440 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 19 39 



It should be remembered that at this stage writing had yet to be in- 

 vented and the knowledge of metallurgy was but inchoate. The 

 marshlands of the south were being rendered habitable by slow and 

 laborious effort, and the first dwellings were flimsy mud huts. Since 

 these settlements of the Obeid age were obviously the oldest in that 

 area, it was assumed at first that the Obeid civilization was the 

 earliest in the whole of Mesopotamia and that it represented a 

 primitive stage in the progress of man. Inasmuch as the char- 

 acteristic pottery of the time was painted, and bore some resemblance 

 to other painted wares strewn over vast sections of the East, the 

 Painted Pottery People became the carriers of the oldest civilization 

 of Asia. 



All these misconceptions have been changed by the results of Mr. 

 Mallowan's excavations at Arpachiya and particularly by those of 

 our two most recent seasons at Gawra. The Obeid culture is pre- 

 ceded by at least two still older civilizations known in the north, 

 where human occupation was possible much earlier than in the south- 

 ern alluvium. The term "Painted Pottery People" is meaningless 

 as an ethnic designation ; for there was more than one early civiliza- 

 tion specializing in painted wares, each originating perhaps with a 

 different ethnic group. Lastly, far from being primitive, the Obeid 

 age was highly advanced and elaborate, especially with regard to 

 architecture, glyptics, and pottery. The impressive acropolis of 

 Gawra XIII, with its beautifully arranged temples displaying red- 

 painted walls and floors, and utilizing deep niches, piers, and pilasters 

 for functional as well as decorative purposes, is sophisticated to an 

 anachronistic degree. The ground plan of such a temple ^ presup- 

 posses a long period of evolution. It differs from the basic design of 

 the shrines found in Gawra VIII-XI in that the entrance is on one 

 of the long sides, near the corner, the worshiper having to make a 

 turn of 90 degrees in order to face the inner sanctum. In this respect 

 the temple of Gawra XIII was not unlike the later sanctuaries of 

 the Early Dynastic age, as known from Khafajeh and Tell Asmar, 

 in the neighborhood of Baghdad, and the still later shrines of his- 

 toric Assyria. It is worth stressing that such divergencies in archi- 

 tectural design are a positive indication of corresponding cultural 

 and ethnic differences. In other words, the civilization of Gawra 

 VIII-XI was not related directly to the culture of contemporary Ur or 

 Uruk; and it differed notably from the civilization of Obeid times. 

 This is a surprising commentary on the allegedly simple conditions 

 of prehistoric life. 



To carry still further the absorbing study of the Obeid period 

 was one of the main tasks of the campaign which began in October 



8 See Asia, December 1937, p. 836. 



