Today, we present two portentous excavations and a rather long but enjoyable video on Sumer with rich photography of Mesopotamian civilization going back from late Akkad to the Ubaid, the 2nd through 4th millennium BC.

Kortik Tepe: video and Site Paper with another paper about early evidence of animal exploitation at this under-explored (perhaps presently unprofessional i.e. uncontrolled) excavation of a 10,000 BP PPNA site (Pre Pottery Neolithic A as is earliest Gobekli Tepe) with stone-walled living quarters, which appear contemporaneous with Gobekli Tepe (PPNA to PPNB). If this site is as advertised, we have pushed back the first evidence of permanent living quarters (stone walls are permanent)—regardless of whether they are “Hunter Gatherer” or early Neolithic—far before anything identified as “permanent.” Last week, I identified that there are other much smaller contemporaneous worship sites that are supposed to be architecturally similar to  Gobekli Tepe, which would promote Gobekli Tepe to a worship center with satellite worship sites. The “permanent structure” conclusion is challenged.

En Esur. A 5,000-year-old city has been discovered in Israel which housed about 6,000 people. This story will grow as the dig matures, for this is the largest occupied site in this period.

Sumer. The following one hour and nineteen-minute video provides a lecture on Mesopotamia history over the 2nd through 4th millennia, reaching back to the Ubaid. There is a lot of material in the lecture and some fresh interpretations while the video streams images of Mesopotamian sites and excavated items of the material culture over that period. I watched it all and found it interesting.

Thanks for visiting.

R. E. J. Burke