Ancient Mysteries & Interpretations
Clay figurines from the Ubaid period (5th millennium BC), found at Ur and Eridu, have elongated heads, slanting eyes and shoulder pellets; some hold infants. They are genuine. Online claims call them reptilians or aliens. Their purpose is unknown, but stylized human figures are the straightforward reading.
Artifacts: authentic · Meaning: unknown · Reptilian/alien reading: unsupported
Leonard Woolley excavated such figurines in Ubaid-period graves at Ur; others come from Eridu. Many are female, some hold a nursing child, some are male. Elongated heads may reflect artistic convention, headdresses or bitumen hair, or the practice of head shaping known from some ancient populations. The pellets on the shoulders may be ornaments or scarification.
Scholarly reconstruction
Ritual or funerary figurines in a period style, like many other stylized figurines across the ancient world.
Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art: Ubaid-period figurines; S. Pollock, Ancient Mesopotamia (Cambridge, 1999)
Modern speculative theory
Online writers claim they portray reptile-like visitors who ruled early humanity.
Assessment: No text of the period describes such beings; the figures belong to known burial and craft traditions. Strangeness of style is not evidence of nonhuman models.
Authentic ancient objects whose exact meaning is unknown; the reptilian interpretation adds an unsupported claim to a real artifact.
What the evidence shows
Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art: Ubaid-period figurines; S. Pollock, Ancient Mesopotamia (Cambridge, 1999)