Signs from Silence : Ur of the First Sumerians (Paperback)

This is a book on the early history of ancient Mesopotamia, describing the story of the Sumerian city of Ur before the well-known „Royal graves“ of the 27th pre-Christian century (c. 3000-2700 B.C.).
This unique source for the early history of Sumer sheds light on the early history of mankind, and fascinates generations of archeologists and scholars. Charvát’s interpretation of the iconographic material is based on his first hand experience with the preserved treausures in University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology of the University of Pennsylvania at Philadelphia, precisely on the Ur materials in Tablet Room of the Babylonian Section.
According to the author the key to the unravelling the mystery of the “Royal graves” phenomenon lies in our understanding of the society that produced them, and that in its historical dimension. What was this society like? Did it enjoy an assured subsistence level, or were its members living on the brink of starvation? What social structures did this society build? How did it make its decisions, who were the persons and/or institutions of authority? Did the Ur merit the designation of “Oriental despotism”? What role did religion play in the public life of archaic Ur? Not until we know more about all this can an attempt to solve the mysteries guarded so well by those who went down into the “Royal graves” of Ur be succesful.
In the endeavour undertaken in this book, his attention focuses particularly on the mass of seal impressions found in what Leonard Woolley called the “Seal Impression Strata” of Ur, comprised between the so-called “Jamdat Nasr cemetery” as a lower chronological margin and the extensive burial ground containing the “Royal graves” as the upper chronological margin. These sealings constitute historical sources of unique character. Their reverses supply much precious archaeological information. Bearing inscriptions, they also give historical evidence, and the images carved in them present a priceless source material of iconographic character.