The Near and Middle East (4,365 – 2,638 BCE): Late Neolithic / Chalcolithic — Canal Worlds, Copper Horizons, and Incense Frontiers

Geographic & Environmental Context

During the Late Holocene, the Near and Middle East formed a vast corridor linking Africa, Asia, and the emerging Mediterranean world.
Its landscapes ranged from the canal-fed alluvium of Mesopotamia to the mountain arcs of the Zagros and Caucasus, from the Red Sea terraces of Arabia to the Aegean coasts of Anatolia and the floodplain gardens of the Nile’s eastern reach.

This was an environment of extraordinary ecological diversity:

• alluvial lowlands (Khuzestan, the Tigris–Euphrates, and the Nile),

• arid steppe and wadi systems (Syria, Jordan, and northern Arabia),

• monsoon-fed highlands (Yemen and Dhofar), and

• maritime corridors along the Aegean and the Gulf.

By the mid-fourth millennium BCE, these distinct zones were already bound together by trade and shared technologies, forming a continental network of canals, oases, and copper routes—the crucible of the world’s first urban civilizations.

---

Climate & Environmental Shifts

Climatic conditions remained broadly warm but trended toward greater aridity and hydrological instability.
Monsoon withdrawal across Arabia and the Levant reduced rainfall, while alluvial rivers such as the Tigris, Euphrates, and Nile experienced episodic floods and channel shifts.
Marshes waxed and waned with avulsion cycles, while terrace cultivation expanded along mountain slopes and wadis to compensate for declining lowland fertility.

Despite these fluctuations, the region’s hydraulic ingenuity ensured continuity: canals, levees, and terrace systems multiplied, transforming seasonal variability into predictable abundance.

---

Subsistence & Settlement

Agriculture reached mature complexity across the region.

• In Mesopotamia, irrigated fields supported wheat, barley, flax, and date palms; villages clustered along levees evolved into proto-towns.

• In the Zagros and Iranian uplands, mixed farming combined with mobile herding of sheep, goats, and cattle; oasis gardens and storage compounds appeared in Khuzestan and Fars.

• Along the Nile, canalized floodplains sustained orchard mosaics and grain surplus; in the Hejaz and Yemen, terraces and wells anchored small agro-oases.

• Across the Aegean–Anatolian littoral, caprine herding and olive and grape cultivation began to shape the coastal economy.

Societies thus mastered both irrigation and pastoral mobility, using each to stabilize the other—a pattern of interdependence that would endure through Bronze Age state formation.

---

Technology & Material Culture

This epoch marked the metallurgical awakening of the Near and Middle East.
Copper working spread from Anatolia and Iran into the Arabian Gulf and Levantine coasts, while painted ceramics, stamp seals, and lapidary crafts revealed both artistry and administration.
Marshland boatbuilding, sewn-plank hulls along the Gulf, and early sail technology along the Red Sea and Aegean coasts extended trade into a true interregional web.

In Arabia’s southern highlands, incense resins joined copper and bitumen as high-value exchange commodities, linking Dhofar to the Gulf and the Levant.
Longhouse compounds, fortified hamlets, and temple-precursor spaces emerged—architectures of both storage and ceremony—reflecting growing social organization.

---

Movement & Exchange Corridors

The region functioned as a vast network of corridors:

• The Tigris–Euphrates–Gulf axis linked canal towns to maritime trade.

• The Zagros and Iranian plateau carried obsidian, copper, and lapis through caravan routes into Central Asia.

• The Levant–Sinai–Nile interface mediated exchanges between Mesopotamia and Egypt.

• Maritime routes extended from Bahrain and Oman through Socotra to Yemen and the Red Sea, connecting with the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean circuits.

These overlapping networks produced the earliest transcontinental economy—a fabric of goods, techniques, and ritual forms that spanned from the Caucasus to the Indian Ocean.

---

Belief & Symbolism

Religious and symbolic life reflected the region’s deep relationship with water, fertility, and ancestry.
Canal openings were marked by offerings; terrace and spring shrines celebrated renewal; incense was burned as both ritual and commodity.
Ancestor veneration remained central: tombs in wadis and cairns on highlands mirrored the monumental shrines rising in lowland settlements.

Across the cultural spectrum—from the Nile and the Euphrates to the incense plateaus of Dhofar—the sacred landscape united earth, water, and sky in a single cosmological order, prefiguring later temple religions of the Bronze Age.

