How Did Leonard Woolley Want To Visit To Travel Back In Time?
Where would you go if you were given the chance to travel back in time? Well that was my great fortune when given this assignment from my boss at the Smithsonian Magazine. The Pangeaic Historical Standards Board requested an Archeological Journalist to travel back in time to interview and investigate the work of one of the greatest archeologists of the 20th century. What an honour! I chose to travel back to archaeology’s heyday, the 1920’s, and interview internationally renowned archeologist Sir Leonard Woolley about one of the greatest archeological discoveries ever made, The Royal Cemetery of Ur, in particular the ‘Royal Tombs’ of this ancient Mesopotamian City. What an epic assignment! It was mid-January 1928 when I found myself sitting
…show more content…
Interested in archeology from a young age, he graduated from Oxford University and started work in 1907 in Great Britain. It wasn’t long before his meticulous field work in Nubia was noticed. Woolley learnt the tools of his trade as part of the Pennsylvania University Museum team under the tutelage of Randolf MacIver, himself a pupil of the esteemed Egyptologist Flinders Petrie. When in 1922, the Joint Expedition of the University Museum and the British Museum to Ur (in what is now known as Southern Iraq) was initiated, Woolley was chosen as field …show more content…
In order to explain such interest from an archeological standpoint, it’s important to first understand Ur’s significance in ancient times and the rise of the Sumerians, the world’s first literate civilisation. Around 4000 BCE, Ur was a vast port city on the Persian Gulf. It became a city of considerable size and scale, its location central to trade in the Gulf region. Ur’s citizens enjoyed an opulent existence. By the time of the Third Dynasty around 2000 BCE, the city of Ur reached its height, its citizens possessing great wealth. It’s rich history was first discovered in
Interested in archeology from a young age, he graduated from Oxford University and started work in 1907 in Great Britain. It wasn’t long before his meticulous field work in Nubia was noticed. Woolley learnt the tools of his trade as part of the Pennsylvania University Museum team under the tutelage of Randolf MacIver, himself a pupil of the esteemed Egyptologist Flinders Petrie. When in 1922, the Joint Expedition of the University Museum and the British Museum to Ur (in what is now known as Southern Iraq) was initiated, Woolley was chosen as field …show more content…
In order to explain such interest from an archeological standpoint, it’s important to first understand Ur’s significance in ancient times and the rise of the Sumerians, the world’s first literate civilisation. Around 4000 BCE, Ur was a vast port city on the Persian Gulf. It became a city of considerable size and scale, its location central to trade in the Gulf region. Ur’s citizens enjoyed an opulent existence. By the time of the Third Dynasty around 2000 BCE, the city of Ur reached its height, its citizens possessing great wealth. It’s rich history was first discovered in