New Britain Herald Newspaper, September 1, 1928, Page 11

O 1 B How W Soldiers and servi WHU—the A Preleat Day Beauty of Chaldes, Showing How the Fine Features of the Beauties of Ancient Ur Have Been Preserved "lnuh the Ages. 66 Dll.’ ye with your Lord, ye star-gazing slaves of Chaldea!” This imperious and haughty sommand—flat sentence of death for half naked setfs who, thou- sands of yots ‘ago, sweated in pungent darkness beneath wheel- m eonstellations, also included -four of most famous besu ‘t‘l'ol sndlent Ur, in Meso- 13 munr dlscovery eame $ dv;t when selentists gh roth Museum, work- {ihers fom th Museum 4 niversity of Pennayl- m’ rmln the twenty- Joot eatth matrix above the tomd ing Kalam-Dug, raled in the land of Abrs- 8,800 years before Christ! n the tomb they found the b of the king, surrounded by more tl:‘n“t!l:‘ ske 'n'fl":h !ot l'oldkri P5— - rty-fout of M skelotons were those a’ tourt bestuies whe died with [ ?; fch! About the skel- ¢ the women wers traces of ! rite :onumn and the th in gold and silver orn: ments "ul Precious gems w. 0 enotmity of this unique saérifics shocked the excavators ! "i:' &t first, were completely at & loss 0 explain the presence of the women in the tomb. “Wh of Ur sacri- their king?” This :,u nating question, smacking 1! !'{ of ages and sur- #ll the glamor of a ¢lvilisation, engaged scientific atten- the exelusion :1&.?:“‘ in the tomb. others arising from the beauties sacrificed so that they might ueomrny tgeir lord and master on his journey beyond the St killed as ‘& great sacrifics to Ishtdr, the goddess of love? Both of these solutions found supporters, as the scientists ::gl.bd to uniravél this romantic mystery of the ‘Workis slowly the investigators recon- gnmd' ne a&s it originally was enacted. ey pictured the procession marching slowly toward the tomb, the lolem? majesty of the King’s coffin carried on before, lndy all but heard the echo of muffled tread marking the beat of weird dithyrambie. Btill looking through the telescope of reeon- etion seientists the procession enter tomb. erath of cymbals and the boom t dfums sinks to hollow monotone as s afe swallowed up in this eavérmous Mase of Arches. Sacred oxen, gar- ailr adorned for the rites, are lowéred twenty- ve 1664 Delow the ground., There is the rattle ts which mingles with the grunts mlflz 43 leathet-tiréd chariots are in tomb, idiers of the llrd take up their station the entrance of .:51 tam?. 'he beauties m‘u, ked in lma.y rb, are ar wall, Othet soldiers wheel the bier for theit grim of stornity, and the rites begin. Strange .Ilfill Mutter and roll l“hfl the tomb, [ te ate held aloft, blessed, and od 1.3..!: the dead fuler. The flickering 8 o x.n 68 east sinister shades on the and vy odor of death hangs over Al inally the yriests finish their ceremonies and file out of the vault. They seal the entrance be- ond peradventute of its being reopened, and ra to Ur confident that their late ruler will & comfortable time beyond the sombre yk where shadows lengthen in tesque iPade &nd unteality is real. Also they leave hind t| the riddle which stientista thousands C I-n ter will struggle to solve. fust how to&fhl béautles of Ur sacrificed? This is oné of the mest inberesting questions in ’ Beauties of Ur h Their Baffling Mystery of the Babylonian Charmers Who Were Sealed in | Their Monarch’s Tomb. The Sacrifice in the Tomb. A Drawing by Artist Louis Biedermann, Done in the Ancient Sumerian Manner. Represents the Scene Which May Have Taken Place in the Vault of King Mes-Kalam-Dug. Scientists Have Been Unable to D At Leéft, the God Baal and His Fianeée,from a Painting by Henry Motte. In This Case a Beautiful Woman Was Left to Die in the Lap of the Stene Image. al they were sealed in the tomb and allowed to suffocate and starve, But other observers paint a graphic picture of horror. At the close of the religious ceremonies they see the court executioner advancing. He holds his spear, poised for the fatal thrust. There are stiffled sobs and hysterical shrieks. The tip of the spear becomes reddened with human blood as the gorgeously owned women sink to the floor. %his implacable advance of the ex- ecutioner continues until he has completed the circuit of the tomb. Soldiers, servants, slaves and wives lie in their own blood. Then comes the final act of tragedy, the execu- tioner falls upon his spear and the spirit of death is triumphant. The first apparent solytion of the whole mystery is an y one. The custom of putting :o0d, weapons and other personal articles in a tomb was general among the ancients. Their survivors belieyed that the dead would need food to sustain them on their journéy to the next world, and weapons to protect them along the way. s The conclusion, therefore, was drawn that the beauties of Ur— probably the wives of the King— were sacrificed in his tomb so that he might have company and comfort wherever he went. This also explained the presence of soldiers and guards. But the scientists were-un- willing to accept this simple explanation. Other tombs had been opened in the vicinity, and in none of them was there a trace of human sacrifice. Pondering this the scientists hit upon another idea which they believe to be nearer the truth. The beauties of Ur wére sealed in the tomb with their king as a saerifice to Ishtar, the goddess of Love! Ishtar was one of the chief deities of the Babylonians; and later she becam#’ a favorite goddess not only all