---

Adaptation & Resilience

Environmental resilience was achieved through redundancy and diversification.
Canal networks mitigated river shifts; terrace agriculture stabilized slopes; transhumant herding bridged ecological zones; and incense and copper trade buffered economic shocks.
Communities responded flexibly to drought, alternating between floodplain farming and highland pasturing, ensuring food security through cross-ecological alliances.

The combination of hydraulic engineering, caravan mobility, and coastal exchange turned climate stress into opportunity—innovation born from aridity.

---

Long-Term Significance

By 2,638 BCE, the Near and Middle East had evolved into a connected sphere of technological and cultural experimentation.
Metallurgy, irrigation, and maritime navigation had fused into a single transregional system linking Africa, Asia, and the Mediterranean.
This integration set the stage for the rise of early Bronze Age states—from Uruk and Susa to Ebla, Byblos, and Dilmun—and for the incense, copper, and grain economies that would sustain them.

Here, in these canal worlds and incense highlands, urban civilization found its first durable template: hydraulic mastery, ritual centrality, and a networked geography that joined desert and delta, mountain and sea, into one interdependent whole.

Middle East (4,365 – 2,638 BCE) Late Neolithic / Chalcolithic — Canal Oases, Copper, and Exchange Webs

Geographic and Environmental Context

The Middle East includes Iraq, Iran, Syria, Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, eastern Jordan, most of Turkey’s central/eastern uplands (including Cilicia), eastern Saudi Arabia, northern Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, the UAE, northeastern Cyprus, and all but the southernmost Lebanon.

• Anchors: the Tigris–Euphrates alluvium and marshes; the Zagros (Luristan, Fars), Alborz, Caucasus (Armenia–Georgia–Azerbaijan); northern Syrian plains and Cilicia; Khuzestan and Fars lowlands; the Arabian/Persian Gulf littoral (al-Ahsa–Qatar–Bahrain–UAE–northern Oman); northeastern Cyprus and the Lebanon coastal elbow (north).

Climate & Environment

• Warm with beginning arid pulses; alluvial levees shifted; marsh belts waxed/waned in Lower Mesopotamia.

Subsistence & Settlement

• Canalized fields in Khuzestan–Lower Tigris–Euphrates; Ubaid-like village networks (style influences) in our north–east periphery; mixed farming in Iranian fans; pastoral transhumance in Zagros.

• Caucasus highlands developed the Shulaveri–Shomu/Leilatepe-type agro-villages (shared horizon with South Caucasus).

Technology & Material Culture

• Copper tools/adornments; stamp seals; painted ceramics; long-house compounds; boat building on marsh edges.

Corridors

• Alluvium ⇄ Gulf watercraft; overland Zagros caravan trails; Araxes–Kura to the Caucasus.

Symbolism

• Temple-precursor spaces; canal-opening rites; ancestor veneration persists.

Adaptation

• Canal maintenance, pasture switching, and oasis redundancy hedged against channel avulsion and aridity.

Transition

Toward the Bronze Age, metallurgy and canal polities will scale up into early states (Uruk/Ur—south of our boundary—interfacing with our oases).

Susa, like its Chalcolithic neighbor Uruk, begins as discrete settlements in the Susa I period (about 4000 BCE).

The two settlements called Acropolis (seven hectares) and Apadana (six point three hectares) by archeologists will later merge to form Susa proper (eighteen hectares).

Walls of rammed earth six meters thick enclose Apadana.

The founding of Susa corresponds with the abandonment of nearby villages.

It is possible the founding of the city was an attempt to reestablish the previously destroyed settlement at Chogha Mish.

One of the oldest-known settlements of the region and indeed the world, Susa was possibly founded about 4200 BCE; although the first traces of an inhabited Neolithic village have been dated to around 7000 BCE.

Evidence of a painted-pottery civilization has been dated to around 5000 BCE.

The region around Susa in the southwest of modern Iran, is located right next to lower Mesopotamia, which exercises a powerful influence on it from the fifth millennium BCE, and might be considered to have been part of the Uruk culture in the second half of the fourth millennium BCE, either as a result of conquest or a more gradual acculturation, but it does retain its own unique characteristics.

