BEFORE URUK · ca. 6500–3500 BCE

Before Sumer

The city began learning to take care of water

Before big cities, delta communities already had to organize water use.

Museum documentation · free public access, no account required.

Painted Ubaida ceramic bowl from the Eridu cemetery — **DECLARED VISUAL RECONSTRUCTION · EXISTING EDITORIAL RESOURCE · TRACEKEEPERS**
Generated reconstruction · Declared visual hypothesis
Declared visual reconstruction for museographic context; it is not a photograph of the original nor documentary evidence.

**DECLARED VISUAL RECONSTRUCTION · EXISTING EDITORIAL RESOURCE · TRACEKEEPERS**
Generated reconstruction · Declared visual hypothesis
Declared visual reconstruction for museographic context; it is not a photograph of the original nor documentary evidence.

History and context

Long before a tablet counted barley, southern Mesopotamia was a laboratory of water, mud and cooperation. In the communities of the Ubaid period, farming, ranching, and fishing families occupied marsh edges, opened and maintained canals, built adobe buildings, and shared ceramic styles over enormous distances. Eridu grew by rebuilding itself: each new plant preserved previous decisions and erased others.

"Sumeria" did not yet exist as a State nor do we know what language each community spoke. What was decisive was something else: for centuries they learned to sustain settlements where almost all the stone and wood had to come from afar. Uruk would inherit that social infrastructure.

Evidence and interpretation

Documented fact: Shallow painted ceramic bowl, found in a tomb in the Ubaida cemetery of Eridu. A dark band runs along the edge and three hatched rhombuses seem to rotate around the container. It is not urban luxury or writing: it is the trace of a community that mastered clay, shared styles and buried selected objects many centuries before the rise of Uruk. Interpretation and Caution: Geometric motifs are documented, but their meaning has not been deciphered and they should not be read as writing. Historical transition: The hydraulic cooperation, communal buildings and networks of the Ubaid period gave Uruk a social infrastructure on which to expand population, workshops and administration. Transition boundary: Ubaid is an extensive archaeological category, not a ready-made Sumerian town; The language and identity of those communities cannot be deduced from a vessel.

Catalogue facts

Previous period: ca. 6500–3500 BCE
Sphere of influence: Lower Mesopotamia and marshes of the Tigris and Euphrates delta, present-day Iraq
Threshold element: Ubaida bowl from Eridu
Element date: mid-6th–5th millennium BCE
Location: Eridu, present-day Iraq
Material or support: painted pottery
Time frame: ca. 6500–3500 BCE
Documented fact 01: Ubaid is an archaeological label, not a proven ethnicity.
Documented fact 02: Eridu accumulated successive monumental reconstructions.
Documented fact 03: Local clay coexisted with imported raw materials.
Visual credit: The Metropolitan Museum of Art · CC0

A SHARED TOPIC, DIFFERENT MOMENTS

Objects connected through time

Follow a topic across the collections. A shared tag is a way to compare objects, not proof that one culture influenced another.

The order uses the midpoint of each approximate date range; ranges can overlap. Spacing does not represent elapsed time. Swipe, scroll or use the arrows. With the sequence focused, use ← / →, Home or End.

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mid-6th–5th millennium BCE

Before Sumer

Sumer

The full 6th–5th millennia BCE provide broad limits for chronological ordering; the record qualifies the date as ‘mid’; the item's date is used, not the broader preceding period.

Current record

Ceramics39 dated objects

2 / 39In the centre: Before Sumer

Also connected, without a comparable date (17)

These objects are not placed after the others: an unknown date does not mean a more recent object.

