Abu Salabikh
Topic: Bronze Age Civilisations: Mesopotamia, Egypt, China · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 1 "Writing and City Life"
Meaning
Abu Salabikh was a small town in Mesopotamia. Around 2500 BCE it covered about 10 hectares and had fewer than 10,000 people. It matters because archaeologists dug it with careful modern methods. These methods showed how ordinary people lived, not just kings and temples.
Example
Excavators traced the outlines of house walls by scraping the surface of the mound. They sieved earth to collect plant and animal remains. They also studied floor samples under a microscope to find which rooms were roofed, which were open courtyards, and where cooking was done.
Don't confuse with
- Ur: a much bigger city, known for its royal graves and its ordinary houses, which were dug up in the 1930s. Abu Salabikh is known for its small size and the modern way it was excavated.