The Middle East (3933–3790 BCE): Urbanization, Metallurgy, and Cultural Transitions

Susa and the Uruk Period

Between 3933 and 3790 BCE, the site of Susa in southwestern Iran became an important urban center during the Uruk period, specifically in its Susa I phase (4000–3700 BCE). Monumental architecture emerged during this era, exemplified by the construction of the "High Terrace," which would later expand substantially during the Susa II phase (3700–3100 BCE) to approximately sixty by forty-five meters. The remarkable artifacts discovered at Susa provide crucial insights into the administrative origins and early writing systems of the Uruk period.

Early Bronze Production

During this era, the earliest known bronze artifacts appeared on the Iranian plateau, notably at Tepe Yahya around 3800 BCE. This early bronze, likely resulting from accidental mixtures of copper with arsenic or antimony, represented a significant technological advancement. Known as "arsenical bronze," such alloys demonstrated superior properties compared to pure copper. While arsenic contamination was common in copper ores, the deliberate creation of arsenical bronze remains a subject of debate, although its presence clearly indicates the technological progression during this period.

Early Settlement at Ur

The city of Ur, at the time located near the mouth of the Euphrates on the Persian Gulf, provides evidence of early occupation dating back to the Ubaid period around 3800 BCE. Early excavations in the 1920s uncovered deep archaeological layers initially interpreted as evidence of the biblical Great Flood. Modern understanding, however, attributes these layers to regular flooding from the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, along with substantial erosion by water and wind. Ur would later flourish as an urban center during the third millennium BCE.

Uruk and Urban Hegemony

The city of Uruk, located east of the modern Euphrates riverbed near As-Samawah, Iraq, became the focal point of the Uruk period, a protohistoric era spanning from about 4000 to 3100 BCE. According to Sumerian mythology, Uruk was founded by Enmerkar, who established kingship and constructed the celebrated Eanna temple dedicated to the goddess Inanna. Around 3800 BCE, Uruk, along with Nippur, emerged as dominant urban centers of approximately twenty hectares each, asserting regional hegemony over surrounding smaller settlements.

Ubaid Art and Social Structure

The Mesopotamian sculpture of the late Ubaid period featured terra cotta statuettes of gods, men, and women. The culture, originating from southern Mesopotamia, maintained clear connections to earlier regional traditions. The Ubaid period notably saw the development of distinct social divisions between agricultural peasants, nomadic pastoralists, and hunter-fisher communities living in reed huts along the Arabian littoral.

Climatic Shifts and Cultural Decline in Arabia

The Arabian Peninsula experienced a significant climatic shift around 3800 BCE, marking the abrupt end of the Arabian Bifacial/Ubaid period in eastern Arabia and the Oman peninsula. The increased aridity, likely linked to the 5.9 kiloyear event at the end of the Older Peron, led to the cessation of semi-desert nomadism and the disappearance of human occupation for nearly a millennium, a period known as the "Dark Millennium."

Areni-1 Cave Discoveries in Armenia

Meanwhile, the cave site Areni-1 in Armenia revealed groundbreaking insights into Bronze Age civilization, showcasing an advanced winemaking enterprise, diverse pottery styles, and numerous Copper Age artifacts dating back approximately six thousand years. These discoveries, including the world’s oldest known winery and leather shoe, reflect sophisticated domestic and agricultural practices, highlighting the broad cultural advancements across the region during this period.

This epoch marks significant developments in urbanization, metallurgy, and sociocultural organization, profoundly shaping subsequent historical trajectories in the ancient Middle East.

The Uruk period levels at Susa are called Susa I (c. 4000–3700 BCE) and Susa II (c. 3700–3100 BCE), during which the site becomes an urban settlement.

Susa I sees the beginning of monumental architecture on the site, with the construction of a 'High Terrace', which is increased during Susa II to measure roughly sixty by forty-five meters.

The most interesting aspect of this site is the objects discovered here, which are the most important evidence available to us for the art of the Uruk period and the beginning of administration and writing.

Uruk, situated east of the present bed of the Euphrates river, on the ancient dry former channel of the Euphrates River, some thirty kilometers east of modern As-Samawah, Al-Muthann, Iraq, is eponymous of the Uruk period, which is the protohistoric Chalcolithic to Early Bronze Age period in the history of Mesopotamia spanning from around 4000 BCE to about 3100 BCE.

It is succeeded by the Jemdet Nasr period of Sumer proper.

In myth, Uruk was founded by Enmerkar, who brought the official kingship with him, according to the Sumerian king list.

He also, in the epic Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta, constructs the Eanna (Sumerian: E2-ana, 'House-of-Heavens') temple for the goddess Inanna in the Eanna District of Uruk.

