Tell el-ʿObeid
تل العبيد · Al-Ubaid · El Obeid · Nunu silage
Ubaid to Ur III (c.5500–2000 BCE; temple sequence defines Chalcolithic Eridu–Ubaid horizon)·Ubaid → Uruk → Early Dynastic → Ur III·🇮🇶 Dhi Qar Governorate (west of Ur), Iraq
About
About Tell el-ʿObeid
The type-site that gave the Ubaid period its name, where Henry Hall's 1919 temple on a 42×40 m mudbrick platform (Ninhursag ware Nilotic façade with copper bull friezes and lion-headed imdugud eagles) defined Chalcolithic Sumer. Overlay Ur III Shulgi temple reconstructed the same plan with stamped bricks; Woolley restored the black-and-red mosaic cones. No Ubaid 'culture' was known anywhere before Hall cabled London: 'finds like nothing seen — prehistory.'
Why it mattersEponymous Chalcolithic horizon across Near East — 500-year stratigraphy established here.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Why Ninhursag not Enki at a lagoon shrine?
Theories
- 01Ubaid spread mapped from Obeid temple plan export to Eridu and Uruk niveau XIX–XVII
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- Ubaid 0 settlement c.5500 BCE; char Ubaid temple c.4500–3800 BCE; First Dynasty of Ur to Ur III rebuilds c.2600–2090 BCE
- Period
- Ubaid to Ur III (c.5500–2000 BCE; temple sequence defines Chalcolithic Eridu–Ubaid horizon)
- Culture
- Ubaid → Uruk → Early Dynastic → Ur III
- Builders
- Ubaid community; rebuilt by A-Ane-pada and Shulgi (stamped bricks)
- Purpose
- Ninhursag Mother-Goddess shrine on western edge of Eridu–Ur lagoon system
- Abandoned
- c.2000 BCE (overlapping Ur collapse)
- Rediscovered
- 1919 H. R. Hall (British Museum); 1923–24 Woolley restoration
- Excavation
- Excavated
1919
Hall uncovers Ubaid temple with copper façade — names Ubaid period
1923
Woolley rebuilds temple podium for British Museum display
1936
Seton Lloyd reinterprets Ubaid ware sequence
On the ground
Structures & features
30.9736° N · 46.0569° E · 8 m · 3 mapped features
Ninhursag Temple podium (Hall)
temple42×40 m mudbrick platform with cone mosaic and copper bull frieze
30.9738° N · 46.0572° ECone-mosaic façade (Woolley reconstruction)
wallOriginal black-white-red clay cone sheath fragments in situ
30.9735° N · 46.0568° EShulgi stamped brick rebuild
wallUr III baked-brick capping with Shulgi inscription stamps
30.9736° N · 46.0569° E