Ubaidian culture

   The name given by modern scholars to the culture, or civilization, that occupied Mesopotamia (especially in the south) immediately before the rise of the Sumerians and their creation of the first cities. The term was coined after Tell al-Ubaid, a site not far from Ur, which began as a Ubaid-ian settlement and later became a Su-merian town. The Ubaidian ruins at Tell al-Ubaid and Ur were first excavated by H.R. Hall and Charles Leonard Woolley in the 1920s. Later major investigations of Ubaidian culture were undertaken by noted archaeologists Seton Lloyd and Fuad Safar.

   The term Ubaidian is also used to denote the historical period in which the Ubaidian culture thrived. All scholars agree that this period should be seen as a subdivision of the larger Chalcolithic period, lasting roughly from 6000 to 3500 b.c. The Chalcolithic has been nicknamed the copper-bronze-stone era of Mesopotamia because it was a transitional phase in which people were still using stone tools and weapons but at the same time developing crude copper and bronze ones. However, there is little agreement on the exact dating of the Ubaidian period, which overlapped somewhat with the earlier Halaf period of northeastern Syria and northern Mesopotamia. Estimates by various experts include circa 5500 to 4000 b.c., circa 4500 to 3500 b.c., and circa 5000 to 4000 b.c., among others.

   Whatever the proper dating of the culture may be, it is clear that the Ubaid-ians were among the first people to settle on the alluvial plains of Mesopotamia, particularly along the lower Euphrates River near the Persian Gulf. For that reason, some scholars refer to the Ubaid-ians as Proto-Euphrateans. The exact origins of the Ubaidians are unknown, but it is probable that they either were migrants from the Fertile Crescent (the highlands lying along the northern rim of Mesopotamia) or were a mix of these migrants and peoples from other nearby regions. Archaeologists have established that, with a single-known exception, all of the Ubaidian villages occupied sites that had never before been built on.

   The Ubaidians maintained largely a village culture, which is evident by the fact that most of their settlements remained villages throughout the period; still, a few did attain populations of perhaps five thousand by the fourth millennium b.c., thereby qualifying them as small towns. Each village consisted of a group of small houses made from hard-packed earth and/or reeds. Toward the end of the period, sun-dried mud bricks began to be used along with the cruder materials. These homes lined narrow, unpaved alleyways. A typical village also featured a few larger structures, including storage facilities for grain and other foodstuffs. There was also sometimes a central earthen mound with a small building at its summit. Scholars think the building was a primitive temple and that the combination of mound and temple was an early form of the ziggurat, later a common feature of Mesopotamian cities. Three such early temples were discovered at Tepe Gawra in northern Mesopotamia.

   Although it is doubtful that the Ubaid-ian villages had any centralized authority, archaeological evidence, including pottery and other products, shows that they traded with one another, as did the Halaf villages. Ubaidian pottery went through two main phases. In the first, the bowls, cups, figurines and other items were highly decorated with hand-painted geometric patterns in brown and black; later, however, pottery was simpler, less decorated, and more utilitarian. Meanwhile, the Ubaidians sustained themselves by growing wheat, barley, and lentils and raising livestock, including sheep, goats, and cattle. Nothing substantial is known about their social structure or customs.

   It is also unclear how some of the Ubaidian sites became Sumerian cities. Some scholars think that the local Ubaid-ians simply became the more sophisticated Sumerians over time; others suggest that the Sumerians were outsiders who arrived in the area in the fourth millennium b.c. and steadily and swiftly absorbed the native population. Whichever of these scenarios is closer to the truth, the Sumerian sites of Ur, Larsa, Nippur, Lagash, Adab, Eridu, and Kish all began as Ubaidian villages and later grew into full-fledged Su-merian cities. And the cultural influence of the Ubaidians on the Sumerians was significant to say the least. As Yale University scholar Karen R. Nemet-Nejat points out:

   The Sumerians borrowed from them the names for occupations such as farmer, herdsman, fisherman, potter, carpenter, metalworker, leather worker, mason, weaver, basket maker, merchant, and priest. Other non-Sumerian words [that the Sumerians borrowed from the Ubaidians] include those for plow, furrow, palm, and date. Clearly, the development of these skills can be credited to these early settlers. (Daily Life in Ancient Mesopotamia, pp. 13-14)

   See also: farming; Fertile Crescent; Halaf culture; pottery; Sumerians; Tell al-Ubaid; Woolley, Charles Leonard