Tell al-'Ubaid ( ar, العبيد) is a low, relatively small tell (settlement mound) west of nearby Ur in southern

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

Dhi Qar Governorate Dhi Qar Governorate ( ar, ذي قار, translit=Thi Qār, ) is a governorate in southern Iraq. The provincial capital is Nasiriyah. Prior to 1976 the governorate was known as Muntafiq Governorate. Thi Qar was the heartland of the ancient Iraqi civ ...

. The majority of the remains are from the

Chalcolithic The Copper Age, also called the Chalcolithic (; from grc-gre, χαλκός ''khalkós'', "copper" and ''líthos'', "Rock (geology), stone") or (A)eneolithic (from Latin ''wikt:aeneus, aeneus'' "of copper"), is an list of archaeologi ...

Ubaid period The Ubaid period (c. 6500–3700 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 and later by Leonard Wo ...

, for which Tell al-'Ubaid is the

type site In archaeology, a type site is the site used to define a particular archaeological culture or other typological unit, which is often named after it. For example, discoveries at La Tène and Hallstatt led scholars to divide the European Iron A ...

, with an Early Dynastic temple and cemetery at the highest point. It was a cult center for the goddess Ninḫursaĝ.

History of archaeological research

The site was first worked by Henry Hall of the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

in 1919. He found a Early Dynastic III stone statue of Kurlil. Later, C. L. Woolley excavated there in 1923 and 1924, followed by

Seton Lloyd Seton Howard Frederick Lloyd, CBE (30 May 1902, Birmingham, England – 7 January 1996, Faringdon, England), was an English archaeologist. He was President of the British School of Archaeology in Iraq, Director of the British Institute of Archaeo ...

and Pinhas Delougaz in 1937, the latter working for the Oriental Institute of the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

Tell al-'Ubaid and its environment

Today, Tell al-'Ubaid lies from the

Persian Gulf The Persian Gulf ( fa, خلیج فارس, translit=xalij-e fârs, lit=Gulf of Fars, ), sometimes called the ( ar, اَلْخَلِيْجُ ٱلْعَرَبِيُّ, Al-Khalīj al-ˁArabī), is a mediterranean sea in Western Asia. The bo ...

, but the shoreline lay much closer to the site during the Ubaid period. The tell, or settlement mound, is an oblong measuring approximately on a roughly north-south axis. It extends about above the current surface. The excavated Early Dynastic temple (A-Ane-pada, the temple of Ninḫursaĝ) is located on the northern edge of the site. The tample was also worked on in the Ur III period. A cemetery was also found with 96 graves, mostly from the Early Dynastic Period.Harriet P. Martin, The Early Dynastic Cemetery at al-'Ubaid, a Re-Evaluation, Iraq, vol. 44, no. 2, pp. 145-185, 1982

Occupation history

The lower level of the site featured large amounts of Ubaid pottery and associated

kilns A kiln is a thermally insulated chamber, a type of oven, that produces temperatures sufficient to complete some process, such as hardening, drying, or chemical changes. Kilns have been used for millennia to turn objects made from clay int ...

. Evidence for Ubaid period pottery manufacture has also been observed on the surface of the site. The size of the surface scatter indicates that pottery production was a specialized craft, and this confirms finds from other Ubaid sites like

Eridu Eridu (Sumerian language, Sumerian: , NUN.KI/eridugki; Akkadian language, Akkadian: ''irîtu''; modern Arabic language, Arabic: Tell Abu Shahrain) is an archaeological site in southern Mesopotamia (modern Dhi Qar Governorate, Iraq). Eridu was l ...

. The site also yielded a cemetery and some finds from the

Jemdet Nasr period The Jemdet Nasr Period is an archaeological culture in southern Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq). It is generally dated from 3100 to 2900 BC. It is named after the type site Tell Jemdet Nasr, where the assemblage typical for this period was first r ...

. The temple of

Ninhursag , deity_of=Mother goddess, goddess of fertility, mountains, and rulers , image= Mesopotamian - Cylinder Seal - Walters 42564 - Impression.jpg , caption= Akkadian cylinder seal impression depicting a vegetation goddess, possibly Ninhursag, sitt ...

at the summit was on a cleared oval similar to that at

Khafajah Khafajah or Khafaje (Arabic: خفاجة; ancient Tutub, Arabic: توتوب) is an archaeological site in Diyala Province ( Iraq). It was part of the city-state of Eshnunna. The site lies east of Baghdad and southwest of Eshnunna. History of arc ...

. The wall surrounding the temple was built by

Shulgi Shulgi ( dŠulgi, formerly read as Dungi) of Ur was the second king of the Third Dynasty of Ur. He reigned for 48 years, from c. 2094 – c. 2046 BC (Middle Chronology) or possibly c. 2030 – 1982 BC (Short Chronology). His accomplishme ...

of the

Ur III Empire The Third Dynasty of Ur, also called the Neo-Sumerian Empire, refers to a 22nd to 21st century BC (middle chronology) Sumerian ruling dynasty based in the city of Ur and a short-lived territorial-political state which some historians consider to ...

Gallery

File:Stone statue of Kurlil Early Dynastic III 2500 BC Tell Al-'Ubaid, Iraq.jpg, Stone statue of Kurlil, Early Dynastic III, 2500 BC Tell Al-'Ubaid File:Parts of mosaic columns from the entrance to the Temple of Ninhursag at Tell al-'Ubaid, Iraq, 2800-2600 BCE. Iraq Museum.jpg, Parts of mosaic columns from the entrance to the Temple of Ninhursag at Tell al-'Ubaid, Iraq, 2800-2600 BCE. Iraq Museum File:Reclining cow, part of a frieze once decorated the facade of the Temple of Ninhursag at Tell al-'Ubaid, Iraq, 2800-2600 BCE. Iraq Museum.jpg, Recumbent cow, part of a frieze once decorated the facade of the Temple of Ninhursag at Tell al-'Ubaid, Iraq, 2800-2600 BCE. Iraq Museum File:Sumerian scene, milking cows and making dairy products. From the facade of the Temple of Ninhursag at Tell al-'Ubaid, Iraq, 2800-2600 BCE. Iraq Museum.jpg, Sumerian scene, milking cows and making dairy products. From the facade of the Temple of Ninhursag at Tell al-'Ubaid, Iraq, 2800-2600 BCE. Iraq Museum

References

External links