Chalcolithic period

The development of Mesopotamia in the 7th–5th millennium BC was centered around the Hassuna culture in the north, the Halaf culture in the northwest, the Samarra culture in central Mesopotamia and the Ubaid culture in the southeast, which later expanded to encompass the whole region.

An archaeological period (literally “copper-stone” age) that refers to increased use of metallurgy, especially of copper, toward the end of the Neolithic period. In Mesopotamia, the Chalcolithic period lasted approximately from the sixth to the fifth millennia B.C. Pilot sites are Tepe Gawra and Tell Arpachiya in the north, and Eridu and Tell Awayli in the south. For southern sites, the term Ubaid period is also used, and for the north, Halaf period. In this phase, all the achievements of the preceding period were further developed; horticulture and agriculture spread, and more and more people adopted a sedentary lifestyle. The archaeological evidence points to increased settlement size, increased specialization and professionalization, and higher labor inputs. All ecological niches and their wild resources (fish, water fowl, game, wild legumes) were exploited, and new cultigens were planted in fields and gardens, making use of hydro-technological inventions such as field irrigation.

Female statuette, Samarra culture, 6000 BC

The Chalcolithic period also saw the introduction of fundamentally new technologies. Particularly striking is the hand-painted, sometimes glazed potteryshowing an unparalleled degree of perfection. Pottery sets, found in many graves, were probably used in rituals and banquets where status could be displayed. Metallurgy was less developed in Mesopotamia than in neighboring countries such as Iran. Gold was introduced, and arsenic bronze appeared in the upper Euphrates region in the Ubaid period. There is some evidence from Tell Awayli of a weaving loom.

   Stone was also worked with more sophistication; it was now possible to work stones with a hardness of 4 to 7 on the Moh’s hardness scale. The presence of exotic stones, such as lapis-lazuli from Badakhshan or turquoise from Central Asia, points to an interlinking supply system. Exchange of goods seems to have been an important factor of Chalcolithic socioeconomics, as was the practice of seals and sealing documents. Some scholars propose that Chalcolithic communities were on the way to forming states (“incipient statehood”), given the whole-scale application of traditional inventions, efforts at maximizing energy output, and increasing full-time sedentarization.

Family Society in Mesopotamia

The basic constituent of Mesopotamian society was the patriarchal family. Administrative documents from the major sites recorded people’s names and affiliation, but it is still difficult to get a clear picture of the family sizes and patterns of residence at any given period.

   From the archaeological record, it appears that extended families encompassing several generations and more than one couple with children were common in later prehistoric periods . This can be deducted by the size of habitations, the number of fireplaces, and the number of individuals buried beneath the floor of houses. Such extended families formed productive units, pooling their labor and sharing resources. On the other hand, nuclear families, consisting of a couple with their (young) children, also existed, especially within larger groupings. There is no doubt that the several forms of family organization developed early, in response to different subsistence activities and social configurations. They persisted into later, historical periods. There is evidence from the Early Dynastic period that large households (oikos) were common , which included not only the members of the family but also servants and slaves . They could generate substantial revenues from enterprise, both commercial and agricultural. The land held by such a household could only be sold if all the male adults agreed, as sale contracts from the Akkad period document.

   The large state organizations  and the temples employed people of all ages and genders. Women and their children would work together in the manufactories of the Third Dynasty of Ur, for instance, producing textiles. Small family units could work on plots assigned to them by these organizations for a fixed percentage of the harvest. When a family experienced crop failures and could not meet their obligations, they had to take loans of silver or grain at often usurious rates. If the loans could not be paid either, the head of the family could pledge his own labor, and that of any of his children or his wife, or, in a more desperate move, sell them into slavery to raise capital. Excavations at Nippur have shown how in the Old Babylonian period wealthy, professional families lived in spacious houses, with domestic slaves, which in later, more difficult times were partitioned and occupied by poorer, more numerous families. In the Neo-Babylonian period, family firms, such as the Murashu or the Egibi, could conduct lucrative banking and investment business that continued for several generations. Such a practice can also be observed in the early second-millennium import-export family businesses at Assur.

   Some literary texts as well as proverbs allow some insights into the emotional comfort of family life. In the Old Babylonian version of the Gilgamesh epic, the “innkeeper” Siduri advises the hero to seek solace in the embrace of his wife and delight in the presence of his children. The 12th tablet of the epic describes the unhappy fate of the dead who have no children to offer libations for them, and it praises the lucky father of many sons who has an exalted position in the netherworld. Proverbs warn of the disruptive presence of pretty slave girls in the house and admonish the young to show respect for their elders.

References:Family