Ubaid Period

ABSTRACT: This lecture begins with an overview of Ubaid Culture, especially during the Late Ubaid period, including temples (e.g., Eridu), housing, and material culture. It continues with an initial brief overview of Uruk Culture and early urbanization in the Near East, summarizes some of the trends during the Uruk period, and then shifts to the Mid-Late Uruk period of expansion, including Susa (Southwest Iran), Gawra Culture (especially at Tepe Gawra), northern Mesopotamia (looking briefly at Tell Brak), and the Upper Euphrates. Starting with Habuba Kabira, Uruk culture's expansion and/or influence is examined further along the Upper Euphrates, visiting Hacinebi B, Hassek Hoyuk, Arslantepe, and Norsuntepe, while brief mention is made of the minimal Uruk culture contact and influence in the early Kura Araxes culture (eastern Anatolia; especially at Sos Hoyuk). This assessment of Uruk cultural contact and/or influence looks at Chalcolithic (Ghassulian) to Early Bronze Age I period Palestine, and late Predynastic through early Dynasty 1 Egypt. The overview switches briefly to viewing Egyptian contact with and influence in Palestine, Syria and possibly Mesopotamia during the Uruk period. REVISED: Adding 6 slides, new text, revised text and new formatting (completed Spring 2020, uploaded in Fall 2020). UPDATED: 2022 Spring offering.

Yukarı Dicle Vadisi, 1900 km uzunluğu ile tüm Mezopotamya boyunca akan Dicle
Nehri’nin Türkiye’nin Güneydoğu Anadolu Bölgesi içerisinde oluşturduğu
vadilerden biridir. Ülkemizde bir kalkınma projesi olarak Ilısu Barajı’nın inşasının
gündeme gelmesi ile arkeolojik açıdan son 30 yıldır araştırılmaya başlanan
vadideki arkeolojik merkezlerin Kalkolitik Döneme ait materyal kültürlerinin bir
bölümünü de ölü gömme gelenekleri oluşturmaktadır. Bu geleneğin en
karakteristik özelliği vadinin yerel Kalkolitik kültürüne ait olmasının bir getirisi
olarak yapıların temelleri ve tabanları altına gömülen urne türü kapların içerisine
defnedilen bebek iskeletleridir. Bu ve diğer Kalkolitik materyal kültür geleneği
araştırmacılar için vadideki Kalkolitik dönem karakteristiği, kronoloji ve terminoloji
problemleri konusunda önemli bilgiler vermektedir.

The present article, describing the Ubaid pottery, is the final chapter of the study on the excavations of Tell Hassan, Hamrin valley, Iraq. Unlike the Halaf sequence, extensively analyzed in the previous issue of Mesopotamia, the Ubaid material was mostly found in an unstratified, deeply eroded context. However, the characters of shapes, fabric and decoration concur to assign the material to a single, Ubaid III phase.

Il presente articolo, che descrive la ceramica di epoca Obeid, è l'ultima parte dello studio di scavo e materiali del sito di Tell Hassan, valle di Hamrin, Iraq.  A differenza della ceramica Halaf, pubblicata sullo scorso volume di Mesopotamia, il materiale Obeid è stato ritrovato in contesti non stratificati. Tuttavia, i caratteri formali, tecnologici e decorativi concorrono ad attribuire il corpus a un'omogenea fase Obeid 3.

Ubaid pottery was famously recorded by H. R. Hall during the excavation of a tell mound at Al cUbaid, and for nearly half a century became associated with the origins of urbanisation and developments in social hierarchy in southern Mesopotamia. The discovery in 1968 of cUbaid pottery around the western Gulf littoral, some 1,000km to the south of Mesopotamia, raised questions regarding the nature of interaction between these two societies. This paper considers the origins of this interaction and the effects of geomorphology, hydrology and the palaeoenvironment on regional migration. The extent to which topography and marine transgression were a catalyst for migration is also discussed, and how, or if such factors influenced post-transgression settlement dynamics.

