Nineveh, also known in early modern times as Kouyunjik, was an ancient Assyrian city of Upper Mesopotamia, located in the modern-day city of Mosul in northern Iraq. It is located on the eastern bank of the Tigris River and was the capital and largest city of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, as well as the largest city in the world for several decades. Today, it is a common name for the half of Mosul that lies on the eastern bank of the Tigris, and the country's Nineveh Governorate takes its name from it.
Ur was an important Sumerian city-state in ancient Mesopotamia, located at the site of modern Tell el-Muqayyar in Dhi Qar Governorate, southern Iraq. Although Ur was once a coastal city near the mouth of the Euphrates on the Persian Gulf, the coastline has shifted and the city is now well inland, on the south bank of the Euphrates, 16 km (10 mi) from Nasiriyah in modern-day Iraq. The city dates from the Ubaid period c. 3800 BC, and is recorded in written history as a city-state from the 26th century BC, its first recorded king being King Tuttues.
Eridu was a Sumerian city located at Tell Abu Shahrain, also Abu Shahrein or Tell Abu Shahrayn, an archaeological site in Lower Mesopotamia. It is located in Dhi Qar Governorate, Iraq, near the modern city of Basra. Eridu is traditionally considered the earliest city in southern Mesopotamia based on the Sumerian King List. Located 24 kilometers south-southwest of the ancient site of Ur, Eridu was the southernmost of a conglomeration of Sumerian cities that grew around temples, almost in sight of one another. The city gods of Eridu were Enki and his consort Damkina. Enki, later known as Ea, was considered to have founded the city. His temple was called E-Abzu, as Enki was believed to live in Abzu, an aquifer from which all life was thought to stem. According to Sumerian temple hymns, another name for the temple of Ea/Enki was called Esira (Esirra).
"... The temple is constructed with gold and lapis lazuli, Its foundation on the nether-sea (apsu) is filled in. By the river of Sippar (Euphrates) it stands. O Apsu pure place of propriety, Esira, may thy king stand within thee. ..."
The architecture of Mesopotamia is ancient architecture of the region of the Tigris–Euphrates river system, encompassing several distinct cultures and spanning a period from the 10th millennium BC to the 6th century BC. Among the Mesopotamian architectural accomplishments are the development of urban planning, the courtyard house, and ziggurats. Scribes had the role of architects in drafting and managing construction for the government, nobility, or royalty.
Uruk, known today as Warka, was an ancient city in the Near East, located east of the current bed of the Euphrates River, on an ancient, now-dried channel of the river. The site lies 93 kilometers northwest of ancient Ur, 108 kilometers southeast of ancient Nippur, and 24 kilometers southeast of ancient Larsa. It is 30 km (19 mi) east of modern Samawah, Al-Muthannā, Iraq.
Kish is an important archaeological site in Babil Governorate (Iraq), located 80 km (50 mi) south of Baghdad and 12 km (7.5 mi) east of the ancient city of Babylon. The Ubaid period site of Ras al-Amiyah is 8 km (5.0 mi) away. It was occupied from the Ubaid period to the Hellenistic period. In Early Dynastic times the city's patron deity was Ishtar with her consort Ea. Her temple, at Tell Ingharra, was (E)-hursag-kalama. By Old Babylonian times the patron deities had become Zababa, along with his consort, the goddess Bau and Istar. His temple Emeteursag was at Uhaimir.
The Ubaid period is a prehistoric period of Mesopotamia. The name derives from Tell al-'Ubaid where the earliest large excavation of Ubaid period material was conducted initially in 1919 by Henry Hall, Leonard Woolley in 1922-1923, and later by Pinhas Delougaz in 1937. Excavations continue into the present day.
Tell Brak was an ancient city in Syria; it is one the earliest known cities in the world. Its remains constitute a tell located in the Upper Khabur region, near the modern village of Tell Brak, 50 kilometers north-east of Al-Hasaka city, Al-Hasakah Governorate. The city's original name is unknown. During the second half of the third millennium BC, the city was known as Nagar and later on, Nawar.
Hamoukar is a large archaeological site located in the Jazira region of northeastern Syria, near the Iraqi and Turkish borders. The early settlement dates back to the 5th millennium BCE, and it existed simultaneously with the Ubaid and the early Uruk cultures. It was a big centre of obsidian production. In the 3rd millennium, this was one of the largest cities of Northern Mesopotamia, and extended to 105 ha.
