Ancient Mesopotamian History: Time-Line Chronology

Bevelled-rim bowls are found by the thousands in levels of the Middle and Late Uruk periods. Their function has been much debated by scholars. The most likely explanation is that they were used to measure out grain rations to pay workers. The earliest Mesopotamian pictograph for "food" is a bowl that may well be a beveled-rim bowl. The earliest pictograph for "eating" combines that bowl with the profile view of a human head.
Jamdat Nasr. Baked clay. Late Uruk Period. Field Museum 158359

Vessels decorated with shades of red, dark brown, and white are characteristic of the Jamdat Nasr Period, which takes its name from one of the sites excavated by the Kish Expedition. It was there that polychrome pottery was first found in large quantities.
Jamdat Nasr. Baked clay. Jamdat Nasr Period. Field Museum 158312

Jars with handles in the form of a crude human figure, with prominent breasts and a large pubic triangle, were common in graves of the Early Dynastic III period at Kish. They are called "goddess-handled jars," but the identity of the figure(s) they represent and their purpose within the graves remains a mystery.
Kish East, Mound A, West Side of Mound. Baked clay. Early Dynastic Period. Field Museum 156212

Seals were invented in the Near East approximately 10,000 years ago and are still used in Iraq today. Ancient Mesopotamians used seals to seal doors and containers in which items were traded or stored. An intact sealing indicted that no one had tampered with the contents and identified the agent or agency that had affixed the seal. After writing was invented, seals were impressed on documents, sometimes by administrative officials, at other times by witnesses to legal transactions, to validate the written records.
Kish. Shell. Akkadian Period. Field Museum 156670

In the inscription on this clay cone, King Ur-Namma of Ur commemorated his construction of the E-temen-nigur for the moon god Nanna at Ur. Cones such as this were driven into the mud-brick walls of buildings to serve as witness to important events.
Probably purchased or found by a member of the Kish Expedition; originally from Ur. Baked clay. Ur III Period. Field Museum 156003

During the Isin-Larsa/Old Babylonian period, small clay plaques of the type shown here were extremely common. They bear representations of deities and cultic or mythological scenes, and may have been objects of private devotion or amulets that served to ward off evil and/or attract beneficial forces.
Kish. Baked clay. Isin-Larsa/Old Babylonian Period. Field Museum 156861

Goblet.
Kish East, Mound A. Baked clay. Kassite Period. Field Museum 157219

On this brick, King Adad-apla-iddina commemorated his rebuilding of E-me-te-ur-sag, the sacred precinct of the god Zababa at Kish. Zababa was a war god, sometimes described as 'sharp-horned,' whose symbol was a bird-headed scepter or mace.
Kish West, Uhaimir, Mound Z, Ziggurat. Baked clay. Second Dynasty of Isin. Field Museum 156011

When discovered, this figurine was wearing a copper girdle and band over his right shoulder and held a copper staff in his left hand and brandished a copper weapon in his right. The deity represented may combine aspects of a warrior god and the minister of the gods, Ninshubur/Papsukkal, who is represented wearing a horned crown and a long robe, and standing at attention holding a staff. Clay figurines such as this one often were used to protect a building and its inhabitants from evil spirits and diseases, or to drive out those already present. They were buried under floors, usually in containers of stone or clay.
Kish West, Mound W. Baked clay. Neo-Assyrian/Neo-Babylonian Period. Ashmolean Museum 1924.701

This tablet records the loan for eleven months to the woman Etertum, daughter of Nergal-shum-ibni, son of the fisherman, of two-and-a-half minas of broken silver. It is dated the 18th day of Aiaru (May) in the 29th year (492 B.C.) of Darius.
Kish. Clay. Achaemenid Period. Field Museum 156009

Music played an important role in ancient Mesopotamian life. It ranged from simple singing to complex polyphonic vocal and instrumental performances in cultic and palatial contexts. Musical compositions are recorded in cuneiform texts, and various types of musicians are depicted in reliefs and sculptures. The women shown on this plaque are musicians. The one on the right is playing a double pipe and the one on the left appears to be tapping on a drum.
Kish. Baked clay. Parthian Period. Field Museum 229186

The Kish Expedition excavated seven buildings whose walls were embellished with elaborate stucco decoration. The figure shown here is that of a Sasanian king, identified by his crown as either Shapur II (A.D. 310-379) or Bahram V (A.D. 420-438).
Kish East, Mound H, Sasanian Palace 1. Stucco. Sasanian Period. Field Museum 236400a

Terracotta bowls with magical inscriptions are found in great numbers in houses dating from the Sasanian and Islamic periods. These incantation bowls were typically buried upside-down at strategic points within houses or at the gate to contain the evil spirits lurking there. Their power to suppress evil was reinforced by a magic spell written around the bowl's interior in Aramaic, Mandaic, Pahlevi, Hebrew, or a combination of these scripts.
Kish, Baked clay, Advent of Islam, Field Museum 157028