The temples and buildings at Ur dating to around 2600 B.C. had stood on a high terrace. South of the terrace was an open space and here the people of Ur had thrown their rubbish. Over time this grew into a mound which sloped down from the walls of the terrace. This was an easy place to bury the dead and a large cemetery developed.

In 1927 Leonard Woolley and his team began to excavate the cemetery. There were really two cemeteries, one above the other, belonging to different periods. The upper graves dated to around 2300 B.C. Below them were graves three hundred years older, and among these were the ‘Royal' tombs.

Woolley discovered about two thousand ordinary graves. These were shafts, 1 to 4 metres deep, in which the dead person was laid either wrapped in matting or in a coffin of wicker-work, wood or clay. With the body were placed some objects such as beads, a knife, a cylinder seal. Outside the coffin or matting roll were clay, copper or stone vessels, weapons and tools.

Several of these graves were richer in contents than others. One in particular contained remarkable objects. At the bottom of a shaft was the body of a man in a wooden coffin. Around the coffin were spears and vases of alabaster and clay, gold-mounted daggers, copper daggers and tools, fifty copper bowls, silver bowls and plates. Inside the coffin, the body was accompanied by a gold dagger, lapis lazuli and gold beads, two gold bowls and a gold lamp. Beside the decayed skull was a helmet of beaten gold. A cuneiform inscription on two of the bowls and the lamp read ‘Meskalamdug'. Carved on a cylinder seal found in another tomb was the same name plus the title ‘lugal', which is normally translated as king. It may have referred to the owner of the rich tomb.

In one area of the cemetery Woolley discovered 16 unusual graves which he described as ‘Royal'. The majority had been robbed in antiquity but sufficient evidence survived for Woolley to reconstruct the process of burial.

A rectilinear shaft was dug to a depth of about 10 metres. On one side a steeply sloping or stepped passage ran down to the floor of the pit. On the floor, which was about 12 metres by 10 metres, a tomb-chamber was built, with stone walls and a brick vaulted roof. This might occupy part or all of the floor with one or more chambers. The principal body was laid in a chamber and often accompanied by other bodies. The door of the chamber was then sealed. Bodies of more attendants were carefully laid on the floor outside the chamber. Woolley suggests that they may have been poisoned or drugged but they could have been killed by other means and carried into the pit. All the bodies were dressed in the finest jewellery and surrounded by fabulous objects. Earth was then thrown in from above. In some of the graves matting or mud brick structures and more sacrificial bodies were laid out in the shaft as it was filled in with soil. It is possible that the graves were originally marked at ground level by a monument.

The presence of sacrificial victims suggested to Woolley that these graves must belong to Ur's kings and queens. The grave of Meskalamdug, who may have been a ‘lugal', was not, he decided, a true royal grave as it lacked attendants. The one royal grave which survived almost intact belonged to a woman, Pu-abi. She has the title ‘queen' or ‘lady' carved on her cylinder seal.

An alternative to Woolley's theory is that these 16 graves belonged to holders of the important office of high priestess of the moon god Nanna. At a slightly later date there is evidence that the king's daughter was appointed to this role. Perhaps for a period it was decided that the dead high priestess should be accompanied by her priestesses (the majority of attendants were women) and be buried close to the sacred area of the god they had served.

The graves are unique in Mesopotamia.