These photographs are displayed at a reduced scale (426 x 217 pixels) to fit on the web page, with a resultant loss of image quality. The details of the chariot are best seen in the high-resolution enlargements of the photos:
The pictures on this page are high-resolution photographic reconstructions of two of the damaged chariots displayed on the Standard of Ur. Of the four chariots depicted on the bottom register (row) of the standard, only this one was usable in its original form; even though it is also heavily damaged. This is the first time in 4,500 years that the chariots can be seen in something resembling their original condition.
To get some idea of the magnitude of these high-resolution photographs: Each chariot and team of horses on the Standard of Ur is a little over 4 inches long and 2 inches high; which is coincidentally the same size as the picture seen above. If the high-resolution photograph of chariot #1 was printed to full scale, at 100 pixels per inch, it would be 26.6 by 13.6 inches, more than six times larger than the original chariot.
Chariot #1:
I did a few minor touch-ups to repair some, but not all, of the damage done to the figures. This damage was both ancient and modern (when the photographs are seen in high-resolution, there's a surprising number of gobs of modern glue on the Standard of Ur). Perhaps the most noticeable change is the restoration of the horse heads. The original heads were too damaged to reconstruct using Microsoft Paint, so I simply substituted the horse heads (after some re-sizing and re-coloration) from the king’s chariot displayed in the top register. I say "simply", but it took me all day to do it. At first I had the horse heads tilted slightly more forward than the original. Normally, this would be just a minor detail, but there's a reason why the artist has the horse heads tilted back. It's to show that the horses are being held back by the reins. As shown in the chariot attack, the chariot starts out with the driver sitting down and the horses are cantering. Then the horses are running, and the driver is standing up. Next the horses are in a full gallop, and then they're rearing up, and in each successive scene the horse heads are tilted further forward to convey the increasing speed and impetuous of the attack. I realized that I needed to adhere to the intent of the original artist, so I spent another half day correcting the angle of the horse heads for chariot #1.
Note: I use the generic term "horses", but they are actually "onagers": asses or donkeys.
Curiously, this perfectly shaped arrowhead is on the upper left trim of chariot #1, next to the driver. It seems to be more than just random spotting, and there is nothing else like it on the Standard of Ur.
The other noticeable change is restoration of the soldiers’ battleaxes. From the position of their hands and the diagonal lines across their shoulders, it is obvious that both soldiers are carrying some kind of weapon. The lines are too short to represent spears, so the other choices would be swords, battleaxes, and maces (war clubs). None of the soldiers on the Standard of Ur are equipped with swords except for the king. Although maces are shown in each chariot, none of the men are shown using them (although the damaged figures of the drivers in chariots #3 and #4 may be wielding maces). Since the soldiers in the top register are shown with either spears or battleaxes (or both), battleaxes seems the logical choice for the weapons carried by the soldiers in chariot #1. Of course, there's no gaurantee that both soldiers are carrying the same weapons; one soldier could be carrying a battleaxe and the other soldier could be carrying a mace. Since it's "six of one and half a dozen of the other", I decided to give both soldiers the same weapon. The battleaxes are two different modifications of the one carried by the soldier accompanying the king’s chariot (below). I also restored the symmetry of the damaged mace head at the bottom of the weapons cluster because in low-resolution photos it had always been mistaken for just another spear.
The king's chariot: The right side of the Standard of Ur's "war" panel is the least damaged of the entire standard. This picture gives some idea of what the standard would have originally looked like. When new, the Standard of Ur would have sparkled like a gem. I modified this picture by editing out the royal prince originally seen walking in front of the horses, in order to concentrate of the image of the chariot itself. For the complete version of this picture, see The Standard of Ur: war side. Detail from a photograph by Mary Harrsch. Enlarge.
The difference between the two pictures is best seen in a side-by-side comparison. As can be seen by the line bisecting the horse's body, this is a composite photograph, made of two separate pictures. All of the high-resolution "before" pictures were generously provided by Michael Greenhalgh and made available by Opencontext.org. Unfortunately, for my purposes, the pictures were taken at slightly different angles and lighting conditions, with some of the figures split in half. It required a considerable amount of cutting, pasting, re-sizing and re-coloring to achieve a consistent image quality for the pictures.
