Ubaidian Culture and the Roots of Mesopotamia

The Ubaid (pronounced ooh-bayed), sometimes spelled Ubaid and referred to as Ubaidian to keep it separate from the type site of el Ubaid, refers to a time period and a material culture exhibited in Mesopotamia and adjacent areas which predate  the rise of the great urban cities. The Ubaid material culture, including ceramic decorative styles, artifact types and architectural forms, existed between about 7300-6100 years ago, over the vast Near Eastern region between the Mediterranean to the Straits of Hormuz, including parts of Anatolia and perhaps the Caucasus mountains. The geographic spread of Ubaid or Ubaid-like pottery, a pottery style which has black geometric lines drawn on a buff-colored body, has led some researchers (Carter and others) to suggest that a more accurate term might be Near Eastern Chalcolithic black-on-buff horizon rather than Ubaid, which implies that the core area for the culture was southern Mesopotamia—el Ubaid is in southern Iran. Thank goodness, so far theyre holding off on that. Phases While there is widespread acceptance of the chronological terminology for Ubaid ceramics, as you might expect, dates are not absolute across the entire region. In southern Mesopotamia, the six periods span between 6500-3800 BC; but in other regions, Ubaid only lasted between ~5300 and 4300 BC. Ubaid 5, Terminal Ubaid begins ~4200 BCUbaid 4, once known as Late Ubaid ~5200Ubaid 3 Tell al-Ubaid style and period) ~5300Ubaid 2 Hajji Muhammad style and period) ~5500Ubaid 1, Eridu style and period, ~5750 BCUbaid 0, Ouelli period ~6500 BC Redefining the Ubaid "Core" Scholars are hesitant today to re-define the core area from which the idea of Ubaid culture spread out because the regional variation is so extensive. Instead, at a workshop at the University in Durham in 2006, scholars proposed that the cultural similarities seen across the region developed from a vast inter-regional melting pot of influences (see Carter and Philip 2010 and other articles in the volume). Movement of the material culture is believed to have spread throughout the region primarily by peaceable trade, and various local appropriations of a shared social identity and ceremonial ideology. While most scholars still suggest a Southern Mesopotamian origin for black-on-buff ceramics, evidence at Turkish sites such as Domuztepe and Kenan Tepe is beginning to erode that view. Artifacts The Ubaid is defined by a relatively small set of characteristics, with a significant degree of regional variation, due in part to differing social and environmental configurations across the region. Typical Ubaid pottery is a high-fired buff body painted in black, the decorations of which become simpler over time. Shapes include deep bowls and basins, shallow bowls and globular jars. Architectural forms include a freestanding tripartite house with a T-shaped or cruciform central hall. Public buildings have a similar construction and a similar size, but have external facades with niches and buttresses. The corners are oriented to the four cardinal directions  and sometimes are built top platforms. Other artifacts include clay disks with flanges (which might be labrets or ear spools), bent clay nails which were apparently used to grind clay, Ophidian or cone-headed clay figurines with coffee-bean eyes, and clay sickles. Head-shaping, modification of childrens heads at or near birth, is a recently-identified trait; copper smelting at XVII at Tepe Gawra. Exchange goods include lapis lazuli, turquoise, and carnelian. Stamp seals are common at some sites such as Tepe Gawra and Degirmentepe in northern Mesopotamia and Kosak Shamai in northwest Syria, but not apparently in southern Mesopotamia. Shared Social Practices Some scholars argue that decorated open vessels in the black-on-buff ceramics represent evidence for feasting  or at least the shared ritual consumption of food and drink. By Ubaid period 3/4, region-wide the styles became simpler from their earlier forms, which were highly decorated. That may signify a shift towards communal identity and solidarity, a thing also reflected in communal cemeteries. Ubaid Agriculture Little archaeobotanical evidence has been recovered from Ubaid period sites, except for samples recently reported from a burned tri-partite house at Kenan Tepe in Turkey, occupied between 6700-6400 BP, within the Ubaid 3/4 transition. The fire that destroyed the house resulted in the  excellent preservation of nearly 70,000 specimens of charred plant material, including a reed basket full of well-preserved charred materials. Plants recovered from Kenan Tepe were dominated by  emmer wheat  (Triticum dicoccum) and two-rowed hulled  barley  (Hordeum vulgare  v.  distichum). Also recovered were smaller amounts of triticum wheat, flax (Linum usitassimum), lentil (Lens culinaris) and peas (Pisum sativum). Elites and Social Stratification In the 1990s, Ubaid was considered a fairly egalitarian society, and it is true that  social ranking  is not very apparent in any Ubaid site. Given the presence of elaborated pottery in the early period, and  public architecture  in the later, however, that doesnt seem very likely, and archaeologists have recognized subtle cues which appear to support the subdued presence of elites even from Ubaid 0, although its possible that elite roles might have been transitory early on. By Ubaid 2 and 3, there is clearly a shift in labor from decorated single pots to an emphasis on public architecture, such as buttressed temples, which would have benefited the entire community rather than a small group of elites. Scholars suggest that might have been a deliberate action to avoid ostentatious displays of wealth and power by elites and instead highlight community alliances. That suggests that power depended on alliance networks and control of local resources. In terms of settlement patterns, by Ubaid 2-3, southern Mesopotamia had a two-level hierarchy with a few large sites of 10 hectares or larger, including Eridu, Ur, and Uqair, surrounded by smaller, possibly subordinate villages. Ubaid Cemetery at Ur In 2012, scientists at the Penn Museum in Philadelphia and the British Museum began joint work on a new project, to digitize C. Leonard Woolleys records at Ur. Members of the  Ur of the Chaldees: A Virtual Vision of Woolleys Excavations  project recently rediscovered skeletal material from Urs Ubaid levels, which had been lost from the record database. The skeletal material, found in an unmarked box within Penns collections, represented an adult male, one of 48 interments found buried in what Woolley called the flood layer, a silt layer some 40 feet deep within Tell al-Muqayyar. After excavating the Royal Cemetery at Ur, Woolley sought the earliest levels of the tell by excavating an enormous trench. At the bottom of the trench, he discovered a thick layer of water-laid silt, in places as much as 10 feet thick. The Ubaid-period burials had been excavated into the silt, and beneath the cemetery was yet another cultural layer. Woolley determined that in its earliest days, Ur was located on an island in a marsh: the silt layer was the result of a great flood. The people buried in the cemetery had lived after that flood and were interred within the flood deposits. One possible historic  precursor of the Biblical flood story is thought to be that of the Sumerian tale of  Gilgamesh. In honor of that tradition, the research team named the newly rediscovered burial Utnapishtim, the name of the man who survived the great flood in the Gilgamesh version. Sources Beech M. 2002. Fishing in the Ubaid: a review of fish-bone assemblages from early prehistoric coastal settlements in the Arabian gulf. Journal of Oman Studies 8:25-40. Carter R. 2006.  Boat  Antiquity  80:52-63. remains and maritime trade in the Persian Gulf during the sixth and fifth mllennia BC. Carter RA, and Philip G. 2010.  Deconstructing the Ubaid.  In: Carter RA, and Philip G, editors.  Beyond the Ubaid: Transformation and integration in the late prehistoric societies of the Middle East. Chicago: Oriental Institute. Connan J, Carter R, Crawford H, Tobey M, Charrià ©-Duhaut A, Jarvie D, Albrecht P, and Norman K. 2005.  A comparative geochemical study of bituminous boat remains from H3, As-Sabiyah (Kuwait), and RJ-2, Ras al-Jinz (Oman).  Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy  16(1):21-66. Graham PJ, and Smith A. 2013.  A day in the life of   Antiquity  87(336):405-417.an Ubaid household: archaeobotanical investigations at Kenan Tepe, south-eastern Turkey. Kennedy JR. 2012.  Commensality and labor in terminal Ubaid northern Mesopotamia.  Journal for Ancient Studies  2:125-156. Pollock S. 2010.  Practices of daily life in fifth millennium BC Iran and Mesopotamia. In: Carter RA, and Philip G, editors.  Beyond the Ubaid: transformation and integration in the late prehistoric societies of the Middle East.  Chicago: Oriental Institute. p 93-112. Stein GJ. 2011. Tell Zeiden 2010. Oriental Institute Annual Report. p 122-139. Stein G. 2010.  Local identities and interaction spheres: Modeling regional variation in the Ubaid horizon. In: Carter RA, and Philip G, editors.  Beyond the Ubaid: transformation and integration in the late prehistoric societies of the Middle East. Chicago: Oriental Institute. p 23-44. Stein G. 1994. Economy, ritual, and power in Ubaid Mesopotamia. In: Stein G, and Rothman MS, editors.  Chiefdoms and . Madison, WI: Prehistory Press.Early States in the Near East: The Organizational Dynamics of Complexity

The Tragedy of Sexual Molestation of a Child Essay