over Asia, but Europe as well. Temples 1n:her honor were erected through- Chaldea. out Chaldea, and properties were ascribed to her which recently have enulied the attention of students of all nations,” 8hé was looked upon as “the begetter” and the mother of all things. The idea of God as a feminine embodiment was not new to the ancients, aithough only re- cently has this idea formulated itself in modern minds and become sufficiently strong for general expression. Foremost of those who have called attention to this possibility is Mr. Eugene O'Neill, dramatist, who in his last two plays has put this thought before his audience. Because of the importance in which Ishtar was held, and the nature of the rites which sur- rounded her worship, the noblest, wealthiest, The Passage to the Tomb of the Dead King of Excavators Have Reconstructed - the Funeral Possession in the City of Ur. They Piéture It Traversing This Passag- with 8ad Music and Lamentations. and most. beautiful maidens of anclent Sumeria vied with each other to win places of honor at Ishtar’s shrines. Thus the sacrifice of the beaygies of Ur, rather than seeming a cruel punishment, probably was looked upon . as a great privilege. This love cult is believed to have spread through all the kingdoms of Asia, including Phoenicia. A similar idea was developed, more or less independently, in Egypt, where Isis is worshipped as the “universal mother” and always is pictured with the Horous child in her arms. Some of the archaeologists go back still further and trace, in the rudely. shaped stomes depicting female figures, Newspaper Feature Secvics, 1988 etermine Whether Those Who Died with Their King Were Killed with Spears or ¢ Were Left to Starve and Suffocate in the Musty 'I"nls earliest type of this worship of a love-goddess. Many names have been used to identify this particular goddess. She has been known as Astarte, Venus, and for the Ephesians she ap- pears as Diana. But always she is the great zmthu\ the life giver, and the begetter of man- ind. \ Having had an opportunity to correlate their findifks the excavators found their convictions in this direction strengthened by the discovery in the royal tomb of a young princess of Ur, Shub-Ad znlme. The tomb of 8hub-Ad was above the vault of the King of Ur. It contained the skeletons, hel- mets and spears of many soldiers, and also there were_indications that a number of maidens had perished with their princess. The princess could not have failed to pay reverence to the goddess of Love, gnd scientists think it probable that she may have been yowed to the service of Ishtar. The very elaborateness of the costuming and the magnificence of the jewels found in the tomb tend te support this theory. In none of the ancient tombs, with the exception of that of Tut-ankh-Amen have such ornament and decora- tion been brought to light: Here were found drinking vessels of solid gold, heads of bulls and steers of gold, with beatds of lapis lazuli and erowtis of gold and jewels. When it is remembered that these tombs date back to a period at least a thoysand years before the time when Abraham emigrated from this A Reconstructed Wax Head of th> Princess Shub-Ad of Chaldea, Now at the British Mu:eum. The Géld Wig and Ornaments Were the Actual Possessions of the Beauty Who Lived and Loved 5,000 Years Aga. One of the Greatest Discoveries of the Year—the Fragment of a Frieze Showing King Mes-Kalam- Dug Directing the Slaves Who Built the Wonderful Temple to the Moon God of Ur. great center of civilization, astonishment grows at the perfection of the art and artistry of the many objects discovered in the tombs. Ishtar played so great a pari in the life of the Babylonians that her votaries neglected none of the means of attracting the opposite sex, and men as well as women are found at her shrine. Wigs of golt and parple, perfumes, jewels a other articles of personal adorm ment were employed in her worship. _Digfiy}g still further into the ruins scientists discovered that this ancient civilization, thousands of years before Christ, had many o the earmarks of what we are ple to consider the “last word” in cul ture and sophistication. The “fla; pers” of Ur used rouge and lipstick to enhance their beauty and thus te capture and hold male attention. The civilization of the ancients was similar to our own in other re- spects. The kings who occupied the palaces achieved a degree of eul- tural development which led them to establish museums. This pan ticular phase of the revelations at Ur has impressed the scientists a8 well as students of history. Relies have been found which, 5,000 years ago, were considered museum pleces expressing the art of vanished ages, How old are these relics? No mag knows. One thing, however, seems sutes One of tue inost interesting tinds . Ur was the beautiful Muf dress an ancient queen. It was elaborate in gold leaf and cuarved scrolis. And the object was—to at- tract the opposite esx—a tribute at the shrine of Ishtar. Aptly, the most important pieces in the museum of Ur were those which originally were used as adornments both for men and wome, Which leads to the ¢onclusion that love is lovey despite the rolling centuries and the inexorable advance of time, The beauties of Ur were sae- rificed with their king. The beauties of today make sacrifices for the opposite sex, and the beauties of a civilization which antedated ancien$ Ur were similarly actuated. ;