![]() This is one of the earliest surviving works of narrative relief sculpture.Īccording to the SKL, Uruk was founded by the king Enmerkar. History Devotional scene to Inanna, Warka Vase, c. The topmost layer most likely originated in the Jemdet Nasr period (3100–2900 BC) and is built on structures from earlier periods dating back to the Ubaid period. Excavation of Uruk is highly complex because older buildings were recycled into newer ones, thus blurring the layers of different historic periods. Evidence from excavations such as extensive pottery and the earliest known tablets of writing support these events. Uruk's agricultural surplus and large population base facilitated processes such as trade, specialization of crafts and the evolution of writing writing may have originated in Uruk around 3300 BC. This domestication of grain and its proximity to rivers enabled Uruk's growth into the largest Sumerian settlement, in both population and area, with relative ease. Through the gradual and eventual domestication of native grains from the Zagros foothills and extensive irrigation techniques, the area supported a vast variety of edible vegetation. The city was located in the southern part of Mesopotamia, an ancient site of civilization, on the Euphrates river. Geographic factors underpin Uruk's unprecedented growth. Ultimately, Uruk could not maintain long-distance control over colonies such as Tell Brak by military force. The Uruk period culture exported by Sumerian traders and colonists had an effect on all surrounding peoples, who gradually evolved their own comparable, competing economies and cultures. Although other settlements coexisted with Uruk, they were generally about 10 hectares while Uruk was significantly larger and more complex. This period of 800 years saw a shift from small, agricultural villages to a larger urban center with a full-time bureaucracy, military, and stratified society. In addition to being one of the first cities, Uruk was the main force of urbanization and state formation during the Uruk period, or 'Uruk expansion' (4000–3200 BC). Scholars identify Uruk as the biblical Erech ( Genesis 10:10), the second city founded by Nimrod in Shinar. In myth and literature, Uruk was famous as the capital city of Gilgamesh, hero of the Epic of Gilgamesh. Prominence Uruk expansion and colonial outposts, c. Though the Arabic name of the present-day country of al-ʿIrāq is often thought to be derived directly from the name Uruk, it is more likely loaned via Middle Persian ( Erāq) and then Aramaic ’yrg, which nonetheless may still ultimately refer to the Uruk region of southern Mesopotamia. Uruk ( / ˈ ʊ r ʊ k/ ) has several spellings in cuneiform in Sumerian it is □□ unug ki in Akkadian, □□ or □□ Uruk ( URUUNUG). William Kennett Loftus visited the site of Uruk in 1849, identifying it as "Erech", known as "the second city of Nimrod", and led the first excavations from 1850 to 1854. The city lost its prime importance around 2000 BC in the context of the struggle of Babylonia against Elam, but it remained inhabited throughout the Achaemenid (550–330 BC), Seleucid (312–63 BC) and Parthian (227 BC to 224 AD) periods until it was finally abandoned shortly before or after the Islamic conquest of 633–638. The legendary king Gilgamesh, according to the chronology presented in the Sumerian King List (henceforth SKL), ruled Uruk in the 27th century BC. Uruk played a leading role in the early urbanization of Sumer in the mid-4th millennium BC.īy the final phase of the Uruk period around 3100 BC, the city may have had 40,000 residents, with 80,000–90,000 people living in its environs, making it the largest urban area in the world at the time. Uruk is the type site for the Uruk period. It is 30 km (19 mi) east of modern Samawah, Al-Muthannā, Iraq. The site lies 58 miles northwest of ancient Ur, 108 kilometers southeast of ancient Nippur and 24 kilometers southeast of ancient Larsa. Uruk, today known as Warka, was a city in the ancient Near East situated east of the present bed of the Euphrates River on the dried-up ancient channel of the Euphrates. You may need rendering support to display the cuneiform script in this article correctly.
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