Architecture and Linear Measurement during the Ubaid Period in Mesopotamia

Description

This monograph constitutes a comprehensive survey of Ubaid architecture. It offers a general overview, laying out analogies with earlier epochs like Tell es-Sawwan and exploring the transition from Uruk Period to Ubaid architecture. It then provides a detailed and comprehensive catalogue of sites. It also includes an analysis of various building materials and their characteristic properties, and of architectural and structural elements, with original reconstructions. The functions of the various buildings catalogued are interpreted according to their location, orientation, the size and shape of rooms, and the distribution of finds. Through analysis of the structures, it is shown for the first time that the architects and builders of this period were familiar with a number of geometric principles, and that a standard unit of measurement (the ‘Ubaid cubit’) was used in the design and construction of many of the more important buildings. This is the earliest unit of measurement attested.