Dravidian might be a cult language of the Anatolian Neolithic and Vinča because of the Dravidian relations of the Linear A, B signs, substrate words in Greek and Dacian, and the Tărtăria tablets. The Karanovo IV bearded figurines very similar to the Harappan ones and contemporary of the Vinča may be interpreted as an additional argument.

Chapter Two in Globalization in prehistory : Contact, Exchange, and the "People Without History", ed.s Boivin N. & Frachetti M., Cambridge University Press. The chapter examines intensified communication during the 6th-5th millennia BC in the Middle East through the lens of globalisation, including a consideration of the role of watercraft in promoting a collapse of space and journey times, and the importance of a shared symbolic language of material culture across the region during the Ubaid Period. Particular attention is paid to interactions between the peoples of southern Mesopotamia and eastern Arabia.

Notes: There are highly educated scholars on prehistory of Eurasia which probably will seriously advance in theory of research and interpretation of the archaeological records in the next one-two decades. From past we have learned that neither mass material nor simplified theories can describe prehistory in way to satisfy both readers and authors. Even after most dedicated research, the result is usually so modest that the authors may turn for while to another field of science for fresh air and to accumulate more intellectual energy until the next dig in prehistory.
Also, the global serious researchers on prehistory know that most difficult part is to connect the different regions. The article by G. J. Stein connects South Mesopotamia with North and Eastern Anatolia to study the archaeological material as a source for an analysis of the level of social complexity. This is very significant connection for the Eurasian researchers, especially for those who study the genesis of the Early Bronze Age in Eurasia.
Stein has a chronological table but probably in future will explain why LC4 and LCS are Chalcolithic and not at least partially Early Bronze Age. The fourth millennium cal BCE in Eurasia is generally the end of Copper Age and the genesis of Bronze Age in central Eurasia with different lower borders for beginning and abt 3000 cal BCE (the beginning of Troy I) as the end of the period.
The second problem is whether in future we need to keep the term complex society as a basic scientific term with specific contents or we need a new terminology. In fact each society is complex. Stein refers to the so-called social inequality – a term that we need to forget if we want to move the science ahead. Social inequality means nothing even if there is a law which gives some privileges of some. The inequality is an abstract term – do we write about social formalized privileges, law-gaps which allow rich gangs, or about societal elite members who become wealth thanks to their talent, hard work, and abilities? Should we put all these categories in one abstract term to look like the past Marxists whose role was more to make science dark for truth and wiseness? In fact the so-called social inequality exists as biological even between the different genders – male and women who are physically unequal. So, the social inequality cannot be a marker of complexity as a specific category, since it is natural together with complex society. Society can be very simple but with high difference according to wealth – so many examples in Africa! Dictatorship also simplifies society, although wealth creates big differences.
G. J. Good term looks formalized leadership, but where there is a political centralization, social hierarchy (based on wealth and social position) and the so-called economic stratification, we may need to think about state or chiefdom. In other words, every society is complex (although in different way), but it has different political structure (the classic hierarchy would be band, tribe, chiefdom and state).
The figurines on Fig 2 will make some specialists acknowledge that the mobile and semi-mobile communities of Chernavoda I Cernavoda III have at least typological similarities with distance cultures to southeast. At it is well known, the Balkan/Pontic – Anatolian/Mesopotamia relationships in the 5th – 4th millennium still need advance in the research.
Stein writes on p. 135: “Mortuary evidence suggests the emergence of hereditary elite social status in the LC2. If correctly dated, the burials and “libn” tombs at Gawra indicate the presence of wealthy elites – including children whose rich grave goods suggest inherited high status.” From theoretical perspectives the statement is partially true:1. So many examples show that rich children’s  burials may result in the fact that the family buried lovely child and the gifts expressed this love without being a real indicator of the family’s wealth; 2. Wealth does not equal elite. As in the contemporary world, in prehistory accumulation of wealth was a private matter or related to specific political system. The term elite in social science would mean either a moral category or a status category. If we accept the status interpretation, obviously in human society not every rich had high social/political status – the typical instance is Vassil Bozhkov who is known as the Skull, as well as the Italian and current Eastern European Mafia. They may attempt to get high social status, but any public attempt creates a wall of social negative response, since the social status is a moral value and obtaining high social status based on wealth is not a privilege of everyone. There is no reason to believe in Prehistory was different.  There were many rich people (probably more than today) but only some of them attempted elite social status as a leadership or political status, and some might have attempted but never got it. So, we don’t need to idealize prehistory especially when there are no written records. Most importantly, high social/political status does not require wealth in human society.
L.N.

