Ubaid expansion Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

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.

- by Gregory Mumford
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- Archaeology, Near Eastern Archaeology, Anthropology, Near Eastern Studies

While the Uruk Period is generally accepted as the earliest state society in the Near East, assessing the social, political and economic organization of the antecedent Halaf and Ubaid phases has been a matter of longstanding debate. Over-schematized evolutionary categories like “tribes” or “chiefdoms” provide little resolve in characterizing the socio-political complexity of Near Eastern prehistory because they fail to account for the variability these phases encompass. This paper invites us to move beyond typological categories, yet considers issues of political economy and explores conscious strategies towards social complexity between these two well-known phases of Near Eastern prehistory. Located in the Hatay province of southern Turkey, Tell Kurdu has relatively wide horizontal exposures dating both to the Halaf-related and to the Ubaid-related phases, providing a unique opportunity to explore at a single settlement the contrasting levels of social complexity in the sixth and fifth millennia BC.

The Chalcolithic Period in southwest Asia covers over 3,000 years, from the beginning of the sixth to the end of the fourth millennium cal b.c.e . In comparison with the well-researched Neolithic and the Urban Revolutions between which it is sandwiched, the Chalcolithic has received considerably less attention. Because it is geographically part of the Fertile Crescent, the archaeological styles, cultural elements, and developments in southeast Anatolia were closely connected to those in northern Mesopotamia. Trade and economic relations continuing over the millennia and analogous social and political trajectories have contributed to a high degree of regional interdependence. Moreover, the lack of well-defi ned local southeast Anatolian ceramic sequences (excluding perhaps the Amuq region), has resulted in a threefold division of the cultural chronology based on the better defined northern Mesopotamian Halaf, Ubaid, and Uruk or Late Chalcolithic Phases.

The last few decades of research have documented two major periods of expansion by the earliest complex societies of Mesopotamia—the Ubaid ranked polities of the sixth and fifth millennia and the Uruk states of the fourth millennium BC. In both periods, Mesopotamian material culture styles were broadly distributed in neighboring regions of Syria, southeast Anatolia, and Iran. In each case, architectural, ceramic, and artifactual commonalities of the Ubaid and Uruk horizon styles help define an oikumene or interaction sphere. Although some researchers argue that both periods can be explained as eras of Mesopotamian colonial expansion, we argue here that each oikumene had a fundamentally different expansionary dynamic and mode(s) of socioeconomic organization. A contextual analysis comparing different regions shows that the Ubaid expansion took place largely through the peaceful spread of an ideology, leading to the formation of numerous new indigenous identities that appropriated and transformed superficial elements of Ubaid material culture into locally distinct expressions. Volumes of interregional trade were low, and population movements were minimal. By contrast, the Uruk expansion was an actual colonial phenomenon, involving the founding of Mesopotamian trading enclaves among preexisting local polities and emulation by local groups in the so called peripheral areas. Relations between Uruk colonists and local polities varied from coercive to cooperative, depending on the distance from Mesopotamia and the degree of preexisting indigenous social complexity. Once the basic differences between the Ubaid and Uruk oikumenai are recognized, we can develop more accurate models of variation in the political economies of early Mesopotamian complex societies.

- by Rana Özbal
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- Uruk Expansion, Near Eastern Prehistory, Uruk Period, Ubaid expansion

The site of Tell Kurdu, located in the Amuq Valley of southern Turkey, with occupation levels spanning the sixth and fifth millennia BC, offers a prime case study to diachronically investigate the emergence of Ubaid styles from the perspective of a single settlement. Instead of relying on cross-regional and comparative perspectives as is common in Ubaid Period research, this approach allows us to gain insight into the social context of cultural appropriation and to assess how a local community took part in this larger transformation.

- by Rana Özbal
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- Near Eastern Archaeology, Near Eastern Prehistory, Ubaid expansion, Ubaid culture

SUMMARY: Lecture 4 examines the Chalcolithic period in Anatolia, including trends, with more focus on Southeast Anatolia. This lecture is designed mainly as an educational resource for college students (i.e., normally posted only on my institution's course website), the public (e.g., people auditing my course), and interested colleagues from other disciplines (to whom I provide copies privately). I am posting it here, both as a broader access, educational tool, and especially to promote the study of this region and its past societies. For further knowledge about this region and period, I refer interested parties to the textbooks and other sources from which the materials were extracted (see syllabus), and/or the bibliographies in these works and my online resource guides (see other files in my academia folders). The lecture summarizes the pertinent materials in the course textbook(s), adding in other data, and furnishing numerous images to clarify information encountered within the textbook(s). Some generic imagery (usually indicated as such) is posted to aid in transmitting various concepts visually, and/or when a specific image remains not located (temporarily). I update and revise such lectures each time, with such elective courses normally being taught once every two years. I try to cover the most current, mainstream views, and usually place summary notes at the end of each lecture alongside some of the key sources used for compiling the ppt. Over time, each lecture is improved, errors rectified, and additional data placed within the lecture. These ppt. lectures take many hours to compile, but they have proved useful to many of my more serious students and I hope they can be of benefit to others as well. My apologies for any errors I may have made, and my liberal usage of educational imagery from professional sources and vetted internet sources. REVISED: Jan. 2024: More images, new slides and text, and selected sources,

