CNN October 15, 1999
Web posted at: 3:15 p.m. EST (1915 GMT)

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Some experts doubt the authenticity of the house in the ancient ruined city of Ur, sometimes called the birthplace of the patriarch Abraham, that Pope John Paul II wants to see next year on a pilgrimage to Iraq.

But there's not much question about little Queen Puabi, who died there some 600 years before Abraham's time. Her great gold headdress goes on view Sunday at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution. The spray of seven gold flowers on the comb in the headdress must have added almost a foot (0.3 meters) to her height, which was just under 5 feet (1.5 meters).

A personal seal with her name and title were found near her remains, along with those of 21 attendants -- including 10 women with musical instruments -- who were killed or who killed themselves to accompany her.

"At the sound of my sacred song they are ready to die," said a hymn of the period composed by a high priestess of Nanna, the chief god of Ur.

Both the tradition about Abraham and the story of Queen Puabi owe much to one British archaeologist, C. Leonard Woolley, who worked the site for 13 years through 1934. Little has been explored since then at Ur, one of antiquity's great cities, which draws just about 30 tourists a month.

"While he was speaking I felt in my mind no doubt whatever that the house on the corner had been Abraham's," mystery novelist Agatha Christie wrote in her autobiography. "It was his reconstruction of the past and he believed in it, and anyone who listened to him believed in it also."

She married one of Woolley's assistants.

Woolley maintained that Abram -- Abraham's name before he emigrated from what is now Iraq to what is now Israel -- came from the city he was excavating.

Erle Leichty is professor of Assyriology at the University of Pennsylvania, where the museum owns the treasures of the present show. He doubts that Woolley ever found a clay tablet engraved "Abram," as is widely believed, and thinks Abraham originated in a different city -- there were several called Ur.

Others say that even such a tablet would have little meaning.

"This is not enough proof," said Behnan Abu al-Soof, Iraq's leading archaeologist. "Abram was a common name in the context of the Near East in those days."

Woolley found Puabi's tomb, considered one of archaeology's greatest triumphs, rivaling the discovery of King Tutankhamen's in Egypt. Unlike many royal tombs, neither had been plundered and both contained a wealth of jewels, gold, vessels, statuary and musical instruments.

Now Pope John Paul II wants to include Ur on a pilgrimage he is planning for next year. That has raised doubts of another kind among diplomats in Washington and London. They fear a papal visit would strengthen Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, whose government has been pleased by the pope's criticism of sanctions against Iraq.

"We've made clear to the Vatican our views on Saddam Hussein and his regime and its likely efforts to manipulate the pope for their political aims," said Philip Reeker, a State Department spokesman, "and we hope this view will be taken into account in planning for any pilgrimage."

Rabi al-Qeisi, head of Iraq's Antiquities Department, says Hussein has allocated $500,000 to spruce up the area. The house is now a pile of mud and rubble.

There are military installations around the area, including one of Hussein's biggest air bases. Visitors are sometimes barred from climbing the 86-foot (25.8-meter) ziggurat, the remains of the ancient temple tower that is Ur's most prominent feature.

Unlike the ziggurat, but like Puabi's tomb, the Sackler Gallery is mostly underground, air conditioned and well lit.

Copyright 1999   The Associated Press All rights reserved.