纪录片《大英博物馆世界简史》 012乌尔军标(3)

"In the farther chamber was a most remarkable thing, a plaque, originally of wood, twenty three inches long and seven and a half inches wide, covered on both sides with a mosaic in shell, red stone, and lapis; the wood had decayed, so that we have as yet little idea of what the scene is, but there are rows of human and animal figures, and when the plaque is cleaned and restored it should prove one of the best objects found in the cemetery."

This was one of Woolley's most stupendous finds. The 'plaque' was clearly a work of high art, but its greatest importance is in what it tells us about the exercise of power in these early Mesopotamian cities.

What Woolley found is now in the British Museum - and I'm just coming in to the Mesopotamian galleries to find it - here it is: it's about the size of a small briefcase, but it tapers at the top - so that it looks almost like a large bar of Toblerone. It's decorated all over with small mosaic scenes. Woolley called it the Standard of Ur, because he thought it might have been a battle standard that you carried high on a pole in a procession or into battle. We've kept that name, but it's actually hard to see how it could have been a standard of that sort, because it's obvious that the scenes are meant to be looked at from very close up. Some scholars have thought it might be a musical instrument or perhaps just a box to keep precious things in, but we just don't know. We asked Dr Lamia al-Ghailani, a leading Iraqi archaeologist who now works in London, what she thinks this is: