Mesopotamia

Mesopotamia Regionalization Era

6500-3000 BCE

Tepe Gawra, Iraq

(5500-5000 BCE) transitional Ubaid site: monumental architecture, stamp seals, mudbrick, first metal objects

Choga Mami, Iraq

(6000-4800 BCE) transitional Ubaid site: irrigation channels

Tel es-Sawwan, Iraq

(5000 BCE) Samarran culture: walled settlement, socially-stratified grave objects

Tell Abada, Iraq

Ubaid settlement: houses w/ internal differentiation

Tell-Awayli, Iraq

(4000 BCE) Ubaid culture: mudbrick differentiated buildings, granaries

Eridu, Iraq

(5400 BCE) Samarra & Halaf ceramics, temple

(5300-4000 BCE) Ubaid pottery, transactional seals

Uruk, Iraq

(4200 BCE) Ubaid small settlement w/ irrigation, temples, crafts
(4000 BCE) increase in size & population
(4000-3100 BCE) Sumerian theocracy & early kingship, ziggurat
(3500-3000 BCE) earliest written tablets, craft expansion

Susa, Iran

(4000 BCE) Ubaid small -> complex chiefdom, tokens w/ cylinder seals indicating control, exotic burial ceramics

Mesopotamian Integration Era

3500-3100 BCE (begins w/ Uruk period)

Tell Brak, Syria

(4000 BCE) Urban center on Khabur River, major trade crossroad, early cylinder seals, stone gateway

Jemdet Nasr, Iraq

(3300-2900 BCE) Late Uruk: cylinder seals w/ priest king

unken

assemblies of gods & humans held in palaces/temples to establish consensus on warfare/peace actions

Mesopotamian Early Dynastic Period

2900-2350 BCE
Endemic warfare, cyclical rebuilding of cities, ziggurats, Sumerian theocracy, royal tombs as power display (Ur)

Ebla Archives, Syria

(2500-2200 BCE) library w/ 15000 texts (admin., literary, religious, economic, political)

Akkadian Empire

2350-2200 BCE