Studies On Burial Patterns Of The Ubaid-Culture Period Mesopotamia

There was a tendency of Ubaid culture to spread from Southern to NorthernMesopotamia since the second stage, which had arrived the Northern area,gradually replaced the local culture-Halaf during the third stage, andsimultaneously spread to Northwest. Consequently Mesopotamia showed highlyunification in cultural aspects. In this paper I compare and analyze the tombforms and funerary objects of the crucial sites of the Ubaid-culture periodMesopotamia from the point of view of burial, do researches on the differentreaction of many important sites of Northern Mesopotamia to Ubaid culture,meanwhile discuss the relationship between different cultures on the eve ofcivilization in Mesopotamia and the dynamically developmental process ofsociety and cultures in the Ubaid-culture period.. This paper is divided into five parts. The first part: preface. It briefly introduces the time and space of burials andexplaining the cause of this paper. The second part: introduction of discoveries and studies of burials of theUbaid-culture period Mesopotamia. Generalize the extent of collecting data andthe main cognition and investigation to it, then point that the aim is to do asystemic and comparative research. The third part: dividing the burials of Ubaid-culture period Mesopotamiainto three separate distributional territories. I divide Mesopotamia into threeterritories Eastern, Southern and Northern by natural environment andgeneralize the characteristics of tomb forms and funerary potteries of mostimportant sites. Based on this, following is the comparative analysis. The fourth part: exploring the relationship between cultures fromcharacteristics of burials in separate territories. Having been comparing andresearching the tomb framework ,burial posture, funerary service, types andassemblage of funerary objects I ascends to the burial tradition respectively andseek the complicated cultural factors in pottery, sequentially make clear how theother sites were influenced by Ubaid culture. Having been analyzed, I hold the 45opinion that it was after the third stage that those sites in Eastern or NorthernMesopotamia were beginning to be influenced by southern Ubaid culture.However, how many factors of Ubaid culture that were absorbed by differentsites was diverse. The sites of Abada and SongorA were almost replaced byUbaid culture but they kept few aboriginal and Samarrian elements still. Thesituation in Northern Mesopotamia is more complex. The site of Gawra hadbeen nearly occupied by Ubaid culture in the late Ubaid, but still reservedconventional ways of burial of Samarra culture. Arpaqiyah was ultimatelyreplaced by Ubaid culture and kept some Northern feature. As far as burialtradition concerned, it inherited Halafian tradition and combined the peripheralfactors. Kashkashok which is situated in the The fifth part: exploring the dynamic complexity of society and cultures ofthe Ubaid-culture period in the light of burials. Firstly, I divide the burialpatterns of the Ubaid-culture period Mesopotamia into three groups, whichaccordingly corresponds with three groups of society patterns. Secondly, I wantto understand how Ubaid society is developed as viewed from burials. Theparticular chiefly strategy of locally-based ritually generated staple financeresulted in the peaceful spread and long-term stability of small scale chieflypolitics distributes throughout greater Mesopotamia in the 5th millennia B.C.Hence lots of mortuary data shows no signs of chiefly burials or evenpronounced elite-commoner differences, although it has appeared economy orgrade differentiation in reality.