Imagine yourself as a child. More specifically, a young boy. Life as a child seems simple enough. While you are young you have care givers who try to make sure that everything is done for you. But there is still the matter of growing up. When you are young, adults cherish your innocence. Everyone just wants to protect you from the dangers of the world. You are a symbol of hope, with the whole world ahead of you. What if the innocence that all of your loved ones cherish, no longer exists? All the â€Å"cute† â€Å"corky† things you did was just acting, in a feeble attempt to bring back the child you once were. Something so precious was taken from you, and all you can think of doing is blaming yourself. The guilt consumes you the more you†¦show more content†¦Even with all these numbers and many more within the other resources of information, there is still a lot unknown due to how difficult this issue is to keep tabs on. Most of these victims feel as th ough it is their fault that they are assaulted, which is a good part of the reason they never tell about the incident. The embarrassment itself is enough to drown an individual. Sex itself does make the difference in the reporting of these incidents. The child is affected not matter the sex, though unfortunately women have a great chance of not being reported by young boys because in a way it is not seen as wrong. When a young boy is taken advantage of by another male, it has a different result on their psych. The boy feels weak, stripped of the manhood they never had the chance to come into. You feel like a failure, constant thoughts of never being good enough for anything fly through your mind. You question your own sexuality from time to time, in a world where it is best that you know what it is you like. 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Martin Luther ; Henry VIII Free Essays

The Catholic Church has begun to sell indulgences, a way to pay off sins to reduce time in purgatory, to raise money. A monk who is outraged by the pope tricking innocent worshipers into falling for his trap writes down a list of 95 reasons why the church has become corrupt by the light of a scroll and furiously hammers them to the door ofa German church. Meanwhile in England, a king is denied an annulment to his marriage. We will write a custom essay sample on Martin Luther ; Henry VIII or any similar topic only for you Order Now In a fit of anger, he removes the church’s uthority and writes up his own religion for his land and people, with himself as to rule. A monk and a king; Martin Luther and King Henry VIII; two souls of polar opposites who broadened Europe’s worldviews of religion with their gifts of Protestantism and the Anglican Church. Martin Luther, born in Germany in 1483, was a man of logic: he studied law, as guided by his father, but longed to learn about religion. One night in 1505, he was caught in a horrid lightning storm. He prayed to God, promising to become a monk if he left this storm alive and unharmed. He followed his word and taught peacefully. However, in 1 516, one of the catholic pope’s commissioners was sent to Germany to sell and collect indulgences. This angered Luther because many of his people stopped attending church services, believing that since they had paid off indulgences, they had no need to ask forgiveness within the pews. He thought that since they would do this that they instead would spend more of an eternity in purgatory. On October 31, 1517, he began to write the 95 Theses, a list of reasons why the Catholic Church was corrupt in their intentions. He posted these onto the oor of his church with the intended audience to Just be the priest and a few others. However, because of the invention of the Printing Press, copies of Luther’s works were printed and spread across Germany- eventually Europe and into the hands of the pope. People related to Luther’s thoughts and this began Protestantism. Luther’s journey wasn’t over for him yet, though. After numerous warnings from the pope to take back what he had said, Pope Leo X excommunicated him in 1920. In 1521, Luther was called by a council of people, known as the Diet of Worms, for him to be tried as heretic. When he continued to stand by his word, he was declared an outlaw and went into hiding once returning to Germany. Meanwhile across the pond, Henry VIII had problems of his own. After taking the throne and marrying his brother’s wife, he had the dilemma of being unable to have a son produced between them. Henry turned to the Pope for a marriage annulment, but was denied ofa divorce. Henry didn’t want to hear ‘no’ for an answer, so he called forth the Reformation Parliament to declare England to be no longer under the control of the Pope. The Acts of Parliament closed down the monasteries and put Henry in charge of the church, which was known as the Anglican Church. Out of his took the throne, Protestantism began to take root. It was not until when Henrys daughter, Mary, took the throne that England was returned to the Pope’s authority. Luther never wanted to start a war against the church; he Just wanted them to let him and his beliefs in. In contrast, Henry wanted to show the church that he had the power and could do what he wanted. Henry desired to have a new church to control or his desires while Luther only wanted to help change the church (though this did not go in his favor). The Protestant Reformation combined both Luther and Henry VIII’s works as well as other scholars. In the end, Europe, and even the world, would never be the same if it weren’t for Martin Luther and Henry VIII making adaptions on their own. Without the Catholic Church putting up the walls for Henry or tainting the public to Luther, we would never have such diffusion between religions and cultures to add variety to our ancestors’ everyday lives and ours. How to cite Martin Luther ; Henry VIII, Papers