Ram in a Thicket

The 'Ram in a Thicket'

The Ram in a Thicket is one of a pair of figures excavated in Ur, in what today is southern Iraq, and which date from about 2600-2400 BC. It is currently exhibited in the Mesopotamia Gallery in Room 56 in the British Museum in London.

Discovery

The pair of rams would more correctly be described as goats, and were discovered in the 'Great Death Pit', one of the graves in the Royal Cemetery at Ur, by archaeologist Leonard Woolley, who was in charge of the joint venture between the British Museum and the University of Pennsylvania, and which began in 1922. The partner is in the University of Pennsylvania Museum in Philadelphia in the United States. Woolley named the figure the 'Ram in a Thicket' after the passage in Genesis 22 v.13, where God orders the Biblical Patriarch Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac, but, at the last moment 'Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son'.

The figure

When it was discovered the figure had been crushed flat by the weight of the soil above it and its inner wooden core had decomposed. Woolley used wax to keep the pieces together as it was excavated, and the figure was gently pressed back into its original shape. The ram's head and legs are layered in gold leaf, while its ears are copper but which are now green with verdigris. The horns and the fleece on its shoulders are of lapis lazuli, and the body's fleece is made of shell. The figure's genitals are gold. The tree is also covered in gold leaf with gold flowers. The figure stands on a small rectangular base decorated with a mosaic of shell, red limestone and lapis lazuli. The tube going up from the ram's shoulders suggests it was originally used to support something, probably a bowl or similiar object.

References

• C.L. Woolley and P.R.S. Moorey, Ur of the Chaldees, revised edition Ithaca, New York, Cornell University Press, (1982)

• H.W.F. Saggs, Babylonians The British Museum Press, London (1995)

• D. Collon, Ancient Near Eastern Art The British Museum Press, London (1995)

• C.L. Woolley and others, Ur Excavations, Vol. II: The R The British Museum Press, London (1934)

External references

• The 'Ram in a Thicket' on the British Museum website
• 'Ram in a Thicket' on Mesopotamia.co.uk
• 'Ram in a Thicket' in the Chicago Chronicle
• information on the 'Ram in a Thicket'
• Restoration of the Pennsylvania 'Ram'