The Sumerian World (Routledge Worlds)

EB IV, the last phase of the Early Bronze Age is generally thought to begin around
2500 BCin Western Syria and c. 2450 – 2400 BCin the middle Euphrates, although its
end-date is still contested. Pottery assemblages with traits diagnostic of the Early
Bronze Age continue to appear at a few surviving middle Euphrates settlements after
2100 BC(Cooper 1998 ), and from this one can postulate that one or two centuries
passed before the region experienced the full urban regeneration of the Middle Bronze
Age (c. 2000 – 1900 BC). The EB IV in western Syria seems to have persisted over the
same length of time, with little evidence of settlement diminishment, and eventually
giving way to the MB, whose beginning heralded significant changes in pottery styles,
architectural planning, settlement sizes and layout (Morandi-Bonacossi 2009 : 63 – 64 ;
Pinnock 2009 : 72 – 73 ).

THE LATE URUK AND EB I–II PERIODS
The end of the Late Uruk period and the beginnings of the Early Dynastic Period of
Sumer in southern Mesopotamia coincide roughly with the earliest phases of the Early
Bronze Age in western Syria and the middle Euphrates Valley (c. 3100 – 2600 BC). The
Syrian regions were affected by the ‘Uruk expansion’ of the late fourth millennium,
which saw the appearance of many southern Mesopotamian material cultural attributes
at a number of sites (Akkermans and Schwartz 2003 : 181 ). Particularly prominent sites
with classic Uruk assemblages include Habuba Kabira South and Jebel Aruda in the
Tabqa Dam salvage zone of the middle Euphrates Valley. These sites’ evidence of
central planning, southern Mesopotamian architectural materials and plans, pottery,
and administrative apparatus in the form of numerical tablets, cylinder seals and clay
bullae, have such a strong southern Mesopotamian orientation that scholars have

–– Cultural developments in western Syria ––

2000–

2200–

2400–

2600–

2800–

3000–

3200–

Late Uruk

Jemdet Nasr

Early Dynastic I

Early Dynastic II

Early Bronze I+II

Early Bronze I+II

Early Bronze III

Early Bronze III

Early Bronze IV Early Bronze IV

Early Dynastic III

Akkadian

Ur III

൹

൹

൹

൹

൹൹

ൻ ൻ

ൻ

ൻ

ൻ

ൻ

Date (BC) Western Syria Middle Euphrates Southern

Mesopotamia

Figure 25.2Chronology of western Syria and the middle Euphrates region,

and their relation to the southern Mesopotamian cultural sequence