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Plate, 6th–5th millennium B.C.; Ubaid period
Excavated at Ubaid Cemetery, Grave 142, Eridu, Mesopotamia
Ceramic; 2.75 in. (6.99 cm)
Rogers Fund, by exchange, 1949 (49.133.4)

The usual pottery found in Ubaid graves at the southern Mesopotamian site of Eridu consisted of an upright jar, a dish or a plate like this one, and a cup lying inside the dish. They were placed in the corner of mud-brick coffins near the right foot of an outstretched body. Although the paint designs on Ubaid pottery do vary, this plate conforms to a general type consisting of two concentric rings close to or at the rim. Three equally spaced blocks of solid paint between the rings further accentuate the circumference of the plate. Each block has diagonal parallel lines on either side.


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    Plate, 6th–5th millennium B.C.; Ubaid period
    Excavated at Ubaid Cemetery, Grave 142, Eridu, Mesopotamia
    Ceramic; 2.75 in. (6.99 cm)
    Rogers Fund, by exchange, 1949 (49.133.4)