Uruk
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.[1] 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.[1]
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.[2]
Uruk Media
- Warka vase (background retouched).jpg
Devotional scene to Inanna, Warka Vase, c. 3200–3000 BC, Uruk. This is one of the earliest surviving works of narrative relief sculpture.
- Uruk expansion.svg
Uruk expansion and colonial outposts, c. 3600–3200 BC
- Uruk3000BCE.jpg
Clay impression of a cylinder seal with monstrous lions and lion-headed eagles, Mesopotamia, Uruk Period (4100–3000 BC). Louvre Museum
- Tablet of Sin-Gamil of Uruk.jpg
Dedication tablet of Sîn-gāmil, ruler of Uruk, 18th century BC.
- British Museum Foundation Tablet.jpg
Foundation tablet from the Temple of Inanna at Uruk (Eanna), dating to the reign of Ur-Nammu.
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.
- Uruk Temple of Charyos (2).jpg
The Parthian Temple of Charyios at Uruk
- Uruk (latine).webm
Reconstruction video of Uruk (English subtitles)
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Harmansah, 2007
- ↑ "The name al-ʿIrāq, for all its Arabic appearance, is derived from Middle Persian erāq 'lowlands'" W. Eilers 1983. "Iran and Mesopotamia" in E. Yarshater, The Cambridge History of Iran, vol 3, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.