Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
October 2003
In the period 5500–4000 B.C., much of Mesopotamia shared a common culture, called Ubaid after the site where evidence for it was first found. Characterized by a distinctive type of pottery, this culture originated on the flat alluvial plains of southern Mesopotamia (ancient Iraq) around 6200 B.C. Indeed, it was during this period that the first identifiable villages developed in the region, where people farmed the land using irrigation and fished the rivers and sea (Persian Gulf). Thick layers of alluvial silt deposited every spring by the flooding rivers cover many of these sites. Some villages began to develop into towns and became focused on monumental buildings, such as at Eridu and Uruk. The Ubaid culture spread north across Mesopotamia, gradually replacing the Halaf culture. Ubaid pottery is also found to the south, along the west coast of the Persian Gulf, perhaps transported there by fishing expeditions. Baked clay figurines, mainly female, decorated with painted or appliqué ornament and lizardlike heads, have been found at a number of Ubaid sites. Simple clay tokens may have been used for the symbolic representation of commodities, and pendants and stamp seals may have had a similar symbolism, if not function. During this period, the repertory of seal designs expanded to include snakes, birds, and animals with humans. There was much continuity between the Ubaid culture and the succeeding Uruk period, when many of the earlier traditions were elaborated, particularly in architecture.
Citation
Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art. “The Ubaid Period (5500–4000 B.C.).” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/ubai/hd_ubai.htm (October 2003)
Further Reading
Henrickson, Elizabeth F., and Ingolf Thuesen, eds. Upon This Foundation—The cUbaid Reconsidered: Proceedings from the Ubaid Symposium, Elsinore, May 30th–June 1st 1988. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, 1989.
Stein, Gil, and Mitchell S. Rothman, eds. Chiefdoms and Early States in the Near East: The Organizational Dynamics of Complexity. Madison, Wis.: Prehistory Press, 1994.
Additional Essays by Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art
- Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art. “The Hittites.” (October 2002)
- Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art. “The Halaf Period (6500–5500 B.C.).” (October 2003)
- Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art. “Ur: The Royal Graves.” (October 2003)
- Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art. “Ur: The Ziggurat.” (October 2002)
- Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art. “Uruk: The First City.” (October 2003)
- Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art. “Ebla in the Third Millennium B.C..” (October 2002)
- Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art. “Ugarit.” (October 2004)
- Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art. “Animals in Ancient Near Eastern Art.” (February 2014)
- Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art. “Urartu.” (October 2004)
- Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art. “Trade between the Romans and the Empires of Asia.” (October 2000)
- Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art. “The Parthian Empire (247 B.C.–224 A.D.).” (originally published October 2000, last updated November 2016)
- Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art. “Nabataean Kingdom and Petra.” (October 2000)
- Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art. “Palmyra.” (October 2000)
- Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art. “Art of the First Cities in the Third Millennium B.C..” (October 2004)
- Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art. “The Sasanian Empire (224–651 A.D.).” (originally published October 2003, last updated April 2016)
- Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art. “Colossal Temples of the Roman Near East.” (October 2003)
- Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art. “Assyria, 1365–609 B.C..” (originally published October 2004, last revised April 2010)
- Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art. “Lydia and Phrygia.” (October 2004)
- Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art. “The Achaemenid Persian Empire (550–330 B.C.).” (October 2004)
- Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art. “The Akkadian Period (ca. 2350–2150 B.C.).” (October 2004)
- Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art. “The Year One.” (October 2004)
- Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art. “Early Dynastic Sculpture, 2900–2350 B.C..” (October 2004)
- Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art. “Early Excavations in Assyria.” (October 2004; updated August 2021)
- Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art. “Trade Routes between Europe and Asia during Antiquity.” (October 2000)
- Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art. “Phrygia, Gordion, and King Midas in the Late Eighth Century B.C..” (October 2004)
- Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art. “Trade between Arabia and the Empires of Rome and Asia.” (October 2000)
- Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art. “The Nahal Mishmar Treasure.” (October 2004)
- Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art. “The Phoenicians (1500–300 B.C.).” (October 2004)
- Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art. “The Seleucid Empire (323–64 B.C.).” (October 2004)