She was also buried with 52 attendants: servants, guards, horse, lions, a chariot and several other bodies-retainers who were suspected by excavator Leonard Woolley to have poisoned themselves (or been poisoned by others) to serve their mistress in the next world. The largest and most well-known death pit held 74 attendants, 6 men and 68 women, all adorned with various gold, silver, and lapis decoration, and one female figure that appeared to be more elaborately adorned than the others. The "Death Pit" Ī number of "death pits" were also found outside of the chambers as well as above Puabi's chamber, which calls into question the initial attribution of the death pits to Puabi specifically. Puabi's headdress drew inspiration from nature in its floral motifs and is made up of gold ribbons and leaves, lapis and carnelian beads, and gold flowers. The number of grave goods that Woolley uncovered in Puabi's tomb was staggering, and included a magnificent, heavy, golden headdress made of golden leaves, rings and plates a superb lyre (see Lyres of Ur), complete with the golden and lapis lazuli-encrusted bearded bull's head a profusion of gold tableware golden, carnelian and lapis lazuli cylindrical beads for extravagant necklaces and belts a chariot adorned with lionesses' heads in silver, and an abundance of silver, lapis lazuli, and golden rings and bracelets, as well as her headdress, a belt made of gold rings, carnelian and lapis beads, and other various rings and earrings. Puabi's tomb was clearly unique among the other excavations, not only because of the large number of high-quality and well-preserved grave goods, but also because her tomb had been untouched by looters through the millennia. Puabi's tomb was found along with some 1,800 other graves at the Royal Cemetery at Ur. Although little is known about Puabi's life, the discovery of Puabi's tomb and its death pit reveals important information as well as raises questions about Mesopotamian society and culture.īritish archaeologist Leonard Woolley discovered the tomb of Puabi, which was excavated between 19 by a joint team sponsored by the British Museum and the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.
The fact that Puabi, herself a Semitic Akkadian, was an important figure among Sumerians, indicates a high degree of cultural exchange and influence between the ancient Sumerians and their Semitic neighbors. It has been suggested that she was the second wife of king Meskalamdug. As most women's cylinder seals at the time would include a reference to one's husband, the fact that Puabi's seal does not place her in relation to any king or husband supports the theory that she ruled on her own. Commonly labeled as a " queen", her status is somewhat in dispute, although several cylinder seals in her tomb, labeled grave PG 800 at the Royal Cemetery at Ur, identify her by the title " nin" or "eresh", a Sumerian word denoting a queen or a priestess.
Puabi ( Akkadian: ??? Pu-A-Bi "Word of my father"), also called Shubad or Shudi-Ad due to a misinterpretation by Sir Charles Leonard Woolley, was an important person in the Sumerian city of Ur, during the First Dynasty of Ur (c. Reconstructed Sumerian headgear necklaces found in the tomb of Puabi, housed at the British Museum