THE eighth campaign of the Joint Expedition of the University Museum and the British Museum to Ur of the Chaldees was started on November 2nd. Mr. Woolley arrived at Baghdad on October 26th, accompanied by the same staff as last year: Mrs. Woolley, Mr. Mallowan, and the Rev. E. R. Burrows. Mr. Whitburn, formerly staff architect is to join them again later. It was found that owing to the unusually heavy sandstorms of last summer, the expedition house had been completely buried, so that the first excavation on the site had to be that of the living-quarters of the staff-a task which demanded the labour of a hundred workmen for four days.
Mr. Wooley then started work on that part of the cemetery chosen for the first part of this season’s dig, and at the same time on a section of the mound above the cemetery where he hopes to lay bare part of the preflood town. Later he intends to work on the city wall, of which a short length was examined at the close of last season.