In the tombs of these earliest royalties, found
by Dr. Woolley in previous years of work at Ur,
the most remarkable objects were the bones of
scores of men, women and oxen, evidently sacrificed
and buried purposely with their monarchs, no doubt
with some idea that their ghosts would serve the
royal masters in some future life. Whatever shock
the modern mind may feel at such cruelty, it is
difficult to avoid concluding that the facts indicate
some belief in immortality. Why otherwise should
it be necessary to murder living servants as retinua
of the royal corpse? Still deeper is the mystery of
how these victims died, for Dr. Woolley finds evi- j
dence that they were not buried alive or struck I
down violently. Instead, the positions of bones, j
jewelry, golden headgear and such traces of cloth- j
ing as survive all indicate that each victim lay j
down, or was laid down, in peaceful composure for ,
eternal sleep.
Dr. Woolley's theory, or rather the theory of I
Mrs. Woolley which her distinguished husband has I
adopted, is that the willing sacrifice was managed
by some painless poison or stupefying drink. What
ever other objects may be near each victim's
skeleton, one is always a small clay cup. from
which this ultimate nepenthe perhaps was quaffed.
There seems a chance here for some modern scien
tific detective. One wonders what traces of opium,
hasheesh or some other ancient drug still might
be detectable in the bottoms of these fatal goblets
by modern methods of microchemical analysis, such
as those perfected by Professor E. M. Chamot, of
Cornell.
