Al-Ubaid was named after an early settlement in Mesopotamia This place went through the Ubaid Stage that ended at 6,000 B.P. It was among the earliest complex societies in Mesopotamia that revolved around the triad of irrigation, temples and social stratification.
People at this place lived in small settlements around a temple. The people rely most on the main sources, for example, they built their houses along rivers, as water was a main source for daily lives. The size of this settlement was usually less than 10 hectares. The temples were usually large and nonresidential and they were constructed of mudbrick on platforms of clay or imported stones. All the temple shapes were the same. The construction of these temples signifies the development of culture complexity.
Among the most important occupations were the priests. They were also the secular figure served as ritual, political and economic leaders. This occupation was the first in Sumer, the southern Mesopotamian alluvium. Sumer is so dry that no groups could survive living there without waterways. During this period, the kings, apart from the priests, were also the early state’ political and economic leaders. The priests happened to be the greatest rival with the kings of authority and they oversaw large irrigation projects and redistributed food supplies from the temples. These foods also served as food storage centers and markets.
In Al-Ubaid, anthropologists found two terracotta female heads, which dated very back to 4,500 B.C. These heads showed the early culture, named after the Al-Ubaid site, which rose from the earliest settlement of the southern alluvial flood plain in the late sixth millennium. This culture lasted to 4,000 B.C. after it expanded out in the fifth millennium. Another artifact that was found was the Ubaid terracotta figurine. It shows a woman suckling a child. The figurine had painted jewelry, body pain or tattoos. It was also a slim figure with elongated head and protruding Ubaid eyes character.
Apart from female figurine, another figurine artifact was a baked clay male figuring from an Ubaid grave at Eridu. The figurine had tattoos from shoulder to shoulder used by men and women. It is one of the southern Ubaid figure styles. The last artifact was the pots found at Al-Ubaid site itself. These pots are the typical of last phase of Ubaid pottery found throughout much of Mesopotamia, including Uruk.
http://www.hp.uab.edu/image_archive/ue/uea.html
http://www.arts.ubc.ca/anso/pokotylo/anth103/Mesptmia.htm
Submitted by Maria T. Lau