Uruk plays a leading role in the early urbanization of Sumer in the mid-fourth millennium BCE.

Starting from the Early Uruk period, Uruk exercises hegemony over nearby settlements.

At this time (about 3800 BCE), there are two centers of twenty hectares, Uruk in the south and Nippur in the north, surrounded by much smaller ten-hectare settlements.

The Middle East (3789–3646 BCE): Administration, Writing, and Early Urban Conflict

Cylinder Seals and Administration at Susa

Between 3789 and 3646 BCE, the cylinder seals of the Susa I and Susa II periods exhibited rich iconography, uniquely emphasizing scenes of everyday life, alongside depictions of a local figure identified by scholar P. Amiet as a "proto-royal figure," potentially an antecedent to the "priest-kings" of the Late Uruk era. These seals, together with bullae and clay tokens, suggest the growing importance of administrative practices and sophisticated accounting techniques at Susa during the second half of the fourth millennium BCE. Significantly, Susa also yielded some of the earliest known writing tablets, underscoring its critical role in the development of writing systems.

Broader Cultural Context in Susiana

Other regional sites in Susiana, such as Jaffarabad and Chogha Mish, similarly reflect substantial archaeological developments from this period, illustrating the widespread nature of these administrative and cultural transformations.

Tell Brak and Early Urbanization

Meanwhile, a small settlement existed at Tell Brak in northeastern Syria, in the present-day Al-Hasakah Governorate, as early as 6000 BCE, with materials indicating a continuous occupation through the Late Neolithic Halaf culture into the subsequent Ubaid and Uruk periods. Excavations and surface surveys indicate that Tell Brak developed into an urban center contemporaneously with, or even slightly earlier than, well-known cities of southern Mesopotamia, such as Uruk.

Recent archaeological excavations at Tell Brak have uncovered dramatic evidence, including a series of mass graves dating to approximately 3800–3600 BCE, suggesting that the urbanization process may have been accompanied by significant warfare. Additionally, a notable domestic structure from around 3700 BCE featured a long, narrow courtyard with a domed oven, suggesting social gatherings or communal activities. Skeletal remains from the site indicate that Tell Brak was later a notable source of donkey-onager mules utilized for pulling wheeled carts prior to the introduction of horses around 2300 BCE.

Metallurgical Advancements

During this period, the production of the earliest known bronze artifacts, such as those previously discovered at Tepe Yahya in Iran, marked significant advancements in metallurgy, contributing to the technological sophistication of the era.

This age highlights pivotal advancements in administrative and writing practices, the complexities associated with urbanization and warfare, and continuing metallurgical innovations, which collectively shaped the trajectory of early urban societies in the ancient Middle East.

The cylinder seals of Susa I and Susa II have a very rich iconography, uniquely emphasizing scenes of everyday life, although there is also some kind of local potentate which P. Amiet sees as a 'proto-royal figure,' preceding the 'priest-kings' of Late Uruk. (P. Amiet, "Glyptique susienne archaïque," Revue Assyriologique 51, 1957, p. 127)

These cylinder seals, as well as bullae and clay tokens, indicate the rise of administration and of accounting techniques at Susa during the second half of the fourth millennium BCE.

Susa will also yield some of the most ancient writing tablets, making it a key site for our understanding of the origins of writing.

Other sites in Susiana also have archaeological levels belonging to this period, like Jaffarabad and Chogha Mish.

A small settlement existed at the site of Tell Brak, in the present Upper Khabur area in Al-Hasakah Governorate, northeastern Syria, as early as 6000 BCE, and materials from the Late Neolithic Halaf culture have been found there.

Occupation has continued into the succeeding Ubaid and Uruk periods.

Excavations and surface survey of the site and its surroundings reveal a city that developed from the early fourth millennium BCE contemporaneously with (or even slightly earlier than) better-known cities of southern Mesopotamia, such as Uruk.

The most dramatic discoveries during recent excavations are a series of mass graves dating to circa 3800–3600 BCE, which suggest that the process of urbanization was accompanied by warfare.

A house in Tell Brak dating to around 3700 BCE would have had a long narrow courtyard with a domed oven, large enough for a gathering that would have tightly packed the space.

Skeletal remains show that the city was later a source for donkey-onager mules used for drawing wheeled carts before the introduction of the horse, about 2300 BCE.