Objects from the Ur collection of the British Museum Sampling and Analytical Investigations

Abstract

In addition to the material from the Penn Museum, which was already accessible in generous volume, access was requested to The British Museum to its portion of the Ur material from the Royal Cemetery. The aim was to supplement the material from Philadelphia, more precisely the different material groups such as the gold, the silver and the copper-based objects. The focus was on the metallic objects at The British Museum rather than on the stone material from Ur. Copper was used at Ur in a wide spectrum of compositions. Most significant is the consistency of the lead isotope signature between copper and silver of the objects from Ur, and other similarities are observable for the lead isotope ratios of both the copper-based and the silver objects.