ウバイド文化における葬法

Abstract

The following article concerns the burial practices of Ubaid culture in the northern Syria, the northern and southern Mesopotamia and the southwestern Iran. On previous papers I proposed a tentative chronology for the Ubaid pottery as funerary objects from Tell Kashkashok II, ordered another sequence of the tombs themselves and, after comparing and examining both sequences, established the integrated chronology for the Ubaid tombs in the site.According to the conclusions resulted from these articles, I shall deal with the structure of tombs: tomb accompanying mud-brick wall located at the entrance of the burial chamber, and box-like tomb built of mud-bricks enclosing the burial chamber. As for the former, the tomb has the subterranean structure that a lateral burial chamber like a catacomb is connected with the bottom of a vertical shaft. The method of construction for the unique tomb was detailedly explained in the final report of the Kashkashok II. This type was spread mainly on the northern Ubaid culture, but another one- box tomb -mostly on the southern Ubaid. The latter shows the shaft structure that a burial chamber is enclosed by mud-brick or stone walls in a box plan.Here will be discussed some aspects of burial custom in the Ubaid culture which were expressed in such visible evidences as structure of the burial chambers and position of the physical remains, as those types of tombs could be significant indicators for the Ubaid expansion. Then, I am going to trace the distribution of these typical attributes in terms of the regional variation hypothesized tentatively by water course or valley, and consider the o igin and development of the burial practices in the Ubaid culture.