- by Gregory Mumford
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- Ancient History, Archaeology, Near Eastern Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology

This paper originates from the 8th ICAANE. It presents a preliminary report of the excavation seasons 2011 and 2012 in Tell Nader. The archaeological finds are discussed by K. Kopanias, the pottery by C. Beuger, and the anthropological... more

- by Konstantinos Kopanias and +1
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- Near Eastern Archaeology, Anthropology, Pottery (Archaeology), Mesopotamian Archaeology

In February 2015 a joint archaeological expedition of Sapienza Università di Roma and Perugia University started excavations of the site of Tell Zurghul, in the Dhi-Qar, Iraq. The site, briefly investigated by R. Koldewey in 1887, has been identified with the Sumerian city of Nigin, the third city of the State of Lagash, mentioned in many inscriptions of Gudea as the place of the main III millennium BC temple of the goddess Nanshe, the Sirara.
The first survey and excavations of two areas in 2015, Area A and Area B respectively, suggest that the foundation of the city can be dated back at least to the Ubaid Period. The article presents the results of the first campaign analysing the archaeological context and materials from Area B: the recent archaeological activities at Tell Zurghul are therefore presented and contextualized within the regional framework of the ancient State of Lagash, focusing on the development of urbanization and settlement
patterns in Southern Mesopotamia.

- by Andrea Polcaro and +1
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- Near Eastern Archaeology, Mesopotamian Archaeology, Mesopotamia History, Ancient Near East

The Jebel al-Ma'taradh and its surroundings contain exceptional deposits of lithic raw materials, including flint and chert, but especially chalcedony, agate, carnelian, and chrysoprase. These deposits were intensively exploited during the Neolithic, and some of the artefacts produced entered the trade network that included settlements on the coast and inland, sometimes as far as 300 km. During earlier periods, probably as early as the Pleistocene, only flint was used. Between the sixth and the fourth millennia, carnelian and agate were exploited to make beads, which are found in the necropolises and settlements of the UAE.

- by Vincent CHARPENTIER and +1
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- Mining Engineering, Human Geography, Archaeology, Experimental Archaeology

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... more

- by iurii mosenkis
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- Greek Language, Sumerian, Dravidian Linguistics, Sumerian Language
- by Giulio Palumbi and +1
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- Levantine Archaeology, Anatolian Archaeology, Mesopotamian Archaeology, Chalcolithic Archaeology

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.

- by Robert Carter
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- Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology, Globalization, Mesopotamian Archaeology

Analysis of the fish bones from the 5th millennium BC settlement on Akab Island in Umm al-Qaiwain emirate in the United Arab Emirates provides evidence of open ocean fishing. The discovery of numerous bones of tuna, as well as the presence of shell fish hooks at the site, suggests that fishing was at least part of the time carried out from boats in the open sea, beyond the shallow waters of the local lagoon. Some fishing was also carried on in these sheltered waters, and analysis of the molluscan and crab remains indicates that mangrove areas were also exploited. Some comments are made concerning the presence of shell fish hooks at the site, as well as certain types of beads and jewellery, which reinforce the idea of a coherent regional cultural entity during the 5th–4th millennia within this region.

- by Vincent CHARPENTIER and +1
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- Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology, Gulf Studies, Landscape Archaeology
- by Vincent CHARPENTIER
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- Religion, Sumerian Religion, History, Cultural History

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.

- by Remy Crassard
- •
- Archaeology, Palaeoenvironment, Paleoenvironment, Saudi Arabia

This paper originates from the conference "Embodied Identities In The Prehistoric Eastern Mediterranean: Convergence Of Theory And Practices". It discusses an important find of the 2011 excavation season in Tell Nader, namely a single primary inhumation burial from a simple circular kiln reused for the grave of this individual. The kiln was lined with clay, tiles and stone. A middle-aged adult female was recovered from this context. She was found in a prone position with forearms folded beneath her chest and abdomen, and her legs were flexed. Her head was oriented toward the west and her legs were situated to the east. It appeared that she had been placed in the kiln in a rather haphazard manner. In addition to exhibiting evidence for having survived at least one episode of stress early in life based upon the presence of dental linear enamel hypoplasias, this individual also demonstrates a healed depressed fracture from blunt force trauma to the right parietal bone of the cranial vault. Furthermore, a type of cultural modification of the body in the form of headshaping had been practiced from binding her head in infancy. This type of headshaping is commonly observed among individuals from the cultural sphere of the Ubaid in both time period and general region, although the reconstruction of the placement of the bindings does not exactly follow the standard “Byblos a” type proposed by Özbek (1974). A new reconstruction of the positioning of the bindings is proposed that produced this shape It should be noted that these results are preliminary as they are based on only one individual who led an apparently challenging life in northern Mesopotamia during the Ubaid period. Future excavations should help to clarify the practice of headshaping at Tell Nader. Although her persona may have changed during life, particularly after sustaining her cranial trauma, what is understood is that her group identity had been permanently shaped from infancy.

