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Ur—Al ‘Ubaid, ‘Uqair and Eridu: An Interpretation of Some Evidence from The Flood-Pit

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2014

Seton Lloyd
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Extract

The publication in 1955 of the fourth volume of Sir Leonard Woolley's Ur Excavations series set a coping-stone upon the remarkable edifice of recorded research which he and his collaborators in the “Combined Expedition” have achieved. This volume deals finally with the pre-Third Dynasty discoveries, other than those connected with the Royal Cemetery. But, having in the sequence of publications given precedence to Volume V (The Ziggurat and its Surroundings), its appearance has been long delayed, and, as explained in a foreword, it has now proved necessary to publish the original text as prepared for printing in 1935, almost without reference to the bearing which subsequent work in the same field has had upon its contents. Clearly its usefulness will be greatly enhanced if this omission can gradually be repaired; and though an attempt can hardly be made to do so with a standard of thoroughness comparable to that of the original work, the following notes are intended as a small contribution. They concern the discoveries connected with the Al ‘Ubaid period at Ur and the light thrown upon them by subsequent finds, particularly at the sites of Tell ‘Uqair and Tell Abu Shahrein (Eridu).

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 22 , Issue 1-2: Ur in Retrospect. In Memory of Sir C. Leonard Woolley , Spring-Autumn 1960 , pp. 23 - 31
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 1960 

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References

1 Iraq, Vol. V, Pt. 1. Fig. 3.

2 Woolley, C. L., Ur Excapations I. Al ‘Ubald, Oxford, 1927, p. 149 Google Scholar.

3 von Haller, A. in Abhandlungen der Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Phil. Hit. Klasse, 1932, no. 6, p. 31 Google Scholar.

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5 J.N.E.S., I (1943)Google Scholar.

6 ibid., plate III.

7 Cf. ibid., plate XVII.

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9 Sumer, Vol. IV, no. 2, 1948, pl. III, nos. 24–6 in the chartGoogle Scholar.

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12 E.g. ibid., pl. LXXVe.

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16 Ibid., p. 55.

17 The correlation of Eridu and Qal'at Hajj Mohammed pottery is also referred to by L. le Breton in his admirably thorough discussion of the earliest Susa wares. ( Iraq, Vol. XIX, 1957, p. 86 Google Scholar), where he equates the earliest phase at Eridu (XVIII–XIV) with Tell Halaf, the middle phase with “early” ‘Ubaid (Ur-Al ‘ubaid I) and both with Qal'at Hajj Mohammed. Their simultaneous equation with “b” and “c” wares at Susa is most convincing.

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24 Garstang. Op. cit., fig. 107. Note: In level XII at Mersin this decadent Al ‘Ubaid pottery is found side-by-side with very striking vessels ornamented in white paint on a burnished black or brown ground. Garstang was at pains to dissociate thi ware from the Al 'Ubaid by subdividing the slightly confused stratigraphy of Level XII into two sub-periods. But there was, as we now know, nothing incongruous in their association. At Beycesultan in Anatolia, white-on-black painted pottery has recently been found covering the whole of Garstang's “Late” and “Middle” chalcolithic periods (Cf. Anatolian Studies, IX, 1959 Google Scholar).

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28 Note: On p. 221 of the same report, Mallowan refers to these vessels as having been found at Ur “underneath the so-called ‘Flood deposit’.” It was actually of course among debris above the Flood that Woolley found them in such quantities.

29 J.N.E.S., Vol. II, no. 2, pl. XXII & XXVII-chart.

30 Ur Excavations, Vol. IV, pp. 7 ff Google Scholar.

31 “… but if the vessels from the graves be compared with the sherds from below the Flood level and with those collected from Al ‘Ubaid and Eridu, (v. plates 46–50) …”.

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33 Mrs. Ziegler's types nos. H. 22, H. 108 & H. 132—Cf. her chart in op. cit., pl. VI—are a few examples of motifs illustrated among Woolley's Al ‘Ubaid I sherds which are characteristic of Qal'at Hajj Mohammed, though they may of course be surface finds from elsewhere.

34 E.g. Tobler, A. J., Excavations at Tepe Gawra, footnote on p. 136 Google Scholar.

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