The following is an account of a short investigation carried out under the auspices of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago at Al-‘Ubaid in January 1937.
Excavations on this site have previously been undertaken by other institutions; some explanation is therefore necessary of the origin and circumstances of our short campaign.
In the course of the Oriental Institute's exploration of the Dyala region, not only was the existence of early Sumerian civilization established at several sites in this comparatively northern part of Babylonia, but successive stages in its development were revealed and could be studied in detail. At Khafaje it was with this problem that we were mainly occupied for seven successive seasons.
The uniformity of the material culture as found at these sites and at others located in Sumer proper soon became apparent, and was confirmed by innumerable cases of obvious resemblance between individual discoveries. It, therefore, seemed not unreasonable to expect a similar uniformity to appear in contemporary architectural remains.