- by Konstantinos Kopanias and +1
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- Prehistoric Archaeology, Anthropology, Mesopotamian Archaeology, Obsidian

Full Reference: Parker, B. J. 2010. “Networks of Interregional Interaction during Mesopotamia's Ubaid Period: A Study Sponsored by the Curtiss T. and Mary G. Brennan Foundation,” in Beyond the Ubaid: Transformation and Integration in the Late Prehistoric Societies of the Middle East, Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilization 63. Edited by R. A. Carter and G. Philip. Pp. 339-360. Chicago: The Oriental Institute.

- by Bradley J Parker
- •
- Archaeology, Ubaid expansion, Upper Tigris Region, Ubaid culture

Preliminary rapport about the activities during season 2004 in 3 sites on Urfa Dam area: Körche (close to Tilbes Höyük) -The Ubaid site-, Surtepe (the EB high mudbrick platform) and Tilvez Höyük (a 3 ha. site during the EB I period). Here is shown a draught plan of one of the bipartite Ubaid buildings found at Körche, plus associated painted pottery photos.

During the Later Prehistory of the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers and adjacent regions, a great cultural spread took place during the Late/Terminal Ubaid phases of Southern Mesopotamia. In the Northern Mesopotamian regions, it happened during the immediate preLate Chalcolithic phases. Excavations in Southeastern Turkey prove a continuity of Ubaid cultural traits at least during the earlier phases of the local Late Chalcolithic (LC1). Two archaeological sites, Surtepe and Tilbes-Körche, close to the Birecik Dam area (Turkish Euphrates) are presented and evaluated here. Surtepe höyük, a 8 ha Late Ubaid settlement that provided Coba bowls, has levels with painted pottery from the late Late Chalcolithic 1 or earlier LC2 phases in an area of at least 4 hectares in south and southwestern slopes. The small site of Tilbes-Körche has probably a bigger interconnected structure and no simple isolated buildings. Among the stone foundations we identify at least one tripartite premise with a surface over 90 m2 and two bipar-tite buildings. From the largest excavated unit (H3-H10) was recovered a stamp seal depicting a crosshatching motif and another token/stamp seal with 8 incised lines. Within LC1 or a transitional phase between it and LC2, the 18% of the pottery found in the Tilbes-Körche buildings was painted and there is a huge abundance of unpainted bowls, which are about half the ceramic ensemble, many with traces of a wheel or slow-wheel, mass-produced bowls, various variants of LC1 flint scraped, and two bowls that most resemble the so-called "flower pots". Resumen Durante la prehistoria reciente de los ríos Éufrates y Tigris y regiones adyacentes, una gran expansión cultural tuvo lugar durante las fases tardías y terminales de Ubaid del sur de Mesopotamia. En las regiones del norte de Mesopotamia, aconteció durante las fases previas del Calcolítico Final. Excavaciones en partes del sureste de Turquía demuestran la continuidad de los rasgos culturales Ubaid, al menos durante las fases más tempra-nas del Calcolítico Final 1 (LC1) local. Aquí se presentan y evalúan algunos sitios arqueológicos, Tilbes Höyük, Tilbes-Körche y Surtepe, cerca del área de la presa Birecik (Éufrates turco). Surtepe höyük, un asentamiento de 8 ha del Ubaid Final que proporcionó cuencos tipo Coba, tiene niveles con cerámicas pintadas de la fase final del LC1 o de comienzos del LC2 en un área de al menos 4 ha en las laderas sur y suroeste. El pequeño asentamiento de Tilbes-Körche tiene probablemente una gran estructura interconectada y no simples edificios aislados. Entre los cimientos de piedra identificamos al menos uno tripartito con una superficie de más de 90 m 2 y dos edificios bipartitos. En la unidad excavada más grande (H3-H10) se recuperó un se-llo que representa un motivo de rayado cruzado y otro sello o token con ocho líneas incisas. Dentro del LC1 o

- by Jesus Fuensanta and +1
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- Near Eastern Archaeology, Mesopotamian Archaeology, Bitumen (Petrochemical Product), Ancient Near East

