thumb|right|200px|Pottery jar from Late Ubaid Period
thumb|200px|right|Cultural influences on Ubaid culture: Samarran Farmers from the North, trans-Arabian bifacial indigenous hunter-gatherers, and circum Arabian nomadic pastoral complex
The tell (mound) of '''Ubaid''' () near Ur in southern Iraq has given its name to the prehistoric Pottery Neolithic to Chalcolithic culture, which represents the earliest settlement on the alluvial plain of southern Mesopotamia. The Ubaid culture had a long duration beginning before 5300 BC and lasting until the beginning of the Uruk period, ''c.'' 4100 BC. The invention of the wheel and the beginning of the Chalcolithic period fall into the Ubaid period.

==Timeline==
The Ubaid period is divided into three principle phases:
* Early Ubaid — sometimes called '''Samarra culture to the north, saw the establishment of the first permanent settlement south of the 5 inch rainfall isohyet.  These people pioneered the growing of grains in the extreme conditions of aridity, thanks to the high water tables of Southern Iraq. 
* Middle Ubaid — sometimes called '''Hadji Muhammad''', (4800–4500 BC) after the type site of the same name, saw the development of extensive canal networks from major settlements.  Irrigation agriculture, which seem to have developed first at Choga Mami (4700–4600 BC) and rapidly spread elsewhere, from the first required collective effort and centralised coordination of labour.   
* Later or "Classic Ubaid" — In the period from 4500–4000 BC saw a period of intense and rapid urbanisation with the Ubaid culture spread into northern Mesopotamia replacing (after a hiatus) the Halaf culture.  Ubaid artefacts spread also all along the Arabian littoral, showing the growth of a trading system that stretched from the Mediterranean coast through the Dilmun civilization based in Bahrain to Oman.  

The archaeological record shows that Arabian Bifacial/Ubaid period came to an abrupt end in eastern Arabia and the Oman peninsula at 3800 BC, just after the phase of lake lowering and onset of dune reactivation.<ref name="Parker2006"></ref>  At this time, increased aridity led to an end in semi-desert nomadism, and there is no evidence of human presence in the area for approximately 1000 years, the so-called "Dark Millennium".<ref name="Uerpmann2002"></ref>

==Description==
Ubaid culture is characterised by large village settlements, characterised by multiroomed rectangular mud-brick houses and the appearance of the first temples of public architecture in Mesopotamia, with a growth of a two tier settlement hierarchy of centralised large sites of more than 10 hectares surrounded by smaller village sites of less than 1 hectare.  Domestic equipment included a distinctive fine quality buff or greenish coloured pottery decorated with geometric designs in brown or black paint; tools such as sickles were often made of hard fired clay in the south. But in the north, stone and sometimes metal were used.

==Society==
The Ubaid period as a whole, based upon the analysis of grave goods, was one of increasingly polarised chieftains, perhaps heads of kin groups linked in some way to the administration of the temple shrines and their granaries, were responsible for mediating intra-group conflict and maintaining social order.  It would seem that various collective methods, perhaps through what primitive democracy, in which disputes were previously resolved through a council of one's peers, were no longer sufficient to the needs of the local community.

thumb|Verbreitungskarte der Obed-Kultur.
Die '''Obed-Zeit''' (auch '''Obed-Horizont''' oder englisch Ubaid-culture) ist eine archäologische Periode des späten Chalkolithikums in Mesopotamien. Sie dauerte von etwa 5900 bis 4300 v. Chr.

== Forschungsgeschichte ==
Die Obed-Zeit ist nach dem Tell el-Obed benannt.

== Chronologie ==
Die Obedkultur dauerte von 5900 bis 4300 v. Chr. (nach anderen Quellen bis ca. Ostanatolien aus.
Man unterscheidet anhand der Verzierung und der Färbung der Keramik vier Perioden :

*Eridu Keramik 
*Ubaid I/Haggi-Mohammed Keramik (Haji Mohammed) 
*Ubaid II 
*Ubaid III 
*Ubaid IV 

Danach beginnt die älteste Stufe der Urukperiode mit ersten Schriftzeugnissen.

== Siedlungen ==
In dieser Periode wurde in Mittelmesopotamien Landwirtschaft bereits mit Hilfe künstlicher Ur und das namengebende Tell el-Obed.
Es tritt ein Haus mit neuartigem Grundriss auf, das Mittelsaalhaus. Hier diente ein zentraler Raum als funktionales Zentrum und Verteiler zu den angrenzenden Räumen.

== Sozialstruktur ==
Neu scheinen auch die sich in unterschiedlichen Bauten ausdrückenden Statusunterschiede zu sein. Ebenso fanden sich zentrale Gemeinschaftsbauten, die offensichtlich nicht für den Kult verwendet wurden. Besonders aufschlussreich ist hier das komplett ergrabene Hierarchisierung stattgefunden hatte.