This chariot was so heavily damaged, I was inclined to not even attempt a restoration of it. Fortunately, the outlines of the figures were still visible, so I had something to work with. Had I known what I was getting into, I might have never started this project. Although the restoration may seem a modest improvement over the original, it represents a week of painstaking effort.
For the head of the driver, I modified the face of the soldier from the king’s chariot, which I tilted back to match the original. For the figure of the horses, the head is a composite of the face and nose from the horses of chariot #1, combined with the ears and mane of the original horses (chariot #2) along with a considerable amount of painting and repair of the face and neck area. I also repaired the leather armor of the horses and the woven braid of their collar.
Three spears are shown at the front of the chariot. The front panel of this chariot is narrower than that of chariot #1. It seems to hold only three spears or perhaps two spears and a mace. Three spears and a mace together would be too big to fit within the narrow borders of the panel (unless one of the weapons is partially concealed behind the others). On the other hand, there may be a piece missing from the damaged weapons collection, and the three other chariots are shown with the full array of weapons, even though the four weapons exceed the borders of the front panel. It seemed unlikely that this chariot was the only one with just three weapons, so I have included another version of the picture with the full weapons array:
These restorations are as faithful to the original as I could make them. I didn't add any of my own artwork to the images; I only used the images that were already on the standard, with minimum modifications as needed. Nor did I attempt to repair all the damage done to the chariot scenes, in order to convey a sense of their great antiquity.
Sumerian War Chariot Attack:
The whole purpose of the operation thus far has been to add both chariots together to get some semblance of the original attack scene:
The above photograph is with the full complement of weapons (three spears and a mace) for chariot #2. It is also available with only three spears for the chariot: 50% (2774 x 880 pixels) 100% (5548 x 1760).
The above picture is 8% of its original size. If printed to full scale, the picture would measure 55.5 by 17.6 inches.
I also did a partial restoration of the lead chariot (chariot #4). As explained in The Standard of Ur: war side, this is the king's chariot. It's a partial restoration because most of the figures are too damaged for a complete reconstruction:
The restored pictures of the chariots are copyrighted, but are freely available for personal, academic, and nonprofit use. If using these pictures on a website, a notation should be made that they are modern reconstructions, so they won't be mistaken for the original images.
The "Sumerian War Chariot Attack" gives some idea of the full effect the original scene had when all four chariots could be seen together. When new, the chariot battle scene on the Standard of Ur would have been truly impressive.
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Sumerian chariots were used for shock effect. They charged full speed against the enemy, causing panic in the ranks. The chariots would thus break up the enemy formations. In ancient battles, once an army formation lost its cohesion, it became ineffective. The men could no longer provide mutual support. Individual men, or groups of men, could then be surrounded and killed. In ancient warfare, once the ranks were broken, a defeat easily became a rout, with disproportionally high casualty rates for the losing side. Chariots were also used to pursue and kill the fleeing enemy. In later wars, the cavalry was used for the purpose. The Sumerians, however, didn't have cavalry because the horses were too small to carry a rider.
Sumerian war chariots were constructed of woven reed and wicker formed over a wood frame. The wheels of the chariot are two semi-circles of solid wood pinned together in the middle, rather that the lighter, spoked wheels of later chariot designs. Although the words "chariot" and "horses" are used, the terms are slightly misleading. The "horses" are donkeys, much smaller than a modern horse, which is the reason why four of them are need to pull a chariot, rather than just two horses. Another reason is the fact that a Sumerian chariot is a four-wheeled vehicle, not two-wheeled like a standard chariot, and it's therefore much heavier. A Sumerian "war chariot" would more aptly be called a "war wagon", although the terms are often used interchangeably.
Chariot #1, before 
Chariot #1, after
Curiously, this perfectly shaped arrowhead is on the upper left trim of chariot #1, next to the driver. It seems to be more than just random spotting, and there is nothing else like it on the Standard of Ur. 
Chariot #2, before 
Chariot #2, after
