Ubaid period

Ubaid period
A clickable map of Iraq detailing important sites that were occupied during the Ubaid period.
Geographical rangeNear East
PeriodNeolithic
Datesc. 5500 – c. 3700 BC
Type siteTell al-'Ubaid
Major sites
Preceded by
Followed by

The Ubaid period (c. 5500–3700 BC)[1] 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 Woolley.[2]

In South Mesopotamia the period is the earliest known period on the alluvial plain although it is likely earlier periods exist obscured under the alluvium.[3] In the south it has a very long duration between about 5500 and 3800 BC when it is replaced by the Uruk period.[1]

In Northern Mesopotamia the period runs only between about 5300 and 4300 BC.[1] It is preceded by the Halaf period and the Halaf-Ubaid Transitional period and succeeded by the Late Chalcolithic period.

  1. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference :0 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Hall, Harry Reginald; Woolley, Sir C. Leonard (1927). Al-'Ubaid: A Report on the Work Carried Out at Al-'Ubaid for the British Museum in 1919 and for the Joint Expedition in 1922-3. Oxford University Press.
  3. ^ Adams Jr., Robert McCormick; Wright, H.T. (1989). "Concluding remarks". In Henrickson, Elizabeth F.; Thuesen, Ingolf (eds.). Upon this foundation: the ʿUbaid reconsidered; proceedings from the ʿUbaid Symposium, Elsinore, May 30th - June 1st 1988. CNI-publikations. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press. pp. 441–456. ISBN 978-87-7289-070-8.