A Kerma vessel deposited at AbydosAncient Egypt · Second Intermediate Period
A tradition that inventsBatwa / Twa histories · collected in 1993 or 1995
A vase travels; the rite changesIberians · No individual dating published on this record
AkrotiriGreek worlds · c. 1700–1500 BCE
Dia’s strataMande Worlds · 9th century BCE–2nd millennium CE
Early potteryMande Worlds · before ca. 9400 cal BCE
Jenne-jeno contextsMande Worlds · ca. 250 BCE–1400 CE
Liédena FlaskEtruscans and Rome · Roman period · individual chronology not published in the entry
LothalIndus civilisation · ca. 2400–1600 BCE
Made in GaramaGaramantes · I millennium BCE–I millennium CE
Nile towards NubiaAncient Egypt · ca. 3300–2800 BCE
The unfinished gestureBatwa / Twa histories · 1947
Three hundred lives in the sandYayoi Japan · Mainly 4th century BCE–3rd century CE
Travelling objectsGaramantes · Mainly Roman period
Trumpet from NumantiaIberians · No individual dating published on this record
Urns from AdichanallurVedic and later Indian worlds · Iron Age · samples towards 665 and 467 BCE
Vessels without a languageBantu-speaking worlds · Urewe, broad regional range ca. 800 BCE–650 CE

You can scroll the first group without JavaScript. The other topics are also available below.

Clay

Dolní Věstonice I · ≈29,000–27,000 years · Prehistory
Before Sumer · mid-6th–5th millennium BCE · Sumer — You are viewing
Twin-chambered vessel from Cova de l’Or · Early Neolithic · VI–V millennia BCE · Prehistory
Before Egypt · ca. 4400–3800 BCE · Ancient Egypt
Before Nubia · V–IV millennium BCE · Nubia, Kerma and Kush
Before Gojoseon · Middle Neolithic, c. 4000 BCE · Gojoseon and early Korea
Bevel-rimmed bowl · ca. 3500–3000 BCE · Sumer
Susa accounting bulla · 3500–2900 BCE · proto-urban period; towards 3300 BCE as a guide, not exact date · Sumer
Jemdet Nasr · c. 3100–2900 BCE · Sumer
Account of malt and barley · c. 3100–2900 BCE · Sumer
Before Yayoi · Middle Jōmon, ca. 3000 BCE · Yayoi Japan
Vasiliki · ca. 2500–2200 BCE · Greek worlds
Before Ancient China · c. 2500–2000 BCE · Ancient China
Longshan · c. 2500–2000 BCE · Ancient China
Before the Hittites · c. 19th century BCE · Hittites
Before Pre-Inca Cultures · Kotosh-Mito Tradition, c. 2200–1500 BCE; the enclosure is usually situated around 1800 BCE. · Pre-Inca cultures
Queen of the Night · 19th–18th centuries BCE · Sumer
Plimpton 322 · Paleo-Babylonian period · around 1800 BCE · Sumer
Sumerian King List · Towards 1800 BCE · Sumer
Love song to Shu-Sin · Paleo-Babylonian copy, around 1900–1600 BCE according to CDLI · Sumer
Si.427 tablet · Towards 1900–1600 BCE · paleobabylonian; uncertain chronological attribution in CDLI · Sumer
Phaistos Disc · ≈1700–1650 BCE · Greek worlds
Sumerian Flood of Nippur · Towards 1650 BCE · Sumer
Boğazköy Archive · Above all 17th–13th centuries BCE · Hittites
Linear B · c. 1375 BCE · Greek worlds
Alaksandu of Wilusa · c. 1300 BCE · Hittites
Treaty with Egypt · c. 1259 BCE, year 21 of Ramesses II · Hittites
Flood Tablet · 7th century BCE · Sumer
Babylonian map of the world · Towards 700–500 BCE · Sumer
Glazed brick guards · 522–486 BCE · Achaemenid Persia
Rations for women and children · Towards 509–493 BCE · Achaemenid Persia
Urewe vessel · regional range c. 800 BCE–650 CE · Bantu-speaking worlds

Without a comparable date (not part of the chronological order):

A White Wall on the Danube · 6th century BCE · Celtic worlds
Blue that does not yield · Documented use from the Classic, c. 300–1500 CE · Maya worlds
Cyrus speaks as king of Babylon · After the conquest of Babylon in 539 BCE · Achaemenid Persia
Early pottery · before ca. 9400 cal BCE · Mande Worlds
Made in Garama · I millennium BCE–I millennium CE · Garamantes
Piece-mold casting · c. 1600–1046 BCE · Ancient China
The unfinished gesture · 1947 · Batwa / Twa histories
Vessels without a language · Urewe, broad regional range ca. 800 BCE–650 CE · Bantu-speaking worlds

