The Standard of Ur

The Standard of Ur is 4500 years old and comes from the city-state of Ur now in present-day Iraq.

Normally standards are banners and flags that were used in war, but the standard of Ur is different since it was intentionally buried and found in tombs, or Royal Tombs dubbed by Leonard Woodlly excavated in the early 20s and early 30s.

But Woolly discovered one piece, which we dubbed the Standard of Ur. It might have been used as a storage device, a musical instrument, or currency.

It is a long rectangular. On one wall, an artwork depicts peace and prosperity, farmers growing crops, and cattle being moved. The rectangle is split into three registers or horizontal segments. 

The colours on the standard of Ur are interesting because many of the materials used in the standard we brought in from neighbouring civilizations.
For example, the blue on the standard was brought in from Afghanistan, the red stone from modern-day India, and the shell came from the Gulf south of now current-day Iraq.

Once again the reason why importing materials and working with other civilizations worked is because of Agriculture, as with agriculture everyone in their group did not have to worry about gathering food and was able to obtain a surplus of food, and were able to branch out to the extent of meeting other people.

Now back to the standard, on it is the 3 horizontal segments, the bottom row is mainly working-class people, depicted transporting goods to a destination.

The middle row is people with animals, some sheep and bulls, these animals might get sacrificed in the form of an income tax or service.

Lastly is the top row, with what looks to be a king on a throne with people sitting down and watching him, with an entertainer playing an instrument, and somewhat looks to be people taking an audience with the king holding cups or chalices.

Now the backside of the standard is a totally different story, it is still three horizontal rows, but now instead the back of the standard depicts a war or things that were brought into war, such as chariots and people with spears.

The bottom row is what looks to be one chariot drawn in impact frames as starts from a walk to a gallop to a sprint, pulled by male donkeys, one man maybe an enemy or ally has clearly fallen over, with blood spilling out where a horse had possibly stepped on him.

The middle row looks to be a structured army, on one half of the drawing, showing them in a line possibly marching to war, the middle standard depicts the army defeating their enemies, while the the right side depicts captured prisoners of war or POWs.

At the top row is what looks to be a large figure possibly the king is in the centre the left side has a group of soldiers and a chariot while the right side is POWs being handed to the king, they seem to not be wearing much clothing and being very bloody when being handed over.