In Mesopotamia, the Ubaid Culture of the mid-fifth to late fourth millennium
experiences a substantial cultural expansion extending from the Arabian Peninsula and
the Iranian shores of the Persian Gulf (Masry 1997 ; Carter and Crawford 2010 ) to
northern Mesopotamia and western Iran. The nature of the Ubaid Expansion, whether
resulting from colonization, migration and/or acculturation, are subjects of con-
siderable debate, as is the directionality and timing of its expansion (for a full discus-
sion see the articles in Carter and Philip 2010 ). The Ubaid Culture is treated in the
literature as a foundational stage in the emergence of Mesopotamian cultural com-
plexity, seen as a complex chiefdom or an early state formation.
There is little doubt that Ubaid influences were felt in Iran. In western Iran, the
major site of Susa and its Khuzistan neighborhood (Jowi 1 and Bendebal 1 ) show strong
parallels with Ubaid pottery, as do several sites within the Zagros Mountains. Regional
differences in settlement organization, architecture, and environment suggest that
community organization differed through time and space. Throughout the Ubaid
horizon, southern Mesopotamia and southwestern Iran had a two-tiered settlement
regime suggesting a pattern of small centers controlling three or four neighboring
villages (Wright and Johnson 1975 ).
The extensive distribution of the Ubaid Culture must be seen within the context
of its material presence within local indigenous cultures. Its impact on the political
economy within different regions varied from negligible to significant. In Iran it tended
to the former rather than the later. It is of importance to point out that the distinctive
cultures of the Zagros Mountains and the Khuzistan steppes were, from the earliest
periods, profoundly different from that of southern Mesopotamia. Their relationships,
as we shall see, were characterized by enmity and outright warfare. In a single instance,
and that in the Susa Necropole of southwestern Iran, Ubaid ceramics may be argued
as having prestige, even ritual significance (Berman 1994 ). At Susa toward the end of
the fifth millennium, a truly massive platform of two stages was constructed. Adjacent
to the platform, a cemetery was excavated containing approximately 2 , 000 burials and
4 , 000 Ubaid-like ceramics, fifty-five copper axes and an assortment of other metal
objects. A number of seals and sealings with figurative designs were recovered from
the burials. From the seventh millennium, seals and sealings were used to secure goods
within the household. Commodities were placed in jars or in storerooms, their
openings fastened by string and clay which was then impressed by a seal that could be
broken only by one having authorized access. Frank Hole ( 2010 : 232 ) who has studied
the monumental architecture and its associated cemetery asks “What does this mean?”:
The evidence suggests that the people at Susa engaged in a massive building
campaign that resulted in the great platform which one can plausibly connect to
rituals that had become more elaborate and important. These developments
occurred during a period of increasing duress, as evidenced by a region-wide decline
in settlements, abandonment of regions of Iran and the successive burnings of the
buildings atop the great platform.To Frank Hole ( 2010 : 238 ) the Susa A platform, “the largest construction of its time in
the ancient world,” represents the institutionalization of ritual, the emergence of
priestly authority, and their eventual failure in guiding human events. This, in turn,
he believes resulted in the destruction of the buildings atop the platform and the
–– C.C. Lamberg-Karlovsky ––