Vessels

Before Sumer · mid-6th–5th millennium BCE · Sumer — You are viewing
Twin-chambered vessel from Cova de l’Or · Early Neolithic · VI–V millennia BCE · Prehistory
Before Egypt · ca. 4400–3800 BCE · Ancient Egypt
Before Nubia · V–IV millennium BCE · Nubia, Kerma and Kush
Before Gojoseon · Middle Neolithic, c. 4000 BCE · Gojoseon and early Korea
Bevel-rimmed bowl · ca. 3500–3000 BCE · Sumer
Uruk Vase · ca. 3300–3000 BCE · Sumer
Before Yayoi · Middle Jōmon, ca. 3000 BCE · Yayoi Japan
Vasiliki · ca. 2500–2200 BCE · Greek worlds
Before the Greeks · c. 2400–2200 BCE · Greek worlds
Before Ancient China · c. 2500–2000 BCE · Ancient China
Longshan · c. 2500–2000 BCE · Ancient China
Kerma vessel · c. 1802–1640 BCE · Nubia, Kerma and Kush
Grave Circle A and Chrysolakkos · 18th–16th centuries BCE · Greek worlds
Before Vedic India · c. 1900–1300 BCE · Vedic and later Indian worlds
Jue · c. sixteenth century BCE · Ancient China
Pithos · c. 1450–1375 BCE · Greek worlds
Tutankhamun's grave goods · death towards 1323 BCE · Ancient Egypt
Stag Vessel · 14th–13th centuries BCE · Hittites
Valchitran · second half of the 14th century–beginning of the 13th century BCE, according to NAIM; other publications use wider intervals from the Late Bronze. · Thracians
Liding · 12th–11th centuries BCE · Ancient China
Before the Iberias · Final Bronze, c. 1000 BCE · Iberians
Grey bowl from Hastinapura · c. 1100–800 BCE in the classical sequence of Hastinapura · Vedic and later Indian worlds
Before Etruscans and Rome · ca. 850–800 BCE · Etruscans and Rome
The urn under the helmet · 9th–8th centuries BCE · Etruscans and Rome
Tomb 1 at Kuntur Wasi · c. 800 BCE · Pre-Inca cultures
Regolini-Galassi tomb · ca. 675–650 BCE · Etruscans and Rome
The great Greek krater of Vix · ≈530–500 BCE · Greek worlds
Scorțaru cauldron · 6th–5th centuries BCE · Thracians
Vix Tomb · c. 500 BCE · Celtic worlds
Orpheus among the Thracians · circa 440 BCE; attributed to the London Painter E 497. · Thracians
Twenty-six voiceless signs · 5th–4th centuries BCE · Scythians and Saka
Rogozen · mainly 5th–4th centuries BCE; The set has a history of accumulation, not a single manufacturing date. · Thracians
Grave goods of Baza and Toya · First half of the 4th century BCE · Iberians
The Attic krater that took on a new life in Cástulo · 4th century BCE · Greek worlds
The silver amphora of Chertomlyk · 4th century BCE · Greek worlds
The Kul-Oba vase · 4th century BCE · Greek worlds
Faces of the Steppe · Second half of the 4th century BCE · Scythians and Saka
Poroina Mare Rhyton · Second half of the 4th century BCE · Thracians
Borovo · 4th century BC C.; 350–300 BCE in the ISAW catalog. · Thracians
Leipzig Fish Plate · Last third 4th–early 3rd century BCE · Greek worlds
Golyamata Kosmatka · End of the 4th century – beginning of the 3rd century BCE; ritual burial at the beginning of the III according to Iskra. · Thracians
Panagyurishte · late 4th century – early 3rd century BCE, towards 300 BCE · Thracians
Dove of the Amarejo · 3rd century BCE · Iberians
Mairena Hoard · 3rd century BCE · Iberians
Vase from Chão de Lamas · Piece: III–II centuries BCE · concealment ≈110–76 BCE · Iberians
Vas dels Guerrers · 3rd–early 2nd century BCE · Iberians
Warriors' Vase · 3rd–2nd centuries BCE · Iberians
The dismantled cauldron · 2nd–1st centuries BCE · Celtic worlds
Kalathos of Alcorisa · 2nd–1st centuries BCE · Iberians
Patera from Perotito · Second half of the 2nd–beginnings of the 1st century BCE · Iberians
Urewe vessel · regional range c. 800 BCE–650 CE · Bantu-speaking worlds
Two rows of coffins · Mainly Middle Yayoi, 2nd century BCE–1st century CE · Yayoi Japan
Ceramics that continued · Last third of the 2nd century BCE–1st century CE · Iberians
Roman glass oinochoe · Late 1st century BCE–early 1st century CE · Etruscans and Rome
Gladiators Cup of Chavagnes · 25–75 CE · Etruscans and Rome
Egyptian oil lamp with a fish, held in Laon · 3rd–4th centuries CE · Ancient Egypt
Laon lamp with fish · 3rd–4th centuries CE · Etruscans and Rome
Water in a shell · 1816–1826 · San histories

