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Special Index

Features for Ancient Mesopotamia

 

 

 

  The Standard of Ur showing war chariots Features Indices King Lists Indices Gallery Focus

Ancient Mesopotamia

HASSUNA, SAMARRA & HALAF CULTURES / LATE NEOLITHIC

Prehistory Life Before First Civilisations
By 10,000 BC, people had abandoned cave dwelling in favour of living in the earliest permanent settlements.

Hassuna The Hassuna Culture
Farming arrived in the fertile lowlands of Mesopotamia from 8000 BC onwards, transforming human society.

Samarra The Samarra Culture
This was the second of the early Neolithic cultures which led to the creation of civilisation in Mesopotamia.

Halaf The Halaf Culture
By the mid-sixth millennium the Halaf dry-farming culture had appeared in northern Mesopotamia and Syria.

UBAID PERIOD (5300-3900 BC) / CHALCOLITHIC

Ubaid The Ubaid Period
This was the crossover point between prehistory and the threshold of early urban civilisation in Mesopotamia.

Iran The Sumerian Effect in Iran
Numerous Iranian sites reveal evidence that they were home to a long-lived network of societies.

URUK IV PERIOD (3900-3100 BC) / GAWRA CULTURE (4000-3500 BC)

JEMDET NASR / URUK III PERIOD (3100-2900 BC) / EARLY BRONZE AGE

EARLY DYNASTIC I PERIOD (2900-2800 BC) / BEFORE THE FLOOD

King list The Sumerian King List
This highly important list was written on clay tablets, with the first version probably appearing in circa 2100 BC.

Script First Writing System
The first communications revolution occurred when the Sumerians developed a written script from pictures.

EARLY DYNASTIC II PERIOD (2800-2600 BC) / AFTER THE FLOOD

Gilgamesh The Discovery of Gilgamesh's Tomb
Archaeologists believe they may have found the lost tomb of Gilgamesh of Uruk.

EARLY DYNASTIC IIIa PERIOD (2600-2500 BC)

Temple Tell al-'Ubaid and the Temple
The site lies close to Ur and is famous partly for the prehistoric pottery to which it has given its name.

EARLY DYNASTIC IIIb PERIOD (2500-2334 BC) / LAGASH DYNASTY PERIOD

AKKAD DYNASTY PERIOD (2450-2250 BC)

GUTIAN PERIOD (2250-2150 BC)

UR III PERIOD (2150-2000 BC)

OLD BABYLONIAN PERIOD (2000-1600 BC) / MIDDLE BRONZE AGE

CONTEMPORARY STATES

 

 

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