Uruk: Die Graber.

• Author: Dunham, Sally
• Position: Review

By R. M. BOEHMER, F. PEDDE, and B. SALJE. Ausgrabungen in Uruk-Warka, Endberichte, vol. 10. Mainz am Rhein: VERLAG PHILIPP VON ZABERN, 1995. Pp. xx + 236, maps, 271 plates. DM 300.

This volume in the series of final reports on the German expedition to Uruk-Warka is a catalog of 718 graves excavated from 1912 to 1990. The presentation is chronological, with a chapter for each period (beginning with the Uruk period), except that the last chapter includes both Seleucid and Parthian burials. Within each chapter the graves are organized typologically (e.g., earth-grave, brick-lined pit, single vessel, double vessel). Boehmer says that all the available documentation for each grave is included, but that this is uneven (p. ix). Thus, many of the graves have a photograph and/or plan and illustrations of most or all of the grave goods, while others have only a sketch and very little description. Only a small percentage of the skeletons is identified as to sex and age. Child burials are identified and the skeletons from the 1989 season are described in detail by G. Meinert. Previous publication of a grave or its contents is often cited and pertinent bibliography is listed. Two neo-Babylonian burials contained tablets and these are edited by F. Kocher and S. Maul in an appendix at the end. Finally, three lists coordinate older numbers assigned to the graves with the new numbers given to them in the catalog.

The largest group of graves is that from the neo-Babylonian houses found southwest and west of the Eanna ziggurat (432 graves). While the houses are said to date from the eighth to sixth centuries n.c., Salje says that chronological distinctions within the group of graves cannot be made either on the basis of horizontal stratigraphy or on typology of grave form or grave goods (p. 129).(1) Her analysis of the graves according to the area and building in which they were found focuses mainly on those graves containing interesting objects, although occasionally she mentions a house as belonging to a certain building level (p. 130, n. 70), or that a house is one of the latest in the group (p. 135). Since in the catalogue elevations are recorded for most of the graves, one hopes that the forthcoming analysis of these houses by A. Kose (mentioned p. 130, n. 67) will provide useful information about the possible sequence of the graves and, hence, about neo-Babylonian burial customs.

The two tablets found in neo-Babylonian burials were both clearly...