal covering the New York metropolitan area, WNET is a primary station of the Public Broadcasting Service and a primary provider of PBS programming...
, New York): "The Rape of Europa." November 24, 2008.