The Sumerian civilization spanned over 3000 years and began with the first settlement of Eridu in the Ubaid period ( mid-6th millennium BC ) through the Uruk period ( 4th millennium BC ) and the Early Dynastic periods ( 3rd millennium BC ) until the rise of Assyria and Babylonia in the late 3rd and early 2nd millennium BC respectively.

Early urbanization begins with the Ubaid period, around 5300 BC.

The Ubaid culture gives way to the Uruk period from c. 4000 BC.

The invention of the wheel and the beginning of the Chalcolithic period fall into the Ubaid period.

* Ubaid period: 5300 – 4100 BC ( Pottery Neolithic to Chalcolithic )

The history of ancient Mesopotamia begins with the emergence of urban societies during the Ubaid period ( ca.

** Ubaid period (~ 5900 – 4400 BC )

The precursors of the ziggurat were raised platforms that date from the Ubaid period during the fourth millennium BC.

The earliest history of pottery production in the Near East can be divided into four periods, namely: the Hassuna period ( 7000-6500 BCE ), the Halaf period ( 6500-5500 BCE ), the Ubaid period ( 5500-4000 BCE ), and the Uruk period ( 4000-3100 BCE ).

The invention of the potter's wheel in Mesopotamia sometime between 6, 000 and 4, 000 BCE ( Ubaid period ) revolutionized pottery production.

The city dates from the Ubaid period circa 3800 BC, and is recorded in written history as a City State from the 26th century BC, its first recorded king being Mesh-Ane-pada.

Archaeologists have discovered evidence of an early occupation at Ur during the Ubaid period.

Excavations were also made below the royal tombs layer: a-thick layer of alluvial clay covered the remains of earlier habitation, including pottery from the Ubaid period, the first stage of settlement in southern Mesopotamia.

The history of Sumer, taken to include the prehistoric Ubaid and Uruk periods, spans the 5 < sup > th </ sup > to 3 < sup > rd </ sup > century BC, ending with the downfall of the Third Dynasty of Ur around 2004 BC, followed by a transition period of Amorite states before the rise of Babylonia in the 18th century BC.

The first people at Eridu brought with them the Samarran culture from northern Mesopotamia and are identified with the Ubaid period, but it is not known whether or not these were Sumerians ( associated later with the Uruk period ).

* Ubaid period: 5300 – 4100 BC Early Chalcolithic )

The T-shaped plan, also from the Ubaid period, was identical to the tripartite plan except for a hall at one end of the rectangle perpendicular to the main hall.

The earliest examples of the ziggurat were raised platforms that date from the Ubaid period during the fourth millennium BC, and the latest date from the 6th century BC.

Pottery jar from Late Ubaid Period

The tell ( mound ) of al -` Ubaid () west of nearby Ur in southern Iraq's Dhi Qar Governorate has given its name to the prehistoric Pottery Neolithic to Chalcolithic culture, which represents the earliest settlement on the alluvial plain of southern Mesopotamia.

The adoption of the wheel and the beginning of the Chalcolithic period fall into the Ubaid period.

In Western European and Middle Eastern cultures, it has frequently been applied to the Ancient Near Eastern Chalcolithic ( Ubaid period, Naqada culture ), especially in the Fertile Crescent ( Levant and Mesopotamia ), but also extended to sites in Armenia, and the Persian Plateau.

4000 to 3100 BC ) existed from the protohistoric Chalcolithic to Early Bronze Age period in the history of Mesopotamia, following the Ubaid period and succeeded by the Jemdet Nasr period.

With the Uruk phase, walled cities grew and many isolated Ubaid villages were abandonned indicating a rise in communal violence.

* Ubaid 1 sometimes called Eridu ( 5300 – 4700 BC ), a phase limited to the extreme south of Iraq, on what was then the shores of the Persian Gulf.

The archaeological record shows that Arabian Bifacial / Ubaid period came to an abrupt end in eastern Arabia and the Oman peninsula at 3800 BC, just after the phase of lake lowering and onset of dune reactivation.

By then distinctive cultures emerged, with pottery like the Halafian ( Turkey, Syria, Northern Mesopotamia ) and Ubaid ( Southern Mesopotamia ).

Other finds have included pottery from the Al Ubaid culture of Mesopotamia and northern Arabia ( ca.

* Ubaid 3 / 4, sometimes called Ubaid I and Ubaid II — In the period from 4500 – 4000 BC saw a period of intense and rapid urbanisation with the Ubaid culture spread into northern Mesopotamia replacing ( after a hiatus ) the Halaf culture.

Ubaid culture is characterized by large village settlements, characterized by multi-roomed rectangular mud-brick houses and the appearance of the first temples of public architecture in Mesopotamia, with a growth of a two tier settlement hierarchy of centralized large sites of more than 10 hectares surrounded by smaller village sites of less than 1 hectare.

Umar immediately sent reinforcements to aid Misna ibn Haris in Mesopotamia under the command of Abu Ubaid al Saqafi.

* Ubaid period: A prehistoric culture in Mesopotamia

* Ubaid period, a prehistoric culture in Mesopotamia

* Ubaid period, a prehistoric culture in Mesopotamia

* Ubaid period, a prehistoric culture in Mesopotamia

The bent axis approach is an innovation from the Ubaid temples which had a linear axis approach, and is also a feature of Sumerian houses.

In the following period, Uruk V, about 100 m east of the Stone-Cone Temple the Limestone Temple was built on a 2 m high rammed-earth podium over a pre-existing Ubaid temple, which like the Stone-Cone Temple represents a continuation of Ubaid culture.

Other examples of mud-brick buildings, which also seemed to employ the " true " dome technique have been excavated at Tell Arpachiyah, a Mesopotamian site of the Halaf ( c. 6100 to 5400 BC ) and Ubaid ( ca.

The earliest evidence for sailing has been found in Kuwait indicating that sailing was known by the Ubaid 3 period.

Abu ' l Qasim Ubaid ' Allah ibn Khordadbeh () ( c. 820 – 912 CE ), author of the earliest surviving Arabic book of administrative geography, was a Persian geographer and bureaucrat of the 9th century.

Temples of the Uruk Period divided the temple rectangle into tripartite, T-shaped, or combined plans The tripartite plan inherited from the Ubaid had a large central hall with two smaller flanking halls on either side.

The topmost layer most likely originated in the Jemdet Nasr period ( 3100 – 2900 BC ) and is built on structures from earlier periods dating back to the Ubaid period.

Another son of Mesannepada, named A-anne-pada, ( Aja-ane-pada ' father chosen by An '), is known for having a temple constructed ( at modern Ubaid ), though he is not named on the kinglist.

Cultural influences on Ubaid culture: Samarran Farmers from the North, trans-Arabian bifacial indigenous hunter-gatherers, and circum Arabian nomadic pastoral complex

:# Narrated by ' Ubaid Ibn Juraij: "... and he used to perform ablution while wearing the shoes ( i. e. wash his feet and then put on the shoes ).

The probable predecessors of the ziggurat were temples supported on raised platforms or terraces that date from the Ubaid period during the fourth millennium BC, and the latest date from the 6th century BC.