Jemdet Nasr
Jemdet Nasr [Si].A settlement near Kish at the northern end of the Mesopotamian alluvial plain. Excavations by Stephen Langdon in the 1920s revealed a series of deposits containing a distinctive style of painted pottery (black and red paint over buff fabric) that has come to define the Jemdet Nasr Phase in the southern Mesopotamian sequence and dates to the late 4th millennium bc. It is equivalent to URUK III and has evidence for writing, the use of fine sculpture, increasing trade, and craft specialization. Jemdet Nasr was occupied from late Uruk through to early Dynastic I times and serves to demonstrate the essential continuity of the period. A substantial structure uncovered at Jemdet Nasr may prove to be the earliest known palace in southern Mesopotamia.[Rep.: E. J. H. Mackay, 1931, Report on excavations at Jemdet Nasr, Iraq. Chicago: Field Museum of Natural History]
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