The article describes the Late Ubaid pottery found in the site of Tell Abu Husseini, excavated by the Iraqi-Italian Rescue Mission in Jebel Hamrin, Iraq.
Il materiale qui pubblicato costituisce il corredo ceramico del sito Tardo Obeid di  Tell Abu Husseini, oggi situato nel bacino sommerso dalla diga sulla Diyala nella regione del Jebel Hamrin, Iraq.

Kendale Hecala is located on the Ambar River in the Upper Tigris Basin, province of Diyarbakır in Southeast Anatolia. Various raw materials, including obsidian, radiolarite, chert, jasper, chalcedony, and quartzite, were used in the lithic industry. Obsidian artefacts constitute an average of 64% of the chipped stone assemblage. Technological analysis reveals that obsidian was brought to the settlement as nodules and chipped into various tools at the settlement. Understanding the operational sequence of the lithic industry, chaîne opératoire, including the distribution of raw material from source to site, is important to demonstrate the socio-cultural organization of the settlement in Southeastern Anatolia during the Ubaid period. In order to identify source varieties, the obsidian artefacts uncovered from Ubaid layers of Kendale Hecala were analyzed by macroobservations, and the characterization of archaeological samples was performed using a handheld XRF. Multivariate analysis of the data indicates the use of obsidian from different resources at the settlement, including Nemrut Dağ, Bingöl B, and Group 3d.

The frieze found in the painting of a bowl in one of the burials of the Halaf epoch at Tell Arpachiyah in Iraq became at once an object of discussion concerning its content, however none of the solutions proposed for this complex problem became the final one, in particular, because of the lack of parallels.
Hypothetically, a “hunting” scene engraved on an anthropomorphous stele from the village of Kernosovka in the Northern Pontic steppe may be considered as such a parallel. In the center of the scene, a struggle of an anthropomorphic creature against aggressive adversaries (two dogs instead of the feline on the frieze) is represented. The purpose of two vertically positioned axes corresponds to the square in the frieze and is interpreted as a representation of the entrance/gateposts similarly to paired spear-like figures in paintings on bowls from Susa I. The non- predatory animals escaping (?), a heifer and a turtle, shown behind the attacking predators were the goals of the “hunters” in both of the two compositions. This subject apparently was known in the Majkop Culture, where in one of the tombs, two “ceremonious” axes were found while there were two figurines of dogs by the entrance,

Detailed results of excavations of H3, As-Sabiyah, a coastal site in Kuwait. Includes early boat remains and evidence for interaction between the Ubaid Mesopotamia and Neolithic Arabia. Also abundant information on Arabian Neolithic architecture, economy and subsistence practices.

Originally coined to signify a style of pottery in southern Iraq, and by extension an associated people and a chronological period, the term" Ubaid" is now often used loosely to denote a vast Near Eastern interaction zone, characterized by similarities in material culture, particularly ceramic styles, which existed during the sixth and fifth millennia BC This zone extended over 2,000 km from the shores of the Mediterranean to the Straits of Hormuz, including parts of Anatolia and perhaps even the Caucasus. The volume contains twenty- ...

Titled as ”Güvercinkayası settlement in the context of the Ubaid cultural expansion: The Interaction of Güvercinkayası and the Ubaid”, the thesis focuses on situating and ascertaining the qualities of the material findings from the IIIrd layer of Güvercikayası that relatively dates to the end of the Middle Chalcolitic Period and the begining of the Late Chalcolitic Period pertaining to the Ubaid horizon. Within this framework, all the findings which belong to the IIIrd layer (architectural aspects, pottery, small findings and pot burials) were prioritized as they were investigated in regards of their types and defined accordingly. Questioning aspects of cultural interaction as well as cultural continuity, the study also brings forth the relationship of the area with aspects of the Middle Chalcolithic. With this methodological approach, it became possible to compare interregional as well as supra-regional morphological and chronological relations.

