[Jewelry making - Article 00063] - [Orchid] Sumerian jewelry from Ur

[Mona Clee]

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    Many years ago I took a high school Ancient History class from a
    wonderfully gifted teacher who could make the past come alive.  His
    name was Mr. Babel, I kid you not.  To help teach us about ancient
    Mesopotamia he brought in a 1952 National Geographic with an artist's
    conception of life in the city of Ur (Sumer) in approximately 3,000
    B.C.  Some of the paintings portrayed the funeral of Queen Shub-ad
    (later translated as Queen Pu-abi, I never could figure out what
    those Mesopotamian linguists were up to), which involved driving
    several carts full of furniture and jewelry, not to mention dozens of
    people, into her tomb --and then walling them up inside.  They would
    have died of thirst, starvation or suffocation, had not bowls of
    poison also been conveniently included with the treasure. 

    Around 1926 Sir Leonard Woolley excavated much of it, which he sent
    to the British Museum where it resides today.  The jewelry is
    gorgeous -- great lunate or moon-shaped earrings of beaten gold, with
    huge ear posts that give a modern girl shooting pains just to look
    at; head-dresses with three flowers of gold rising up on stalks,
    beaded necklaces featuring hammered golden leaves, and on and on.  I
    finally saw all the stuff when I was a student traveling Europe in
    the late 70's and got to visit the British Museum. 

    It seems that ancient Egyptian jewelry has attracted much of the
    attention in recent years, but has anyone ever seen an article about
    reproducing these ancient Sumerian designs?  I've been studying
    jewelry making for several years and have probably gotten enough
    experience to take a stab at copying them, but I wonder if anyone
    else has also been captivated by the story and the beauty of the
    jewelry. 



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