Until quite recently no traces of the Stone Age had been discovered in Babylonia other than a few possible palaeoliths lying on the surface of the desert: all traces of a Neolithic Age were supposed to have been buried beneath the alluvium of the valley. In Assyria, however, neolithic traces in the shape of obsidian flakes had been discovered by the late Prof. L. W. King in the course of his excavation of the mound of Kuyunjik (NINEVEH), besides fragments of painted pottery resembling those from the earliest deposits in Asia Minor and those found by the American geologist Pumpelly in his diggings in the kurgans of Turkestan, (to which he assigned an extremely remote date B.C.). In Persia, and about the head of the Persian Gulf, somewhat similar pottery was discovered by de Morgan and the other French excavators at Susa, Tepé Musyãn, Bandar Bushir, and other places: here again the dates were put at a very remote period. With the exception of a few flint saw–blades from Warka [1], Fara, Zurghul, and Babylon [2], no similar remains had been found in Babylonia until, in 1918, Capt. R. Campbell Thompson, exploring on behalf of the British Museum, discovered flint and obsidian flakes and painted pottery lying on the surface of the desert at Tell Abu Shahrein (ERIDU), and also at Tell Muqayyar (UR). The continued excavations carried out by Mr. H. R. Hall for the Museum in 1919 have produced more of the same evidence from both places, besides a new 'prehistoric' site at Tell el–Ma'abed or Tell el–'Obeid near Ur. It seems that these antiquities date from the very end of the neolithic, or rather to the succeeding 'chalcolithic', age; whether they are really prehistoric, as regards Babylonian history, must until more evidence from stratified deposits is found remain undecided. They prove the occupation of the head of the Persian Gulf at the beginning of history by a people whose primitive art was closely akin to that of early Elam, and distinct from that of the Sumerians.
[1] Found by Loftus in 1854: their early date was not recognized at the time.
[2] Koldewey, Excavations at Babylon, E.T., p. 261, fig. 182. Koldewey curiously speaks of the saw–blades as 'palaeolithic.' They are, of course, nothing of the sort.
Characteristics: flint, chert, obsidian, green and red jasper, and quartz–crystal flakes, arrowheads, cores, and saw–blades. Chert and limestone rough hoe–blades (easily mistaken for palaeolithic implements; they are, however, much flatter); polished serpentine or jasper celts; lentoid (lentil–shaped), amygdaloid (almond–shaped), and discoid beads of cornelian, crystal, obsidian, &c., unpolished; nails of translucent quartz and obsidian (obviously imitations of metal types); hard grey pottery sickles, pottery cones of various sizes, and pottery objects like gigantic nails bent up at the ends; pottery painted with designs in black, usually geometrical (see [Illustration XIV], Fig. 1), but sometimes showing plant–forms or even animals. This ware is often very fine, so much so as to look as if wheelmade. The shapes are chiefly bowls (often closely resembling early Egyptian stone bowl types), pots with suspension–handles or lugs, and spouted 'kettles'. All these objects are at Shahrein and el–'Obeid found lying on the desert surface at the distance of 50 or 100 yards from the tell; they are supposed to have been washed out of the lower strata of the latter by rains. Objects of this kind should be recorded from any site, and the neighbourhood of a desert tell should always be searched for them.
II. EARLY BRONZE (Copper) AGE: First Sumerian (pre–Sargonic) Period; c. 3500–3000 B.C. Earliest Sumerian civilization.
Typical sites. Older strata at Telloh (LAGASH); Fara (SHURUPPAK); Tell 'Obeid (ancient name as yet unknown); Shahrein (ERIDU).
Characteristics. Writing. First appearance of script, already conventionalized from pictographs. Cut on stone and incised on clay tablets and bricks of characteristic early style. Brick buildings, with crenellated walls (until the discovery of Tell 'Obeid supposed to date only from the later Sumerian period) of typical plano–convex bricks , baked or crude, usually with thumb–mark down length of convex side (Shahrein), or with two thumb–holes (for carrying the brick when wet?), or vent–holes ('Obeid); at first uninscribed, later with long inscriptions; measuring 10 x 6 x 2–2 ¼ ins. (Shahrein), and 8 x 6 x 2–2 ¼ ins. ('Obeid); poorly shaped and baked (see [XIV], Fig. 3). Bitumen used for mortar; laid very thick. Hard white stucco on internal faces of crude brick house walls, often decorated with red, white, and black painted horizontal stripes (Shahrein.) Pottery. Wheel and hand–made; drab, fine or coarse paste, unpainted and usually undecorated. Typical shapes: (see [XIV], Figs. 2 abc) mostly handleless vases, and cups, and spouted 'kettles' (again often resembling early Egyptian types).
Metals: Copper. Extensive use: large copper figures of animals, heads cast, bodies of copper plates fastened by nails over a core of clay with a mixture of bitumen and straw; the figures have eyes, tongues, and teeth of red and white stone and nacre (Tell 'Obeid); goat's head with inlaid eyes of nacre (Fara). Otherwise ordinary treatment of eye shows a number of wrinkle lines round it, and it is always disproportionately large (bull's heads, Tell 'Obeid and Telloh). Small fragments of copper or bronze on the surface of a tell should never be neglected, as there may be enough in any fragment to give an idea of possible archaic remains within the tell.
Silver. Rare. Fine engraved vase of Entemena (Telloh, Louvre ).
Gold. Not uncommon. Copper nails with gold–plated heads (Shahrein).
Stone. Portrait figures in round (Bismâya, Telloh, &c.), usually representing men, with face and head shaven; very prominent large curved nose; usually squatting with arms crossed, sometimes standing; only garment a kilt apparently made of locks of natural wool. Usually inscribed in archaic characters on back of shoulders. Material: a grey or a white limestone most usual; tufa and dolerite also used. Reliefs: large stelae (Stele of the Vultures; Telloh, Louvre , fragment in B. M. ), completely inscribed; small relief plaques, inscribed (Telloh, Louvre ). Flint carved and engraved cylinder– seals, of limestone, black basalt, jasper, diorite, &c. Vases, bowls, and cups (usually fragmentary), of white and pink limestone and breccia. Maceheads of breccia, granite, &c., of same type as the early Egyptian (Shahrein).