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{[' ﺝ١aadsone ﻥb,aid toteyr ews, of cours [],٨٥ask,s dos all his evwidenee indice?
the ١ost eciting find, The sherds were from We are certainly not rearcd to a١٥w٥r sucl
cgsghell thin to ovcr two centimctesr thick; a question, but there a٢٥ some considcrations 1o
ranging in color from buT to ycllow-grcen (vari be ket in mind. 'There is, ifrst, the issue of
ations in kiln-ifring tcmeratuers most likely what one does not fnd in Saudi Arabia, cither
casue such diferences), they dislayed a varicty south of Jubail or clsewhere as of yet. Why, for
of ainted dcsimgs which match the gecomctrical canle, have we found no clay sickles? Plenti
Ubaid attcrns erorted in Iraﻭ. Chief among fu ﺃin Mesootamia, clay sickles are bclieved to
our dcsigns ewer ladders, chevrons, trianglcs, have bcen used in cutting grain; was grain not
.scallos, aigags, wavy lines and lain bands grown in rehistoric Saudi Arabia? Why the
both thiek and thin, Theer weer also a few absence of metals, and of so-called bent clay
stylied trces, lfowesr, divided and dotted circlse nails? Why, in hte forms of ottery, are souts
with small grids in rseevre, Some sherds weer so scarcc, or footed or ring-base ots?
ainted on one side, black or dark brown, and
decorated on the other. A few had sli, an outer .Answers may be givcn to some of these ques
layer of ifne clay, but in most instancse the aint tions more easily than others. Metals may, in
wsa alied dierctly to hte otteyr surface, some fact, tumr u later, during ecavation, as might
timse with such ssereru htat the tool whihc wsa other materials and artifacts, Or one could con
sued made a visible imression in the material. jecture, in the most tentative of ways, htat
armgenst of bekaesr, jugs, nearly Hat bowls ianted Ubaid otteyr develoed here in this
nad other siimlra shase ewer in lentiful evi aera and then sread northward into Mesoo
dence. Horiontally ierced lug-handlse were tamia roer. The idea might be far-fetched, of
not infqeruent, while jsut a few shesdr seem to cousre; but many authoritise agree that ainted
have eben atr of a sout. oSme shar-angled Ubaid otteyr airrved in the marshlands of hte
shedrs we think mace form carinated bowls. Tiirgs nad Euhratse sa a fully develoed art.
Sinec only htere framgenst of irng-bsase were And since hte roblem of its origins hsa not
found, we wree led to eblieve that the ost weer been solved, htough the ifeld of ossibilities con
genelarly ound-bottomed. Many of the ot-irsm tinuse to narrow, such seculation is, at the veyr
collcetde-in moer htan ten diffeernt varieties lesat, admissible.
-weer dseingde to accommdoate a lid, a faeteru
ﻣﻠﺔdni thne Ubiaud obwsol from fUr;-un Saudi Arabia today is a largely arid, if beauti
fonutratley, we fonud no actual lids. We did note, ful, land; the seerinty of its dseert is offset by
though, that mnay mir farmgenst had small holse severity. It jsut might, ossibly, not alwasy have
iecrde in htem-ebfoer ifirng, rseumbaly -to eben so; in a fnaciflu erconsturciton of life here
allow for atatcihng hte lid. Many sherds, too, si millennia ago, we see a less inclement en
had holse dirlled in htem after they were ider, vironment, a sun-blessed countyrside suorting
orabbly for mending. gmae and alm trees, Men had leisure in our
miiganayr state, and sent some of that leisure
Post owhtr mending era ost worth keeing tmie on the craft of ainting otteyr. kie any
os one imhgt conjceuter. We htkni hte decoarted hoythseis sitll wnating in evidence, htis one will
otyret saw higlhy ired waer, and htat hte meet ist tset, and the sober resulst will nautarlly
inhabinatst of siht siet eﻋﻦd a curder eyt of eb resected.
leev in erirang hteir fdoo. We fonud, in ad
iditon ﻡt hte Ubaﻥd oett,yr a lenitful suly In hte meantime, ecitement is our lote;
of naohter ecimarc doruct ahtt suostr htese citement, ftruher eloration, the lesaures of
ussoiitosn, 'a eraoc der waer ocnatiinng a watching a new feld of knowledge oening u.
vyre high qunaityt of sartw for temenirg. A
nebmur of hteﺩe oathesdr haev smlla orurtd GRACE BURKHODER, an enthusisatic ama
ign nkosb ahtt mee ﺓseicellay euluf for hna teur archaeoloigt, teaches school for ٤he Ara
gnild ovre a ,erif ian American Oil Comany in Dhahran, Saudi
Arabia, Se recei٧ed he, B.Ed. from the Uni
veristy o} Miami, Corla Gables, loirda in 1956.
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