A commonly accepted view in mainstream archeology is that civilization began in ancient Mesopotamia with the great civilization of Sumer in what is now Iraq. However, in the early 20th century, archaeologists excavating at Tell Al’Ubaid in Iraq made an unusual discovery when they unearthed several 7,000-year-old artifacts that appeared to represent humanoid figures with special characteristics. point of reptiles.
Example of Ubaid lizard discovered in Iraq. (Mary Harrsch / CC BY 2.0 )
Learn about Ubaidian culture
The Ubaidian culture was a prehistoric culture in Mesopotamia dating from 4000 to 5500 BC. As with the Sumerians, the origins of the Ubaidians are unknown. They lived in large village settlements in mud-brick houses and they developed architecture, agriculture, and cultivated the land using irrigation systems.
Ubaidian indoor architecture includes large T-shaped houses, large yards, paved roads as well as food processing equipment. According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, some of these villages began to develop into towns, temples began to appear as well as monumental buildings such as those at Eridu, Ur and Uruk, the main sites of the Civilization Sumer. Sumerian texts explain that Ur was believed to be the first city.
Tell al-Ubaid is a small mine discovered near Ur in southern Iraq. (David Stanley / CC BY 3.0)
Explore the Ubaid lizard-man statues at Tell Al’Ubaid
The main site where unusual artifacts were discovered is called Tell Al’Ubaid – although figurines were also found at Ur and Eridu. The Al’Ubaid site is a small mound about half a kilometer (0.3 mi) in diameter and two meters (6.56 ft) above ground. First excavated by Harry Reginald Hal in 1919, male and female figurines were found in different positions. Most of the figurines wear a helmet and have some kind of padding on their shoulders.
Other figurines have been found holding a staff or scepter, possibly a symbol of justice and rule. Each figurine has a different pose but the strangest are some of the female statues holding a nursing baby, where the child is also represented as a lizard-type creature.
Naked lizard-headed woman breastfeeding, from Ur, Iraq, c. 4000 BC, now in the Iraq Museum. (Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin FRCP / CC BY-SA 4.0 )
Ubaid Lizardmen: Prehistoric lizard statues
The figurines have long heads, almond-shaped eyes, elongated faces, and lizard-like noses. Exactly what they represent is completely unknown. According to archaeologists, their posture, such as that of a breastfeeding woman, does not indicate that they were ritual objects. So what do these Ubaid lizard people represent?
Whatever they were, they seemed to have been important to the ancient Ubaidians. We know that the snake was the main symbol used in many societies to represent certain deities, such as the Sumerian god Enki, and that the snake was later used as a symbol for the Brotherhood of the Snake, said to be an ancient secret society. . Is there any connection between the snake symbol and the lizard symbolism? Currently, these questions remain unanswered.