The Ubaid Culture, which originated in Southern Mesopotamia first came up at the beginning of the 6th millennium B.C. reaching North Mesopotamia and inner regions of Anatolia from the beginning of the 5th millennium. The exit and the arrival point of the culture presents a wide range both geographically and temporally. Therefore, the material remains of the settlements were inspected in a stratified manner; focusing on both the earliest and the latest periods for a better understanding of the interactions that span wide areas. The settlements were reviewed in terms of their characteristics as local, hybrid or as typically Ubaid, maintaining an outlook that seeks their relations between each other, with the end goal of determining the place and the role of Güvercinkayası in this broad picture.

The authors explore aspects of a well uncovered at Tel Tsaf, Israel, dating to the Middle Chalcolithic
Period, ca. 4800 cal b.c. The well was uncovered in close proximity to the settlement of Tel
Tsaf, shedding light on the hydraulic technology of the community. An exceptionally rich assemblage
of complete vessels has been found in situ at the bottom of the shaft. The ceramics show two
distinct typological features uncommon to other assemblages of the Middle Chalcolithic: double
paired handles and the so-called beakers, a new ceramic shape dominant in this assemblage. We
argue that the ceramic assemblage comprises task-specific vessel shapes designed for drawing water
from a well. The examples from Tel Tsaf are currently the earliest of their kind.

Originally coined to signify a style of pottery in southern Iraq, and by extension an associated people and a chronological period, the term "Ubaid" is now often used loosely to denote a vast Near Eastern interaction zone, characterized by similarities in material culture, particularly ceramic styles, which existed during the sixth and fifth millennia B.C. This zone extended over 2,000 km from the shores of the Mediterranean to the Straits of Hormuz, including parts of Anatolia and perhaps even the Caucasus. The volume contains twenty-three papers that explore what the "Ubaid" is, how it is identified, and how the Ubaid in one location compares to another in a distant location.

The papers are the result of The Ubaid Expansion? Cultural Meaning, Identity and the Lead-up to Urbanism, an International Workshop held at Grey College, University of Durham, 20-22 April 2006.

Kendale Hecala is located on the Ambar River in the Upper Tigris Basin, province of Diyarbakır in Southeast Anatolia. Various raw materials, including obsidian, radiolarite, chert, jasper, chalcedony, and quartzite, were used in the lithic industry. Obsidian artefacts constitute an average of 64% of the chipped stone assemblage. Technological analysis reveals that obsidian was brought to the settlement as nodules and chipped into various tools at the settlement. Understanding the operational sequence of the lithic industry, chaîne opératoire, including the distribution of raw material from source to site, is important to demonstrate the socio-cultural organization of the settlement in Southeastern Anatolia during the Ubaid period. In order to identify source varieties, the obsidian artefacts uncovered from Ubaid layers of Kendale Hecala were analyzed by macro-observations, and the characterization of archaeological samples was performed using a handheld XRF. Multivariate analysis of...

Study focused on the off-mound Late-post Ubaid site nearby Tilbes Höyük. Excavated since Fall 2000 until 2003 season. Now under the waters of the Birecik Dam. The painted Pottery shares some "Halafication" roots, even if we are talking about materials to be set on a very later Ubaid 4 and post-Ubaid (from Southern Ubaid chronology). Interesting "Terminal Ubaid" site. Similar materials yielded also from our current excavations at Surtepe. So, it seems those materials are common at a few sites on Birecik-Mid Turkish Euphrates.

Originally coined to signify a style of pottery in southern Iraq, and by extension an associated people and a chronological period, the term" Ubaid" is now often used loosely to denote a vast Near Eastern interaction zone, characterized by similarities in material culture, particularly ceramic styles, which existed during the sixth and fifth millennia BC This zone extended over 2,000 km from the shores of the Mediterranean to the Straits of Hormuz, including parts of Anatolia and perhaps even the Caucasus. The volume contains twenty- ...