Jemdet Nasr
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Jemdet Nasr is an archaeological site in modern Iraq. The name is also used for an early Bronze Age culture of southern Mesopotamia, the Jemdet Nasr Period, which flourished around 3000-2900 BC.
During the Jemdet Nasr period writing began in southern Mesopotamia. The earliest cylinder seals also came into use in the period. It also represents the urban revolution when the numerous small Mesopotamian settlements developed into major cities.
The site of Jemdet Nasr was first explored in 1926 and 1928 by a team of British and American archaeologists headed by Stephen Langdon. Excavation of the site was resumed in 1988 by Roger J. Matthews and others. The excavators discovered a large building which contained an archive of proto-cuneiform texts with seal impressions, as well as cylinder seals. The pottery, a polychrome painted ware, found at the site is helpful in determining the layer of the Jemdet Nasr period at other sites.
The Jemdet Nasr period is now believed by the excavator R. J. Matthews to have been short, about a century, though a longer period c.3200-2900 BC is found in older scholarly literature. The Jemdet Nasr culture succeeded the earlier Uruk culture and was contemporary with the Ninevite 5 culture of northern Mesopotamia and the Proto-Elamite civilization of western Iran. It represents the final stage before the Sumerian Early Dynastic Period in southern Mesopotamia.
