<Tr> <Th> Present location </Th> <Td> British Museum, London </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Identification </Th> <Td> 121201 Reg number: 1928, 1010.3 </Td> </Tr> <P> The Standard of Ur is an artifact, a hollow wooden box measuring 21.59 centimetres (8.50 in) wide by 49.53 centimetres (19.50 in) long, inlaid with a mosaic of shell, red limestone and lapis lazuli . It comes from the ancient city of Ur (located in modern - day Iraq south of Baghdad). It dates to the Early Dynastic period and is c. 4,600 years old . The standard was probably constructed in the form of a hollow wooden box with scenes of war and peace represented on each side through elaborately inlaid mosaics . Although interpreted as a standard by its discoverer, its original purpose remains enigmatic . It was found in a royal tomb in Ur in the 1920s next to the skeleton of a ritually sacrificed man who may have been its bearer . It is now on display, in a reconstructed form, in the British Museum in London . </P> <P> The artifact was found in one of the largest royal tombs in Ur, tomb PG 779, associated with Ur - Pabilsag, a king who died around 2550 BC . Sir Leonard Woolley's excavations in Mesopotamia in 1927--28 uncovered the artifact in the corner of a chamber, lying close to the shoulder of a man who may have held it on a pole . For this reason, Woolley interpreted it as a standard, giving the object its popular name, although subsequent investigation has failed to confirm this assumption . The discovery was quite unexpected, as the tomb in which it occurred had been thoroughly plundered by robbers in ancient times . As one corner of the last chamber was being cleared, a workman spotted a piece of shell inlay . Woolley later recalled that "the next minute the foreman's hand, carefully brushing away the earth, laid bare the corner of a mosaic in lapis lazuli and shell ." </P>

The two sides of the standard of ur depict