Uruk

Relief on the front of the Inanna temple of Karaindash from Uruk. Pergamon Museum, Berlin

Uruk was an ancient city of Sumer and later Babylonia. It was east of the present bed of the Euphrates river, on the ancient dry former channel of the Euphrates River. It was in what is now Iraq.

Uruk gives its name to the Uruk period, the early Chalcolithic to early Bronze Age period in Mesopotamia, about 4000 to 3100 BC. This was followed by the period of Sumer proper. It played a leading role in the early urbanization of Sumer in the mid 4th millennium BC.

At its height c 2900 BC, Uruk probably had 50,000–80,000 residents living in 6 km² of walled area. It was the largest city in the world at the time.

According to the chronology in the Sumerian king list, the semi-mythical king Gilgamesh ruled Uruk in the 27th century BC. The city lost its prime importance around 2000 BC, after the struggle of Babylonia with Elam. It remained inhabited throughout the Seleucid and Parthian periods until it was finally abandoned during the Sassanid period, just before the Islamic conquest of Mesopotamia.

The site of Uruk was discovered in 1849. The name of lower Mesopotamia, al-ʿIrāq, is thought to be derived from the name Uruk.

Uruk Media

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  Uruk expansion and colonial outposts, c. 3600–3200 BC

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  Sumermap

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  Devotional scene to Inanna, Warka Vase, c. 3200–3000 BC, Uruk. This is one of the earliest surviving works of narrative relief sculpture.

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  Uruk King priest feeding the sacred herd

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  Eanna IVa (light brown) and IVb (dark brown)

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  An Uruk period cylinder-seal and its impression, c. 3100 BC. Louvre

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  Tablet from Uruk III (c. 3200–3000 BC) recording beer distributions from the storerooms of an institution, British Museum

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  Partially reconstructed facade and access staircase of the Ziggurat of Ur, originally built by Ur-Nammu, Neo-Sumerian period, circa 2100 BC

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  Mesopotamian king as Master of Animals on the Gebel el-Arak Knife (c. 3300–3200 BC, Abydos, Egypt), a work indicating Egypt-Mesopotamia relations and showing the early influence of Mesopotamia on Egypt and the state of Mesopotamian royal iconography in the Uruk period. Louvre.

• Reconstruction of Uruk (English subtitles)