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The emergence of cultures

For the next millennium, the 5th, it is customary to speak in terms of
various "cultures" or "horizons" distinguished in general by the
pottery, which may be classed by its colour, shape, hardness, and,
above all, by its decoration. The name of each horizon is derived
either from the type site or from the place where the pottery was
first found: Samarra' on the Tigris, Tall Halaf in the central
Jazirah, Hassuna Level V, Al-'Ubaid near Ur, and Hajj Muhammad on the
Euphrates, not far from As-Samawah (some 150 miles south-southeast of
Baghdad).

Along with the improvement of tools, the first evidence for water
transport (a model boat from the prehistoric cemetery at Eridu, in the
extreme south of Mesopotamia, c. 4000 BC), and the development of
terra-cottas, the most impressive sign of progress is the constantly
accelerating advance in architecture. This can best be followed in the
city of Eridu, which in historical times was the centre of the cult of
the Sumerian god Enki.

Originally a small, single-roomed shrine, the temple in the Ubaid
period consisted of a rectangular building, measuring 80 by 40 feet,
that stood on an artificial terrace. It had an "offering table" and an
"altar" against the short walls, aisles down each side, and a facade
decorated with niches. This temple, standing on a terrace probably
originally designed to protect the building from flooding, is usually
considered the prototype of the characteristic religious structure of
later Babylonia, the ziggurat.

The temple at Eridu is in the very same place as that on which the
Enki ziggurat stood in the time of the 3rd dynasty of Ur (c. 2112-c.
2004 BC), so the cult tradition must have existed on the same spot for
at least 1,500 to 2,000 years before Ur III itself. Remarkable as this
is, however, it is not justifiable to assume a continuous ethnic
tradition. The flowering of architecture reached its peak with the
great temples (or assembly halls?) of Uruk, built around the turn of
the 4th to 3rd millennium BC (Uruk Levels VI to IV).

In extracting information as to the expression of mind and spirit
during the six millennia preceding the invention of writing, it is
necessary to take account of four major sources: decoration on
pottery, the care of the dead, sculpture, and the designs on
seals.There is, of course, no justification in assuming any
association with ethnic groups.

The most varied of these means of expression is undoubtedly the
decoration of pottery. It is hardly coincidental that, in regions in
which writing had developed, high-quality painted pottery was no
longer made. The motifs in decoration are either abstract and
geometric or figured, although there is also a strong tendency to
geometric stylization. An important question is the extent to which
the presence of symbols, such as the bucranium (a sculptured ornament
representing an ox skull), can be considered as expressions of
specific religious ideas, such as a bull cult, and, indeed, how much
the decoration was intended to convey meaning at all.

It is not known how ancient is the custom of burying the dead in
graves nor whether its intention was to maintain communication (by the
cult of the dead) or to guard against the demonic power of the
unburied dead left free to wander. A cemetery, or collection of
burials associated with grave goods, is first attested at Zawi Chemi
Shanidar.

The presence of pots in the grave indicates that the bodily needs of
the dead person were provided for, and the discovery of the skeleton
of a dog and of a model boat in the cemetery at Eridu suggests that it
was believed that the activities of life could be pursued in the
afterlife.

The earliest sculpture takes the form of very crudely worked
terra-cotta representations of women; the Ubaid Horizon, however, has
figurines of both women and men, with very slender bodies, protruding
features, arms akimbo, and the genitals accurately indicated, and also
of women suckling children. It is uncertain whether it is correct to
describe these statuettes as idols, whether the figures were cult
objects, such as votive offerings, or whether they had a magical
significance, such as fertility charms, or, indeed, what purpose they
did fulfill.

Seals are first attested in the form of stamp seals at Tepe Gawra,
north of Mosul. Geometric designs are found earlier than scenes with
figures, such as men, animals, conflict between animals, copulation,
or dance. Here again it is uncertain whether the scenes are intended
to convey a deeper meaning. Nevertheless, unlike pottery, a seal has a
direct relationship to a particular individual or group, for the seal
identifies what it is used to seal (a vessel, sack, or other
container) as the property or responsibility of a specific person. To
that extent, seals represent the earliest pictorial representations of
persons. The area of distribution of the stamp seal was northern
Mesopotamia, Anatolia, and Iran. Southern Mesopotamia, on the other
hand, was the home of the cylinder seal, which was either an
independent invention or was derived from stamp seals engraved on two
faces. The cylinder seal, with its greater surface area and more
practical application, remained in use into the 1st millennium BC.
Because of the continuous changes in the style of the seal designs,
cylinder seals are among the most valuable of chronological indicators
for archaeologists.

In general, the prehistory of Mesopotamia can only be described by
listing and comparing human achievements, not by recounting the
interaction of individuals or peoples. There is no basis for
reconstructing the movements and migrations of peoples unless one is
prepared to equate the spread of particular archaeological types with
the extent of a particular population, the change of types with a
change of population, or the appearance of new types with an
immigration.

The only certain evidence for the movement of peoples beyond their own
territorial limits is provided at first by material finds that are not
indigenous. The discovery of obsidian and lapis lazuli at sites in
Mesopotamia or in its neighbouring lands is evidence for the existence
of trade, whether consisting of direct caravan trade or of a
succession of intermediate stages.

Just as no ethnic identity is recognizable, so nothing is known of the
social organization of prehistoric settlements. It is not possible to
deduce anything of the "government" in a village nor of any
supraregional connections that may have existed under the domination
of one centre. Constructions that could only have been accomplished by
the organization of workers in large numbers are first found in Uruk
Levels VI to IV: the dimensions of these buildings suggest that they
were intended for gatherings of hundreds of people. As for artificial
irrigation, which was indispensable for agriculture in south
Mesopotamia, the earliest form was probably not the irrigation canal.
It is assumed that at first floodwater was dammed up to collect in
basins, near which the fields were located. Canals, which led the
water farther from the river, would have become necessary when the
land in the vicinity of the river could no longer supply the needs of
the population.

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