By
Leon Barkho Associated Press
UMM AL-AJARIB,
Iraq -- Iraqi archaeologists are striving to bring to light what
they describe as Mesopotamia's largest "city of graves,"
where the Sumerians buried their dead nearly 5,000 years ago.
The scientists
are stunned by the size of cemetery, which could hold hundreds
of thousands of graves, and say it could yield clues to ancient
times.
"We have
never excavated anything like it before. It is unprecedented,"
said Fadhil Abdulwahid, a Baghdad University archae- ologist.
Remote and
desolate, the site was long the target of grave robbers who the
scientists say pilfered gold ornaments, statuettes and cylinder
seals made of precious stones. Ancient Iraqis usually buried their
dead with their most valued possessions.
Chief archaeologist
Donny Youkhanna could not say how many artifacts were stolen nor
estimate their significance, "but the damage is certainly
big."
When he started
excavations with 40 diggers last year he brought along armed guards.
Previously,
he said, few dared to approach the ancient mound because of the
large number of scorpions that lived among the graves, which prompted
the locals to name it Umm al-Ajarib or "Mother of Scorpions."
Shells, bowls, beads and handsome earthenware and statues dot
small lanes in the cemetery situated 250 miles south of Baghdad.
"It is
the largest graveyard of Sumer. Nowhere in ancient Iraq have we
come across so many graves," Youkhanna said.
Until now,
experts had designated a cemetery at Eridu in southern Iraq as
the largest Sumerian burial ground. There, scientists uncovered
1,000 graves in an area of about half a square mile.
Umm al-Ajarib
is many times larger. The whole site is about two square miles,
with the cemetery occupying the largest portion, and Youkhanna
said it may hold hundreds of thousands of graves. A better estimate
will be available once the diggers remove debris and count the
graves in a square they have targeted.
The Sumerian
civilization appeared in southern Mesopotamia as early as the
fifth millennium B.C. By 3000 B.C., Sumer had developed considerable
power based on irrigated agriculture, fine arts and cuneiform,
a special writing system that is probably the earliest in human
history.
The burials
at Umm al-Ajarib are chiefly in coffins of brick laid in bitumen
as mortar. The graves are regularly arranged, like cemetery lots,
with streets and lanes.
William Hayes
Ward was the first Western traveler to visit the site, in 1886.
Little work had been done at the site since Ward noted that Umm
al-Ajarib must have been a sacred burial ground for the Sumerians
in the same manner the present-day holy city of Najaf is to Muslim
Shiites.
"The
Sumerians looked after the dead. Funerary rituals were of great
significance because they believed if the dead were not buried
properly their souls will return and haunt the living relatives,"
archaeologist Marwan al-Adhami said.
When a Sumerian
monarch conquered a city, the first thing he would do was to "open
the graves and release the souls" to chase away any enemy
soldiers who escaped the sword, he said.
Umm al-Ajarib
is now arid land covered with sand dunes, a featureless expanse
of sand with no vegetation and shrubs. But in antiquity it was
part of a territory comprising gardens, palm groves and fields
of barley and wheat, Youkhanna said.
Youkhanna's
main task is to prove the city's sanctity. He has already dug
up a small part of a tripartite temple with huge walls rising
up to 3 yards. The temple is built of sun-dried bricks. A clay
tablet provides a list of quantities of food rations -- wheat,
barley, dates and oil -- given to temple servants.
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