Queen Shubad’s headdress
Second crown. 18 gold leaves. tips of carnelian, 2 strings of lapis and carnelian. gold comb.
One of Queen Puabi’s wreaths. There are 18 gold (poplar) leaves, separated by two strands of carnelian and lapis beads. Each leaf is tipped in a carnelian ring [one is missing] and is one piece of gold hammered out so that the attachment section folds over itself into four loops, which serves as a double joiner for those two strands of beads–only the top and bottom holes are used. The pattern begins and ends with a gold leaf, and for the beads between each leaf the pattern is one small carnelian ring, a barrel lapis, a carnelian ring, a barrel laps, and ending with a carnelian ring. After the eight leaf, from the right, when placed upright, the pattern breaks as the first two carnelian rings are missing. There are a total of 100 carnelian beads, not including the 17 at the tips, and 68 lapis beads.
The two cuneiform signs that compose her name were initially read as “Shub-ad” in Sumerian. Today, however, we think they should be read in Akkadian as “Pu-abi.”
| Provenience: | Iraq Ur |
| Archaeology Area: | PG 800 |
| Period: | Early Dynastic III |
| Date Made: | 2600-2450 BCE |
| Materials: | Gold Lapis Lazuli Carnelian |
| Length: | 74.4 cm |
| Width: | 8.4 cm |
| Depth: | 0.8 cm |
