Shepherds of the black-headed people - New York Art Resources ...

UE III : 43,found in SIS 7UE III: 480,two items,datable to J-Nor early ED I 56container(vessel), cutopen while claystill wet"lock"? andtag? boredthrough0 TUR.NUN,humangrasping longsinuous curves.Deliveringagency (elitepersonage)? 550 ŠAM 2 , origin ofstored goods(purchased)?As may be seen, the earliest stage of the Ur sealings, dating to thevery beginning of the third millennium, does already show a ratherhigh degree of sophistication of the administrative machinery of thisearly Sumerian state.First, we have the very simplest form of goods’ movement –comestibles delivered in movable containers, presumably for directconsumption.Next, there are commodities in mobile containers bearing sealswhich denote sets of institutions, offices and communities. Thesemay perhaps visualize exchange of token commodity volumesamong such entities, perhaps as a sign of their social (political?)coherence.Finally, the evidence of sealing of storage spaces under the namesof various dignitaries bearing traditional (Uruk-age) titles hints atredistribution of goods on behalf of the Ur polity, though it isunclear whether the dignitaries delivered the goods to Ur orcollected them from the city which might have acted as a collectionpoint of such deliveries.Nevertheless, in view of the fact that these sealings turned up in thesame find contexts as later seals, and thus presumably went55 See Charvát 2006.56 UM catalogue entry: "Ur, found 7 ½ to 8 m below brick pavement, datedca. 3100 B.C. in the prehistoric settlement. Includes decorated pottery;clay animal; a number of seal impressions on clay jar stoppers; clay copiesof shell bugle beads; bone tubular bead; copper needle, etc. Palmetteenclosed (sealings)".42