Flint weapons from tomb PG/755 in the “Royal Cemetery” of Ur (DA IIIA): technology, function, and cultural significance

Résumé 0

The flint arrowheads found in 1927–1928 in the grave PG/755 (DA IIIA, Phase 2) of the “Royal Cemetery” of Ur (Tell el-Muqayyar, Iraq) constitute a significant element of the funerary viaticum of Meskalamdug, alongside the metal weapons. Of trapezoidal morphology, with concave truncations and a transverse edge, these artifacts resemble models well documented in Southern Mesopotamia during the Ubaid and Uruk periods. Comprising a flake or a regular blade segment made by standing pressure, their morphotype is part of a technical lineage whose roots are in the Chalcolithic traditions. From a chrono-stratigraphic point of view, these microliths are present as early as Ubaid I–II and disappear from assemblages during the final LC5. In this context, the series of the grave PG/755, dating from the second third of the 3rd millennium BC, constitutes an anomaly, which invites us to question the durability of the lithic points in the Mesopotamian funerary domain. In this article, we will give a precise technological and functional description of these tips; we will then consider their place in the evolutionary trajectory of the lithic industries of the Sumerian technocomplex. Finally, the documentation will allow us to review the development and staging of this funerary deposit, whose typological components have an obvious sign value.