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CHAPTER XVI - THE EARLY DYNASTIC PERIOD IN MESOPOTAMIA
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- By Sir Max E. L. Mallowan, Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, and Emeritus Professor of Western Asiatic Archaeology in the University of London
- Edited by I. E. S. Edwards, C. J. Gadd, N. G. L. Hammond
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- Book:
- The Cambridge Ancient History
- Published online:
- 28 March 2008
- Print publication:
- 31 October 1971, pp 238-314
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Summary
BABYLONIA: ARCHAEOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT
An earlier chapter (XIII) has described the historical development of the cities in Babylonia and their cultural background. Here we must concentrate on the archaeological evidence, for this is by far the richest source for the study of man's development in the Early Dynastic period. Indeed, when we come to discuss developments in Assyria and Mesopotamia proper, historical records are so scarce that the archaeological evidence becomes our primary source of reference.
The Early Dynastic period of Babylonia has been divided into three parts and the archaeological development has been traced through an exhaustive analysis of stratified objects. At present the most satisfactory ground for this study is the Diyālā valley, where extensive excavations have provided a detailed and continuous relationship between buildings and the small finds associated with them. The principal objects were cylinder seals, pottery, sculpture and metal. Each category was subjected to stylistic examination and compared with similar material from sites outside the Diyālā valley. In the Diyālā district itself no mound proved more rewarding than Khafājī, where the long sequence of ‘Sin Temples’ could be related to many other less complete sequences of religious and domestic buildings discovered there and elsewhere.
The analysis of style is, however, complicated by the fact that development did not proceed pari passu everywhere. Thus solid-footed clay goblets which were used in the Uruk-Jamdat Nasr period at Warka, Ur and Nippur did not appear before Early Dynastic I on the Diyālā the same observation applies to reserved slip ware. Archaic seals frequently occur in contexts much later than those to which they originally belonged.
Chapter VIII - The Development of Cities From Al-‘Ubaid to the End of Uruk 5
- Edited by I. E. S. Edwards, C. J. Gadd, N. G. L. Hammond
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- Book:
- The Cambridge Ancient History
- Published online:
- 28 March 2008
- Print publication:
- 02 December 1970, pp 327-462
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- Chapter
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Summary
I. BABYLONIA AND MESOPOTAMIA
TERMINOLOGY
Al-‘Ubaid is a small site which lies about 4 miles west of Ur along the bank of an ancient canal. There, H. R. Hall and Leonard Woolley were the first to discover and record a prehistoric pottery, hand-turned and decorated with simple designs painted in a dark pigment on a comparatively light ground; the predominating colours were black, green, brown or chocolate on pink or buff and the pots were sometimes slipped, sometimes unslipped. Characteristic of these so called ‘Ubaid wares was a carbonized, dark green, highly vitrified paint which had bitten hard into the clay, the result of over-firing; in the later stages of development this criterion makes ‘Ubaid singularly easy to distinguish. When the excavations revealed that this was a prehistoric pottery, the term ‘Ubaid was applied to it and was also used to define the period and the culture with which it appeared to be distinctively associated.
After the excavations at the site of ‘Ubaid had been concluded, the same type of pottery was discovered in abundance at the neighbouring, and much greater, site of Ur. It soon began to be evident that this ware must have lasted for a long span of time, which Woolley consequently sub-divided into three periods. Later, however, when the Iraq Antiquities Department began to conduct excavations on a wide scale at the great site of Eridu, an even longer sequence, covering four successive periods, was established, and it became possible to classify this pottery into a number of dominant styles which had developed over a span of many centuries.
Deep down at the bottom of Eridu, the decorated pottery was given the name of Eridu ware (or ‘Ubaid 1), and this was succeeded by another variety, Qal’at Hajji Muhammad (or ‘Ubaid 2), named after a type site which is situated near to Warka, and this again was followed by two varieties of ‘Ubaid ware (‘Ubaid 3, 4), which in style came very close to that which had been found in abundance at Ur. Whether we should call the entire series by the generic name of ‘Ubaid is a matter for debate, but on the whole this distinctive and striking pottery does show a homogeneous development, and we may therefore accept the apparent continuity as indicative of a single consistent period of culture.