A Preliminary Study Of Uruk Period In Northern Mesopotamia

The Uruk period was an important phase when the City-States came into being in Mesopotamia, Western Asia. The research on this period was meaningful to the problems of the formation and development of states. However the accurate chronology of the Uruk Culture in Southern Mesopotamia was still difficult to establish because of various reasons. In recent years many sites were excavated in Northern Mesopotamia, thus made it possible to research on the Uruk period in Northern Mesopotamia. This paper explained the reason why this topic was chosen and the possibility to do it. The geography of the Northern Mesopotamia was prescribed. The sequences of ceramic development in Northern Mesopotamia were established according to the analysis of three typical sites. The development of the local cultures in Northern Mesopotamia was divided into four periods and six phases, corresponding to the sequences of Uruk Culture respectively. This paper also investigated the levels of social development in Uruk period of Northern Mesopotamia and the relationships between the South and North of Mesopotamia, and explained the reasons why Uruk culture expanded into Northern Mesopotamia and why collapsed finally.This paper was composed of five parts.The first part: preface. Introduced the motivation to research on the Uruk period in Northern Mesopotamia. The accurate chronology of Uruk culture was difficult to establish for various reasons, while in the Northern Mesopotamia many new sites was excavated, the materials were abundant and thus provided good opportunity to do the research.The second part: the discovery of new sites of Northern Mesopotamia in Uruk period and the establishment of chronology. First introduced the geography of Northern Mesopotamia and the discovery of the new sites, and the materials used in this paper. Then three typical sites including Tell Hammam, Hacinebi Tepe and Tell Brak were carefully analyzed.The time of period V of Hammam was similar with the Uruk period. Period V could divide into two phases: phase A and phase B. The representative pottery of phase A was Coba bowl, of phase B was bead-rim bowl. They succeeded the former North Ubaid culture and represented the earliest phase of the local cultures development in Northern Mesopotamia.The representative potteries of Hacinebi Tepe were "hammer-head" bowl and "casserole". This paper established the sequences of ceramic development of Hacinibi according to the development of hammerhead bowl. The development of casserole confirmed this division. The development of local ceramic was divided...