Without a comparable date (not part of the chronological order):

A Kerma vessel deposited at Abydos · Second Intermediate Period · Ancient Egypt
A tradition that invents · collected in 1993 or 1995 · Batwa / Twa histories
A vase travels; the rite changes · No individual dating published on this record · Iberians
Early pottery · before ca. 9400 cal BCE · Mande Worlds
Liédena Flask · Roman period · individual chronology not published in the entry · Etruscans and Rome
Made in Garama · I millennium BCE–I millennium CE · Garamantes
Oil in a calabash · ca. 1947 · Batwa / Twa histories
The unfinished gesture · 1947 · Batwa / Twa histories
Travelling objects · Mainly Roman period · Garamantes
Urns from Adichanallur · Iron Age · samples towards 665 and 467 BCE · Vedic and later Indian worlds
Vessels without a language · Urewe, broad regional range ca. 800 BCE–650 CE · Bantu-speaking worlds

Painting

Before the San · ≈25.500–23.500 BCE · San histories
Before the name San · ≈25.500–23.500 BCE · San histories
Altamira · Assemblage ≈36,000–13,000 BP · bison ≈18,400–15,300 cal BP · Prehistory
Lascaux · ≈23,500–21,000 cal BP · debated contextual estimate · Prehistory
Before Sumer · mid-6th–5th millennium BCE · Sumer — You are viewing
Cueva de las Manos · Sequence ≈9300–1300 BP · Prehistory
Vasiliki · ca. 2500–2200 BCE · Greek worlds
Before the Greeks · c. 2400–2200 BCE · Greek worlds
Before Vedic India · c. 1900–1300 BCE · Vedic and later Indian worlds
Grey bowl from Hastinapura · c. 1100–800 BCE in the classical sequence of Hastinapura · Vedic and later Indian worlds
Orpheus among the Thracians · circa 440 BCE; attributed to the London Painter E 497. · Thracians
The Attic krater that took on a new life in Cástulo · 4th century BCE · Greek worlds
The Karwa textile · 4th–3rd centuries BCE · Pre-Inca cultures
Leipzig Fish Plate · Last third 4th–early 3rd century BCE · Greek worlds
Dove of the Amarejo · 3rd century BCE · Iberians
Vas dels Guerrers · 3rd–early 2nd century BCE · Iberians
Warriors' Vase · 3rd–2nd centuries BCE · Iberians
Kalathos of Alcorisa · 2nd–1st centuries BCE · Iberians
The walls of San Bartolo · c. 100 BCE · Maya worlds
Ceramics that continued · Last third of the 2nd century BCE–1st century CE · Iberians

Without a comparable date (not part of the chronological order):

A vase travels; the rite changes · No individual dating published on this record · Iberians
Bhimbetka · Mesolithic–historical and medieval period · Prehistory
Blue that does not yield · Documented use from the Classic, c. 300–1500 CE · Maya worlds
Eland Cave · Regional tradition of ≈4,000 years · up to historical period · Prehistory
Game Pass Shelter · Regional rock art chronology · panel not dated in isolation · San histories
Kakadu · Regional corpus ≈20,000 BP–contemporary era · Prehistory
Leang Karampuang · Minimum 51,200 years · dating published in 2024 · Prehistory
Quinkan Country · Regional art up to ≈27,000 BP · modern continuity · Prehistory
Sierra de San Francisco · Broad tradition with direct dates ≈5290–295 BP · Prehistory
Tassili n’Ajjer · Corpus ≈6000 BCE–first centuries CE · Prehistory

A closer look

About 1 min to read · 1 section. Further reading and sources · free access. Editorial review recorded: September 5, 2026.

