98 i Flora Unveiled
gardener to supply the male flowers at exactly the right stage. This last conclusion contra-
dicts Scheil, who speculated that male trees were grown at some distance from the female
orchards since they were not mentioned in the inventory tablets. Perhaps it was assumed
that every orchard included a quota of male trees to provide a ready supply of male flowers
for hand pollination.
The Discovery of Dates in the Queen’s “Diadem”A fascinating example of date symbolism, which may shed light on the method of hand-
pollination, has been identified among the jewelry found in the tomb of Queen Puabi of
Ur. The Royal Cemetery at Ur, which belonged to the Early Dynastic III period (2650– 2550
bce), was excavated by British archaeologist Leonard Wooley in the 1920s and early 1930s.
More than 1,850 intact burials were found. The bodies were either wrapped or enclosed in
coffins at the bottoms of vertical shafts. A wealth of personal possessions was recovered,
including jewelry, weapons, cylinder seals, and ceramic, stone, and metal pottery and vessels.
Sixteen of the tombs were much larger than the others. They consisted of multiroomed
chambers with domed or vaulted roofs and ramps and passageways leading from one cham-
ber to another.^36 One of the most impressive of these was the magnificent tomb of Queen
Puabi. Among the finery she was wearing was an elaborate golden headdress of exquisite
workmanship (Figure 5.5). Most of the gold ornaments were based on botanical motifs. At
the top was a comb- like object bearing seven rosettes, which may represent flowers, stars,
or both. Such rosettes are often associated with the goddess Inanna. Below this comb was
a wreath of realistically rendered flowers, each with four sepals and four petals, alternating
with narrow, lanceolate leaves, possibly willow, grouped in threes. Next were two wreaths
of ovate gold leaves, which resemble poplar, and a final band of narrow gold rings. The sheer
density of ornaments depicting plants in the Queen’s headdresses is remarkable and attests
to the strong symbolic association between women and plants as personified by the goddess
Inanna/ Ishtar. Botanically inspired jewelry for women (goddesses and priestesses) is also
mentioned in various Mesopotamian literary texts and is thought to represent abundance.^37
Also discovered near Queen Puabi’s remains was an assemblage of thousands of tiny
lapis lazuli beads and gold ornaments representing stags, gazelles, bulls, goats, and plants.
Wooley assumed that the beads had once been sewn onto a cloth strip backing, and the
gold ornaments had originally been fixed on top of the beads. He therefore assembled the
ornaments onto a single “diadem,” a detail of which is shown in Figure 5.6 A.^38 In the sec-
tion shown, an upright fruit- bearing stalk is at the center flanked by a goat and a gazelle.
Next are two twig- like structures and a pair of clusters of three spherical fruits. Wooley
was unsure of the identity of the fruits at the center, but thought they resembled olives. He
identified the two upright twig- like structures as wheat stalks.
Wooley’s original reconstruction of Queen Puabi’s diadem has since undergone a radi-
cal revision. Zettler and Horne have concluded that Wooley mistakenly combined several
smaller pieces into a single diadem.^39 But, more importantly from our standpoint, Naomi
Miller of the University of Pennsylvania has reinterpreted three of the botanical orna-
ments: the “fruit stalk” and the two so- called “wheat stalks.”^40 Both of these had been fixed
onto the cloth by Wooley in an upright orientation (Figure 5.6A), but Miller identified small
loops at the ends of these structures, indicating that they are actually designed as pendants.