The Civilization of Mesopotamia ranges from the earliest human occupation in the Paleolithic period up to Late antiquity. This history is pieced together from evidence retrieved from archaeological excavations and, after the introduction of writing in the late 4th millennium BC, an increasing amount of historical sources. While in the Paleolithic and early Neolithic periods only parts of Upper Mesopotamia were occupied, the southern alluvium was settled during the late Neolithic period. Mesopotamia has been home to many of the oldest major civilizations, entering history from the Early Bronze Age, for which reason it is often called a cradle of civilization.
Tepe Gawra is an ancient Mesopotamian settlement 24 km (15 mi) NNE of Mosul in northwest Iraq that was occupied between 5000 and 1500 BC. It is roughly a mile from the site of Nineveh and 2 miles E of the site of Khorsabad. It contains remains from the Halaf period, the Ubaid period, and the Uruk period. Tepe Gawra contains material relating to the Halaf-Ubaid Transitional period c. 5,500–5,000 BC.
Tell Uqair is a tell or settlement mound northeast of ancient Babylon, about 25 kilometers north-northeast of the ancient city of Kish, just north of Kutha, and about 50 miles (80 km) south of Baghdad in modern Babil Governorate, Iraq. It was occupied in the Ubaid period and the Uruk period. It has been proposed as the site of the 3rd millennium BC city of Urum.
Tell Taya is an archaeological site at a tell in Nineveh Province (Iraq). It was occupied from the third to the first millennia BC. Tell Taya lies about 20 kilometres (12 mi) southwest of Mosul and Nineveh.
The art of Mesopotamia has survived in the record from early hunter-gatherer societies on to the Bronze Age cultures of the Sumerian, Akkadian, Babylonian and Assyrian empires. These empires were later replaced in the Iron Age by the Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian empires. Widely considered to be the cradle of civilization, Mesopotamia brought significant cultural developments, including the oldest examples of writing.
Akkad was the capital of the Akkadian Empire, which was the dominant political force in Mesopotamia during a period of about 150 years in the last third of the 3rd millennium BC.
Pašime,, was an ancient region of southern Mesopotamia. It has recently been identified with Tell Abu Sheeja, Iraq, about 7 km from Iraq's border with Iran. It lies about 70 kilometers southeast of modern Baghdad and 60 kilometers north of the modern city of Amarah. Pashime corresponded to an area of interaction between Mesopotamia and Elam and was occupied from the Ubaid and Uruk periods in the 4th Millennium BC until the Old Babylonian period in the early 2nd Millennium BC. Its tutelary god was Šuda. The city is known from texts to have bordered on the ancient polity of Huhnur. The city of Pašime is thought to have been on the Persian Gulf which at that time extended much further north.
Tell Rijim is an archaeological site in Iraq, in ancient Upper Mesopotamia, in the valley of the Tigris River, about 25 kilometers to the north-west of Eski Mosul.
Tulul al-Baqarat or Tulūl al-Baqarāt, is an ancient Near East archaeological site in Wasit Governorate of Iraq about 180 kilometers southeast of modern Baghdad. It is located seven kilometers to the northeast of Tell al-Wilayah and 20 kilometers south of the city of Kut. The site was occupied from the 4th millennium BC to the Islamic period. It is thought to be the site of the ancient Early Dynastic city of Kesh.
Grai Resh is an ancient Near East archaeological site in the Nineveh Governorate of northwestern Iraq just south of the Sinjar Mountains. It was first occupied at the beginning of the 5th millennium BC in the Ubaid period. It then became part of the Uruk Expansion. Beveled rim bowls, diagnostic of the Uruk Culture, were found at the site. Grai Resh may have been occupied as late as the Jemdat Nasr or Early Dynastic I period before being abandoned. It has been suggested that site may have been, in the early 2nd millennium BC, the location of small Amorite kingdom of Kurda. Finds showed that the site participated in widespread trade.
Girdi Qala and Logardan a few hundred meters to the north are adjacent ancient Near East archaeological sites in Sulaymānīyah Governorate in northeast Iraq in the Kurdistan region, parts of a complex that was occupied off and on for at least six millennia. The site lies on the west bank of the Tavuq Cay river, a tributary of the Tigris river. The nearest notable archaeological sites are Jarmo to the north and Tell Kunara to the east. It is thought that Logardan was a political and religious center while Girdi Qala contained residential and craft/industrial areas. Girdi Qala was occupied from the Late Chacolitic I period until the Islamic period and Logardan from the Halaf period until the Islamic age. The primary occupation was during the Uruk period. The site is important for establishing the form and timing of the Uruk Expansion in a new region. Other Uruk sites in the area include Kani Shaie and Gurga Chiya.
