diggings in the _kurgans_ of Turkestan, (to which he assigned an
extremely remote date B.C.). In Persia, and about the head of the
Persian Gulf, somewhat similar pottery was discovered by de Morgan
and the other French excavators at Susa, Tepe Musyan, Bandar Bushir,
and other places: here again the dates were put at a very remote
period. With the exception of a few flint saw-blades from Warka [1],
Fara, Zurghul, and Babylon [2], no similar remains had been found in
Babylonia until, in 1918, Capt. R. Campbell Thompson, exploring on
behalf of the British Museum, discovered flint and obsidian flakes
and painted pottery lying on the surface of the desert at Tell Abu
Shahrein (ERIDU), and also at Tell Muqayyar (UR). The continued
excavations carried out by Mr. H. R. Hall for the Museum in 1919 have
produced more of the same evidence from both places, besides a new
'prehistoric' site at Tell el-Ma'abed or Tell el-'Obeid near Ur. It
seems that these antiquities date from the very end of the neolithic,
or rather to the succeeding 'chalcolithic', age; whether they are
really prehistoric, as regards Babylonian history, must until more
evidence from stratified deposits is found remain undecided. They
prove the occupation of the head of the Persian Gulf at the beginning
of history by a people whose primitive art was closely akin to that
of early Elam, and distinct from that of the Sumerians.

[1] Found by Loftus in 1854: their early date was not recognized at
the time.
[2] Koldewey, _Excavations at Babylon, E.T._, p. 261, fig. 182.
Koldewey curiously speaks of the saw-blades as 'palaeolithic.' They
are, of course, nothing of the sort.

Characteristics: flint, chert, obsidian, green and red jasper, and
quartz-crystal flakes, arrowheads, cores, and saw-blades. Chert and