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Ubaid period
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Ubaid period
The Ubaid period (c. 5500–3700 BC) is a prehistoric period of Mesopotamia. The name derives from Tell al-'Ubaid where the earliest large excavation of Ubaid period material was conducted initially in 1919 by Henry Hall, Leonard Woolley in 1922–1923, and later by Pinhas Delougaz in 1937. Excavations continue into the present day.
In Southern Mesopotamia, this period marks the earliest known human settlements on the alluvial plain, although it is likely earlier periods exist that are obscured under the alluvium. In the south it has a very long duration between about 5500 and 3800 BC when it is replaced by the Uruk period.
In Northern Mesopotamia the period runs only between about 5300 and 4300 BC. It is preceded by the Halaf period and the Halaf-Ubaid Transitional period and succeeded by the Late Chalcolithic period.
The excavators of Eridu and Tell al-'Ubaid found Ubaid pottery for the first time in the 1910-1920s. In 1930, the attendees at a conference in Baghdad defined the concept of an "Ubaid pottery style". This characteristic pottery of this style was a black-on-buff painted ware. This conference also defined the Eridu and Hajji Muhammed styles. Scholars at this conference mistakenly thought that these pottery styles were so different that "[...] they could not have developed out of the old, as is the case with the Uruk ware after the al-'Ubaid ware [...]". For many attendants of the conference, "this sequence based largely on pottery represented a series of different 'ethnic elements' in the occupation of southern Mesopotamia." These ideas about the nature of the Ubaid style phenomenon did not last. The term "Ubaid" is still used, but its meaning has changed over time.
Joan Oates demonstrated in 1960 that the Eridu and Hajji Muhammed styles were not distinct at all. Instead, they were part of the greater Ubaid phenomenon. She proposed a chronological framework that divides the Ubaid period in four phases. Other scholars later proposed two more phases, zero and five.
Scholars in the 1930s only knew a few Ubaid sites. These included the type site of Tell al-'Ubaid, Ur, and in the north, Tepe Gawra. Since then, archaeologists have discovered Ubaid material culture throughout the ancient Near East. There are now Ubaid sites in the Amuq Valley in the northwest and all the way to the Persian Gulf coast in the southeast. Important research includes the many excavations in the Hamrin area in the 1970s. There, archaeologists found a complete Ubaid settlement at Tell Abada, and a very well-preserved house at Tell Madhur. The excavation at Tell el-'Oueili in the 1980s revealed occupation layers that were older than those from Eridu. This discovery pushed back the date for the earliest human occupation of Lower Mesopotamia.
Excavations along southern coast of the Persian Gulf provided a great deal of evidence for contacts with Mesopotamia. The site of H3 in Kuwait, for example, provided the earliest evidence in the world for seafaring. The explosion of archaeological research in Iraqi Kurdistan since the 2010s also led to discovery of even more new data on the Ubaid. For example, this research demonstrated that cultural links between the Shahrizor Plain and the Hamrin area farther south were stronger than those with the north.
Mesopotamia does not have local, high-resolution climate proxy records such as those found at the Soreq Cave in Israel. This makes it difficult to reconstruct the region's past climate. Even so, it is known that the environment during the sixth and fifth millennium BC was not the same as today. A more temperate climate settled in around 10,000 BC. Marshy and riverine areas transformed into floodplains and finally, river banks with trees. The area south of Baghdad may have been inhabitable by humans in the eleventh millennium BC, but current evidence indicates that humans could have lived south of Uruk as early as the eighth millennium BC. This is much earlier than what had been the oldest evidence of human occupation in this area. The oldest known site in southern Mesopotamia (Tell el-'Oueili) dates to the Ubaid 0 period. Archaeobotanical research in the Ubaid 0 levels at 'Oueili (6500-6000 BC) has indicated the presence of Euphrates poplar and sea clubrush, both indicative of a wetland environment. As a result of changes in sea-level, the shoreline of the Persian Gulf during the Ubaid was different from that of today. At the beginning of the Ubaid, around 6500 BC, the shoreline at Kuwait may have run slightly farther south. During the subsequent 2.5 millennia, the shoreline moved farther northward, up to the ancient city of Ur around 4000 BC.
