University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
BURIAL PITA CT scan, left, of a female skull at a burial site at Ur. Women were buried with
elaborate adornments, right, and warriors with their weapons.
Posted on 10/27/2009 4:30:35 AM PDT by Pharmboy
University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
BURIAL PITA CT scan, left, of a female skull at a burial site at Ur. Women were buried with
elaborate adornments, right, and warriors with their weapons.
A new examination of skulls from the royal cemetery at Ur, discovered in Iraq almost a century ago, appears to support a more grisly interpretation than before of human sacrifices associated with elite burials in ancient Mesopotamia, archaeologists say.
Palace attendants, as part of royal mortuary ritual, were not dosed with poison to meet a rather serene death. Instead, a sharp instrument, a pike perhaps, was driven into their heads.
Archaeologists at the University of Pennsylvania reached that conclusion after conducting the first CT scans of two skulls from the 4,500-year-old cemetery.
The recovery of about 2,000 burials attested to the practice of human sacrifice on a large scale. At or even before the demise of a king or queen, members of the court — handmaidens, warriors and others — were put to death. Their bodies were usually arranged neatly, the women in elaborate headdress, the warriors with weapons at their side.
C. Leonard Woolley, the English archaeologist who directed the excavations, a collaboration between Penn and the British Museum, eventually decided that the attendants had been marched down into burial chambers, where they drank poison and lay down to die. That became the conventional story. snip...
Ritual killing associated with a royal death was practiced by other ancient cultures, archaeologists say, snip...
...Ur, near present-day Nasiriyah in Iraq, has been spared in the recent warfare that brought damage and looting to other ancient digs. Ur is protected within the perimeter of an air base, which was recently handed back to the Iraqis.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
When Abraham lived in Ur, it was a seaside town. It has silted up all the way to Basra since.
Futhermore, the Persian Gulf was completely dry during the Ice Age.
The stories of Abram, Isaac, Jacob in their dealings with extended family in their land of origin seem to indicate that they did not come from impoverished people. And as descendants of Shem, they might well have occupied some important station in life.
Also can get rid of divided loyalties and entrenched bureaucratic power - paving the way for a new ruler and his personal patronage system.
Does anyone know what Melchisideck (sp?) might have had to do with any of this? Some time ago, I recall reading something interesting about this, can’t remember exactly what.
Wasn’t this around the period of the monumental Chinese burial of the 2,000 clay soldiers? I read that these were probably a symbolic replacement for actual human sacrifices at a not too distant earlier period.
A nice, pithy explanation.
Actually, The Bible says that Abram was commanded to leave a place called Haran which is even today in Turkey. Abram's father Terah is the one that took his family and left Ur. The Bible says that the LORD says that He is the one who had brought Abram out Ur of the Chaldees, but the Bible says that the LORD commanded Abram to leave when he was living in Haran after his father had died.
It is interesting that the names Abraham's relatives and ancestors Peleg, Serug, Nahor and Terah, are names of cities around Haran and Haran was actually the name of Lot's father, Abrams brother.
Also, it is interesting to note that Abram came out of a family that actually had succumbed to idol worship according to Joshua 24:2.
Jos 24:2 And Joshua said unto all the people, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, [even] Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nachor: and they served other gods.
Melchizedek was the King of Salem and also the Priest of God. He gave Abram a blessing and praised God for Abram’s victories. Abram gave a tenth of everything won in the battle to Melchizedek.
Salem later became Jeru-salem and during the time of David, David says that God says about him (David) “You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek” (Psalms 110)
The writer of Hebrews takes it further at the end of Chapter 6/beginning of Chapter 7 of that book by saying “It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain,
where Jesus, who went before us, has entered on our behalf. He has become a high priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.”
Melchizedek is the first High Priest of God mentioned in the Bible. He was a prophet, a priest and a King. He was essential to Abram and who he would become.
Maybe they had to do that for the Ur High School biology lab.
On the other hand, they could have been drugged enough to sedate them so they could be led quietly to their places in neat rows.
“Yes, Sir, your honor, right this way I have a nice place for you in the front row. All Comfy?
SMACK!
NEXT!
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