A specific grave within a shared custom

The Met catalogue record allows this vessel to be returned to tomb 134 at Eridu. Shallow bowls were the most common ceramic form in Late Ubaid burials from that cemetery; The piece was not, therefore, an isolated idea of its potter. Its unpainted center concentrates the decoration on the perimeter. Comparing that arrangement to other bowls helps recognize a shared compositional choice, even when we cannot recover the meaning of the motifs.

Museum · The Met · Ubaida bowl from tomb 134 of EriduAccess recorded: September 5, 2026.

The region before this culture

ca. 6500–3500 BCE · Lower Mesopotamia and marshes of the Tigris and Euphrates delta, present-day Iraq

ca. 6500–5300 BCE · Documented
Delta communities
Agriculture, livestock, fishing and common water management made a landscape of marshes and canals habitable.
ca. 5300–4000 BCE · Documented
The Ubaid and Eridu horizon
Painted ceramics, tripartite adobe buildings and extensive contacts articulated the south without yet forming a State.
c. 4000–3500 BCE · Debated
The threshold of Uruk
The concentration of population, the canals and the workshops prepared the urban scale that preceded writing.

What changes and what we should not assume

The hydraulic cooperation, communal buildings and networks of the Ubaid period gave Uruk a social infrastructure on which to expand population, workshops and administration.

Ubaid is an extensive archaeological category, not a ready-made Sumerian people; The language and identity of those communities cannot be deduced from a vessel.

Ubaida bowl from Eridu

mid-6th–5th millennium BCE · Eridu, present-day Iraq

Shallow painted ceramic bowl, found in a tomb in the Ubaida cemetery of Eridu. A dark band runs along the edge and three hatched rhombuses seem to rotate around the container. It is not urban luxury or writing: it is the trace of a community that mastered clay, shared styles and buried selected objects many centuries before the rise of Uruk. It forces Sumeria to begin with a humble vessel and a social network, not with a finished ziggurat.

The geometric motifs are documented, but their meaning has not been deciphered and they should not be read as writing.

painted pottery

Wikimedia Commons · Bowl_MET_DP104227.jpg · The Metropolitan Museum of Art · CC0

Time frame: ca. 6500–3500 BCE
Documented fact 01: Ubaid is an archaeological label, not a proven ethnicity.
Documented fact 02: Eridu accumulated successive monumental reconstructions.
Documented fact 03: Local clay coexisted with imported raw materials.

Where it is held

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Reference material evidence · Documented collection

Ubaida bowl from Eridu 49.133.3 used as threshold material anchor; the Met file indicates that he is not exposed.

The holding institution is documented; public display may change. Check its official record before visiting.

Sources and references

Expand this antecedent and consult its sources

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History and context

Evidence and interpretation

Catalogue facts

Before Sumer

Dolní Věstonice I

Before Sumer

Twin-chambered vessel from Cova de l’Or

Before Egypt

Before Nubia

Before Gojoseon

Bevel-rimmed bowl

Before Yayoi

Vasiliki

Before the Greeks

Cemetery R-37

Before Ancient China

Longshan

Kerma vessel

Burial at K IV

Before Vedic India

Osmankayası and Ilıca

Grey bowl from Hastinapura

Before Etruscans and Rome

The urn under the helmet

Ceramic stand 1010

Ishtar Gate

Glazed brick guards

Orpheus among the Thracians

The Attic krater that took on a new life in Cástulo

Thoth in the form of a baboon

Leipzig Fish Plate

Dove of the Amarejo

Vas dels Guerrers

Warriors' Vase

Northern mound

Kalathos of Alcorisa

Urewe vessel

Two rows of coffins

Ceramics that continued

Egyptian oil lamp with a fish, held in Laon

Laon lamp with fish

Kabusanza, ca. 400

Missing grave goods

A closer look

A specific grave within a shared custom

The region before this culture

Delta communities

The Ubaid and Eridu horizon

The threshold of Uruk

What changes and what we should not assume

Ubaida bowl from Eridu

Where it is held

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Sources and references

Did you enjoy this exhibit?