This document summarizes the major time periods of archaeology in ancient Mesopotamia from the Neolithic era through the Early Dynastic period. It provides brief descriptions of significant developments within each defined period, including the domestication of plants and animals in the Neolithic, the introduction of irrigation, pottery, and metal tools over time, early writing emerging in the Protoliterate period, and the development of political hierarchies and expansion of writing in the Early Dynastic period under Sargon of Akkad. Artifacts like pottery, seals, and tablets provide evidence of cultural and technological changes occurring across these early civilizations.

1. The Temporal Dimension of
Archeology

2. 1. Neolithic (earliest) 8500-4300; it is used
to designate a period beginning with the
domestication of plants and animals and
introduction of metals.
Stamp seals were used for marks of
identification and ownership.
Irrigation and protective walls for
security.
Richly decorated potter articles.

3. This Mesopotamian terra-cotta
urn (Iraq Museum,
Baghdād) from the Neolithic
Period dates back to between
5000 and 3000 BC. Found in
the Middle East, the urn
exhibits a design
representative of ancient
Persian art. Called “animal
style,” the decoration on the
vase features animals, in this
case fish, used in a symbolic
manner. Because ancient
nomadic tribes in the Middle
East left no written records or
permanent monuments, the
artwork buried with their
dead provides the most useful
information about them.

4. This enigmatic object, dubbed "the point," has been found
in several French Neolithic necropolises. They are possibly
objects of power or symbols of prestige.

5. 2. The Hassuna and Samarra Periods (5800-
5000 B.C.)
This period falls within the 6th century
millennium;
Their housing is more sophisticated than
at Jarmo;

6. Burial practices changes; dead were
buried in the corner of unused rooms
or in graves separated from the
houses;
Stamps;
Primitive form of irrigation
agriculture;
Settlement protected by walls;
Richly decorated pottery bowls

7. 3. The Halaf Period (5500-4500)
at this period, metal slowly replaced flint
and stone for tools.
According to art historians, pottery
during this period are the most
esthetically pleasing ever made in
Mesopotamia. They had the skills to make
extremely thin vessels and to decorate
them with sophisticated painted designs.

9. This bowl has been pieced together
from seventeen shards from the site
of Tell Halaf, in modern Syria.
Approximately half of the rim is
preserved with the exterior and
inner side decorated with brown
paint on a buff background typical of
pottery belonging to the Halaf
culture.
Halaf pottery was made by hand (the
potter's wheel was not invented until the
fourth millennium B.C.) and decorated with
very finely executed designs in one or two
colors. This fragment of a thin walled vessel
has the exterior painted with light and dark
brown decoration consisting of a stylized
bird in profile with back arched, a long
neck, and a large circular head.

10. 4. The Ubaid Period (5300-3750 B.C.)
Southern Mesopotamia was dotted with
downs;
People were normally situated along
riverbanks.
Invention of sailboats based on the
discovery of toy boat;
Elaborated temples were built on
platforms .

12. 5. The Protoliterate Period (3750-2900 B.C.)
“fast potter’s wheel” which revolutionized
the ceramic industry, making it possible
to increase production, standardize
shapes, and employ new shaping
techniques.
Stamp seal to cylinder seal

13. Metal came into general use, and
perhaps the chariot was invented
Sculpture also appeared
Writing is the most important
contribution of this period; earliest
examples are on small clay tablets
found in a temple.

14. The Kish tablet is inscribed with proto-cuneiform signs. It may be
considered as the oldest known written document. The writing purely
pictographic and represents a transitional stage between proto-writing and
the emergence of the syllabic writing of the cuneiform script proper. This
tablet may be identified as the first document of the Mesopotamian
protoliterate period.

15. A stone cylinder with engraved images on its surface leaves
impressions when rolled on wet clay.
Cylinder seals are characteristic artifacts of ancient Mesopotamian
civilization and are considered some of its finest artistic achievements.
The seals first appear during the Protoliterate Period (c. 3400–
2900 BC), and, although the earliest examples used primarily
geometric, magical, or animal patterns, later seals incorporated the
owner’s name and depicted a variety of motifs.
Cylinder seals were employed in marking personal property and in
making documents legally binding. Their fashioning and use were
adopted by surrounding civilizations, such as those of Egypt and the
Indus valley. (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

17. Chalcolithic Terra-cotta
Cup Jug Jar Israel
3500BC
•US $220.00
Chalcolithic age Terra-cotta
Bowl from Israel
4000BC
•US $120.00

18. Chalcolithic age Terracotta
Cup Jug Jar 3500BC
•US $170.00

19. 6. The Early Dynastic Period (2900-2334 B.C.)
While the Protoliterate implied the
beginning of writing, “”Early Dynastic”
signals the onset of a new political order in
Mesopotamia.
At this period, they believed that kings were
from heaven and passing from one city to
another.

20. Discovery in the royal tombs during the
late 1920s shows Ur’s advancement
before the time of Abraham.
Excavation also shows that hundreds of
people died; these are people who were
willing to die with their master; or
servants who were drugged to a painless
death.
Writing expanded; scribal school
appeared, word list compile, and
history was written.

21. This is a plate from the Early Dynastic Period of
Ancient Egypt (ca. 3900 BC). It depicts a man on a
boat alongside a Hippo and Crocodile.

22. 7. Akkad (2334-2193 B.C.)
Sargon, founder of Akkad who reigned
for 55 years.
Akkadian began to write in cuneiform.

23. 8. Ur III (2112-2004 B.C.)
Ur-Nammu is the founder of Ur III
period.
Ur III is sometimes called a period of
Sumerian renaissance.
Sumerian became the dominant
language.