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Ubaid period
The Ubaid period (c. 5500–3700 BC) is a prehistoric period of Mesopotamia. The name derives from Tell al-'Ubaid where the earliest large excavation of Ubaid period material was conducted initially in 1919 by Henry Hall, Leonard Woolley in 1922–1923, and later by Pinhas Delougaz in 1937. Excavations continue into the present day.
In Southern Mesopotamia, this period marks the earliest known human settlements on the alluvial plain, although it is likely earlier periods exist that are obscured under the alluvium. In the south it has a very long duration between about 5500 and 3800 BC when it is replaced by the Uruk period.
In Northern Mesopotamia the period runs only between about 5300 and 4300 BC. It is preceded by the Halaf period and the Halaf-Ubaid Transitional period and succeeded by the Late Chalcolithic period.
The excavators of Eridu and Tell al-'Ubaid found Ubaid pottery for the first time in the 1910-1920s. In 1930, the attendees at a conference in Baghdad defined the concept of an "Ubaid pottery style". This characteristic pottery of this style was a black-on-buff painted ware. This conference also defined the Eridu and Hajji Muhammed styles. Scholars at this conference mistakenly thought that these pottery styles were so different that "[...] they could not have developed out of the old, as is the case with the Uruk ware after the al-'Ubaid ware [...]". For many attendants of the conference, "this sequence based largely on pottery represented a series of different 'ethnic elements' in the occupation of southern Mesopotamia." These ideas about the nature of the Ubaid style phenomenon did not last. The term "Ubaid" is still used, but its meaning has changed over time.
Joan Oates demonstrated in 1960 that the Eridu and Hajji Muhammed styles were not distinct at all. Instead, they were part of the greater Ubaid phenomenon. She proposed a chronological framework that divides the Ubaid period in four phases. Other scholars later proposed two more phases, zero and five.
Scholars in the 1930s only knew a few Ubaid sites. These included the type site of Tell al-'Ubaid, Ur, and in the north, Tepe Gawra. Since then, archaeologists have discovered Ubaid material culture throughout the ancient Near East. There are now Ubaid sites in the Amuq Valley in the northwest and all the way to the Persian Gulf coast in the southeast. Important research includes the many excavations in the Hamrin area in the 1970s. There, archaeologists found a complete Ubaid settlement at Tell Abada, and a very well-preserved house at Tell Madhur. The excavation at Tell el-'Oueili in the 1980s revealed occupation layers that were older than those from Eridu. This discovery pushed back the date for the earliest human occupation of Lower Mesopotamia.
Excavations along southern coast of the Persian Gulf provided a great deal of evidence for contacts with Mesopotamia. The site of H3 in Kuwait, for example, provided the earliest evidence in the world for seafaring. The explosion of archaeological research in Iraqi Kurdistan since the 2010s also led to discovery of even more new data on the Ubaid. For example, this research demonstrated that cultural links between the Shahrizor Plain and the Hamrin area farther south were stronger than those with the north.
Mesopotamia does not have local, high-resolution climate proxy records such as those found at the Soreq Cave in Israel. This makes it difficult to reconstruct the region's past climate. Even so, it is known that the environment during the sixth and fifth millennium BC was not the same as today. A more temperate climate settled in around 10,000 BC. Marshy and riverine areas transformed into floodplains and finally, river banks with trees. The area south of Baghdad may have been inhabitable by humans in the eleventh millennium BC, but current evidence indicates that humans could have lived south of Uruk as early as the eighth millennium BC. This is much earlier than what had been the oldest evidence of human occupation in this area. The oldest known site in southern Mesopotamia (Tell el-'Oueili) dates to the Ubaid 0 period. Archaeobotanical research in the Ubaid 0 levels at 'Oueili (6500-6000 BC) has indicated the presence of Euphrates poplar and sea clubrush, both indicative of a wetland environment. As a result of changes in sea-level, the shoreline of the Persian Gulf during the Ubaid was different from that of today. At the beginning of the Ubaid, around 6500 BC, the shoreline at Kuwait may have run slightly farther south. During the subsequent 2.5 millennia, the shoreline moved farther northward, up to the ancient city of Ur around 4000 BC.
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