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A thread on the mysterious Standard of Ur, a 4,600-year-old mosaic, & one of the most remarkable objects to survive from the ancient world 
The 'standard' is Sumerian. It was found in a royal tomb in Ur in the 1920s, next to the skeleton of a ritually sacrificed man.
Ur was an important Sumerian city-state in ancient Mesopotamia, and is now located in Southern Iraq, on the banks of the Euphrates River.
Sir Leonard Woolley, who oversaw the Ur excavations, thought the piece might have been carried on a pole, and thus called it a 'standard'
However, its original use is mysterious, and even its real shape is unknown. It might even have been the sounding board for an instrument.
The standard has been reconstructed as a hollow wooden box measuring 22x50cm, inlaid with a mosaic of shell, red limestone and lapis lazuli.
The mosaic shows scenes of battle & marching armies on one side, & a banquet scene on the other, and have thus been called 'War' and 'Peace'
"War" is one of the earliest representations of a Sumerian army, with chariots and warriors marching into battle & defeating their enemies.
The king can be seen in the middle, standing taller than any other figure, with his head projecting out of the frame to show his status.
These soldiers wear leather cloaks & helmets, and what's cool is that the same sort of helmet was found in the tomb with the standard.
Prisoners of the enemy are shown being driven naked by Sumerian soldiers. But whether this is symbolic or a real depiction is hard to say
Chariots are shown in great detail. They have solid wheels (spokes aren't invented until ~1800 BC) & carry spare spears in a front container
The1st chariot team is shown walking, the 2nd cantering, the 3rd galloping and the fourth rearing, showing an artistic attitude to movement.
One interesting detail: the war chariots are pulled by some kind of ass/donkey, since horses weren't introduced until the 2nd millennium BCE
The "Peace" side is calmer but no less interesting. These beautiful scenes of daily life show how people lived in 2600 BCE.
Here a musician plucks a lyre, while a long-haired singer accompanies him. Examples of these bull-headed lyres have also been found at Ur.
In the low panel, commoners bring livestock & fish to banquet, showing the various trades plied by Sumerian people, their hairstyles & dress
A Sumerian ruler had a dual role as a lugal (literally "big man" or war leader) & an "en" or civic/religious leader. The standard shows both
The end pieces are thought to have shown scenes of animals both real & imaginary, though they have been extensively reconstructed.
Theories about the standard's purpose range from it being a book container, a coffer for money, a part of an instrument. But nobody knows
If you want to find out more, the BBC did a great piece on the standard for A History of the World in 100 Objects: bbc.co.uk/ahistoryofthew…
Thanks for listening! As a bonus, here's a 3D image reconstructing how the city of Ur might have looked at the time the standard was made.
Wow, double bonus! This is a photo I took with some very friendly guards who are helping to keep the archaeological site of Ur safe today.
