Overview of this post. In the past eight posts, we have examined the material cultures of the Halaf in the northern and western Fertile Crescent, the Ubaid in southern Mesopotamia, and Susiana to the east, while declaring them roots of the Sumerian culture. If we had not investigated these куда сходить в Астрахани predecessors, we might have mistaken the birth of Uruk and the Sumerian culture as spontaneous and inexplicable in both their rapid expansion and complexity. These three cultures evolved with limited interaction over the seventh and early sixth millennia BC.
In the late sixth millennium BC, the more efficient and collaborative Ubaid culture spread through the Halafian and Susianan territories, and grew predominant. In the early fifth millennium BC, the maturing Ubaid culture gave birth to the city of Uruk and its southern Mesopotamian sister cities, which in turn birthed the foundational Sumerian culture. In today’s post, we’ll examine the spread of the Ubaid material culture into Halafian territory at the Tell Zeidan excavation.
The Halaf and Ubaid Cultures Before Ubaid Supremacy.
In this 9th post on the predecessor roots of Sumer, you may be questioning the reason for dwelling so long on the prehistoric cultures leading up to the Sumerians—especially the idea that anything foundational could have occurred over the two millennia 7000 to 5000 BC. After all, you might say, that period started in the Neolithic and finished in the Chalcolithic—and those people were such slow learners. On the contrary, such thinking is identical to the modern Millennials’ contempt for the two millennia from 0 to 2000 AD, and their refusal to study and understand the thoughts of “dead white men.”
Without those dead white men and their innovations, we would still be living in the Middle Ages as tenant farmer slaves of large landowners, periodically and mercilessly thinned by plagues, famines, and feudal warfare, with an average life expectancy of 40. (see footnote One below). And without the earlier innovations of the Ubaid, we would likely be living in an even more brutal world, in small dispersed and illiterate communities enslaved to natural hazards such as famine and pestilence and an average life expectancy of 30. After all, man had lived through prior ice ages and warming periods just like ours—but made no lasting progress before our current global warming. Progress is not an entitlement, despite today’s Progressive fantasies. Rather, it is a reward for individual merit, creativity, hard work and accomplishment–and a society that gives the highest rewards to those who demonstrate such virtues will progress mightily. Clearly, we know of such folks in recent millennia. And we can be certain there were such folks among the Ubaid.
Therefore, I think this would be a good time for you to hear an eminent archaeologist speak on the importance and the artifactual evidence of that critical transition in the period 6500 to 5000 BC. For this, we will watch the 57 minute Oriental Institute video Exploring the Roots of Mesopotamian Civilization at Tell Zeidan Syria, presented by Gil Stein, Director of the Oriental Institute and author of the 2nd article in our PDF book Beyond the Ubaid, which we’ve cited in prior posts. In the next link, skip the introduction and go directly to minute 4:53, where Dr. Stein takes the podium. Here is Dr. Stein’s presentation.
Now, after Dr. Stein’s presentation, think about his excavation in Syria. Happily, we’ve already gotten a lot out of Tell Zeidan, well into the Halaf, and with prospects of finding even earlier Neolithic and Paleolithic artifacts. But, that won’t happen soon, as Syria has unraveled before our eyes in the short time since Dr. Stein’s presentation. Lately, ISIS has been methodically destroying artifacts—remember Dr. Ackerman’s excavation at Tell Sabi Abyad and the destruction of his dig house? Expect much the same for Tell Zeidan.
This is a good time to remember that, by far, most Middle Eastern artifacts are still safely buried underground—and the best that have been excavated are dispersed around the world in museums. So we shouldn’t lose heart. It is too late for these cultural Luddites to roll back history. But a lot of blood will flow before they are stopped. And the Millennials will find themselves forced to fight or die in the conflict, regardless of their lofty sounding but spineless sophistry, just like hundreds of millions died in prior generations in all wars.
Today’s young adults are not the first generation to which a political deceiver has proclaimed, “Peace in our time,” while a murderous enemy could still be easily stopped. Eighty years ago, Prime Minister Chamberlain said “Peace in our time” to his fellow Britons and they sat on their hands, and World War II came to their homeland from existential foes similar to those arrayed against us today. Here’s the WWII butcher’s bill.
In 700 BC, someone said, “They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. ‘Peace, peace,’ they say, when there is no peace.” In 900 BC, someone said, “There’s nothing new under the sun.” More recently, someone said, “’Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
Gil Stein’s video is a tough act to follow, so this is a good point to end this post. We’ll take a last look at the Halaf-Ubaid transition in the next post, then move on to Uruk and the Sumerian culture.
Thanks for visiting,
R. E. J. Burke
FOOTNOTE ONE: If you really want to understand the Middle Ages from 500 to 1500 AD, I recommend that you become familiar with Professor Philip Daileader and his magnificent 72 DVD lectures covering the full period: Early, High, and Late Middle Ages. I and one of my sons took all 72 lectures at a one or two per day pace last year (2014). There is not one “yawner” in the series. We were both amazed at what we learned about the profound changes (yeah, real progress) over this 1,000 year period–an epoch, in truth, connecting the late Roman Empire with today’s world. I have no ax to grind here. Never met the man. No $ involved. I just appreciate superior accomplishment and want to credit everyone who demonstrates it. And I want to share this with you, because you have an interest in investigating our cultural roots.