"The origin and course of the Neolithic on the Arabian Peninsula is the subject of an ongoing academic debate. Faunal data suggest an origin for domestication of animals in the Levant and these can be found in Arabia from the sixth millennium onwards. In contrast, lithic evidence does not support the hypothesis that Neolithic herders, accompanying their herds, spread over the entire Peninsula, as they did not leave significant traces of their material culture. Although Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA)/
PPNB influences can be traced across the northern part of Arabia, it is barely possible to observe them further south. By contrast, lithic technology in this region is characterised by major indigenous developments that might originate from a Pleistocene cultural heritage. By discussing the process of Neolithisation in Arabia from different points of view we can avoid the pitfalls of simplistic or monocausal models as well as preconceptions. Furthermore, we will be able to demonstrate that the Neolithic developed differently in different regions of the Arabian Peninsula."

- by Remy Crassard
- •
- Archaeology, Archaeozoology, Saudi Arabia, Neolithic Archaeology

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,

- by Aleksandr Smirnov
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- Uruk Expansion, Megalithic Art, Ubaid expansion, Kura-Araxes Culture

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.

L' architecture contribue à déterminer, à travers l'évolution des techniques, la teneur des échanges et des relations culturelles entre les sociétés. Cette étude s'est portée sur les communautés sédentaires du bassin syro-mésopotamien et du Caucase entre la fin du VIIe et la fin du Ve millénaire. Pour le bassin syro-mésopotamien, la fin du VIIe millénaire représente l'aboutissement du processus de « néolithisation » au cours duquel semblent émerger des communautés sédentaires organisées, pour certaines, de manière plus « complexe » (Samarra, Obeid). Pour le Caucase, le début du VIe millénaire est marqué par l'installation des premières communautés sédentaires dans les vallées de la Kura, de l'Araxe et de la plaine de Mil qui se développeront jusque vers 5300 av. J.-C. avant un hiatus archéologique d'un millénaire à la fin duquel réapparaissent des communautés sédentaires.

A data set of 18 radiocarbon dates from the domestic quarter and the well at Tel Tsaf provide conclusive evidence for the absolute dating of this Middle Chalcolithic site. Bayesian modeling suggests that the site was occupied in the last quarter of the 6th millennium BC and abandoned in the first quarter of the 5th millennium. The absolute dating of Tel Tsaf has further implications for the synchronization of the protohistory of the Levant. The ceramic assemblage of Tel Tsaf included delicately painted ceramic sherds (so-called Tel Tsaf ware), which are distinct from the common plain ware. Comparable motifs have been identified in ceramic assemblages of contemporary Ubaid sites such as Tell Mashnaqa, Tell Zeidan, Tell el-Abr, and Hammam et-Turkan IV in northern Mesopotamia. Tel Tsaf is a rare example of a little researched connection between the Ubaid culture and the Middle Chalcolithic of the southern Levant. The findings of Tel Tsaf expand the southwestern border of the Ubaid sphere of influence and shed new light on long-distance interaction in protohistory.

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.

- by Jesus Fuensanta
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- Neolithic, Kuwait, Ubaid expansion, Ubaid

Fieldwork in the Upper Tigris Basin - Ubaid Period

- by Kathleen Nicoll and +2
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- Geoarchaeology, Turkey, Ubaid expansion, Upper Tigris Region

The transition period of the end of the 7th and the beginning of the 6th Millennium B.C. marks the beginning of a new architectural conception in Central Mesopotamia, in Samarra, and in Southern Mesopotamia, in Ubaid 0. If the architecture of these two cultures seems similar (complexification of bonds, use of moulded mud-bricks, monumentality and adoption of tripartite buildings), the existence of a connection between Samarra and Ubaid should not be taking for granted.
In the Syro-Mesopotamian basin, the second half of the 6th Millennium B.C. saw the transformation of the communities of Central Mesopotamia and Jezirah. The interpretation of the Ubaidian expansion as a colonization can no longer be accepted. On the contrary, it is a slow process of technical assimilation that allows the Ubaid to spread gradually throughout the Syro-Mesopotamian basin. This overall process of technical assimilation must nevertheless be nuanced because the use of "archaic" techniques, survivals of previous cultures, shows the permeability of the Ubaid, and testifies to its adaptability.
The evolution of architecture will focus on the content of exchanges and the transmission of techniques during the two millennia studied. Can we establish a connection between Samarra and Ubaid cultures? What are the implications of the Ubaidian expansion for the development of "complex" architecture throughout the Syro-Mesopotamian basin?

- by Emmanuel Baudouin
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- Architecture, Chalcolithic Archaeology, Earthen Architecture, Ubaid expansion

A short scheme of the origin of scripts in the Near East and the Aegean