Ancient History, Mesopotamia, Prehistory: Neolithic Period, Predynastic Period

Neolithic Period (c.7000-c.6000 BC)

The three phases of occupation between c.7000 and c.5700 BC of Tepe Ali Kosh in the Dehluran Plain (western Iran) span the transition from food gathering to food production. Wild seeds replaced domesticated cereals, domesticated sheep and goats featured progressively in the food supply, the quality of house construction steadily improved and pottery appeared in the final phase. 

At the village site of Jarmo (c.6500 BC) east of Kirkuk, carbonised wheat and barley Jarmo show it to have been a settlement of farmers, but from the animal bones found it seems that the goat was the only animal definitely domesticated. The first eleven of the sixteen levels had no pottery. Square houses of pisé (clay or mud laid directly, not moulded into bricks) were built. The only difference between Jarmo and Tell Shimshara (c.6000-c.5000 BC) lies in its stone industry, notably in the predominance of obsidian. 

Predynastic Period (c.6000-c.2900 BC)

Tell Hassuna south of Mosul is the type-site for the Hassuna culture (c.6000-c.5500 BC) in northern Mesopotamia. Its seventeen levels fall into four cultural phases. At the lowest level is an occupation perhaps of farmers living in tents. Following this phase there are six layers of ‘Hassuna’ houses progressively larger and better built. The pottery found in the fourth to sixth layers seems to be local and is found over a relatively small area of northern Iraq. Umm Dabaghiyah in the Jazira of northern Iraq has provided one of the first indications of a pre-Hassuna occupation of Mesopotamia.

In its upper levels the Hassuna ware is mixed with and eventually replaced by a pottery known as Samarra ware because it was first discovered beneath the capital of the Abbasid caliphs in northern Iraq. The Samarra culture (c.5600-c.5000 BC) spread through central-east Iraq (along the Tigris River). This culture was first revealed at Tell es-Sawwan, just eleven kilometres south of Samarra.

The Halaf culture (c.5500-c.4500 BC) takes its name from Tell Halaf in northeastern Syria near the Little Khabur River where it crosses the Turkish border. Its distinctive pottery spreads from southeast Turkey across to Iran. Buildings are better than in the Hassuna period, mudbrick appearing alongside pisé. A house called a tholos (by analogy with the much later Mycenaean tombs), which had a round chamber with a rectilinear entrance, became prominent. Important sites include Tell Aqab, Arpachiyah and Yarim Tepe 2.

The Ubaid culture (c.5000-c.3750 BC) is named after Tell al-Ubaid in the far south of Mesopotamia. Earlier phases of the culture were restricted to the south but later phases covered the much larger region between the Persian Gulf and coastal Syria. During this period towns coalesced within clusters of villages along rivers and irrigation channels.

The upper levels of the more recently excavated Tell el-Oueili north of Ur contained Ubaid pottery, but the lower levels yielded a previously unknown pottery (‘pre-Ubaid’) that had affinities with Samarra ware.

The occupation of Uruk (=Warka) northwest of Ur began with the early Ubaid and continued through to Parthian times (early first millennium AD). Uruk was the main force of urbanisation during the Uruk period (c.3750-c.3150 BC), during which there was a shift from small, agricultural villages to the larger urban centre. Although other settlements existed, Uruk was significantly larger and more complex. Uruk’s agricultural surplus and large population facilitated trade, specialisation of crafts and the evolution of writing.

Excavation at Jemdet Nasr northeast of Babylon revealed a pottery that now defines the Jemdet Nasr period (c.3150-c.2900 BC) of southern Mesopotamia. It represents a phase in which writing became more common and sculpture made its appearance. The period is equivalent to Uruk Level III.