Uruk


Uruk, the archeological site known today as Warka, was an ancient city in the Near East or West Asia, located east of the current bed of the Euphrates River, on an ancient, now-dried channel of the river in Muthanna Governorate, Iraq. The site lies 93 kilometers northwest of ancient Ur, 108 kilometers southeast of ancient Nippur, and 24 kilometers northwest of ancient Larsa.
Uruk is the type site for the Uruk period. Uruk played a leading role in the early urbanization of Sumer in the mid-4th millennium BC.
By 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. Gilgamesh, according to the chronology presented in the Sumerian King List, ruled Uruk in the 27th century BC. After the end of the Early Dynastic period, with the rise of the Akkadian Empire, the city lost its prime importance. It had periods of florescence during the Isin-Larsa period, Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian periods and throughout the Achaemenid, Seleucid and Parthian periods, until it was finally abandoned shortly before or after the Islamic conquest of 633–638. 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.

Toponymy

Uruk has several spellings in cuneiform. In Sumerian, it is , and in Akkadian, it is spelled or . In Arabic, it is called وركاء or أوروك ; in Syriac, ܐܘܿܪܘܿܟ ; and in Biblical Hebrew, rtl=yes. In Ancient Greek, it was known as , Ὀρέχ, and Ὠρύγεια.

History

According to the SKL, Uruk was founded by the king Enmerkar. Though the king-list mentions a father before him, the epic Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta relates that Enmerkar constructed the House of Heaven for the goddess Inanna in the Eanna District of Uruk. In the Epic of Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh builds the city wall around Uruk and is king of the city.
Uruk went through several phases of growth, from the Early Uruk period to the Late Uruk period. The city was formed when two smaller Ubaid settlements developed into the cities of Unug and Kullaba and later merged to become Uruk. The temple complexes at their cores became the Eanna District dedicated to Inanna and the "Anu" District of Kullaba.
The Eanna District comprised several buildings with workshop spaces and was walled off from the city. By contrast, the Anu District was built on a terrace with a temple at the top. It is clear Eanna was dedicated to Inanna from the earliest Uruk period throughout the history of the city. The rest of the city was composed of typical courtyard houses, grouped by profession of the occupants, in districts around Eanna and Anu. Uruk was extremely well penetrated by a canal system that has been described as "Venice in the desert". This canal system flowed throughout the city connecting it with the maritime trade on the ancient Euphrates River as well as the surrounding agricultural belt.
The original city of Uruk was situated southwest of the ancient Euphrates River. Today, the site of Warka is northeast of the river. The change in position was caused by a shift in the Euphrates at some point in history, which, together with salinization from irrigation, may have contributed to the decline of Uruk.

Uruk period

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'. 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. Although other settlements coexisted with Uruk, they were generally about 10 hectares while Uruk was significantly larger and more complex. The Uruk period culture exported by Sumerian traders and colonists influenced all surrounding peoples, who gradually evolved their own comparable, competing economies and cultures. Ultimately, Uruk could not maintain long-distance control over colonies such as Tell Brak by military force.

Early Dynastic, Akkadian, Ur III, and Old Babylonian period

Dynastic categorizations are described solely from the Sumerian King List, which is of problematic historical accuracy; the organization might be analogous to Manetho's.
In 2009, two different copies of an inscription were put forth as evidence of a 19th-century BC ruler of Uruk named Naram-sin.
Uruk continued as a principality of Ur, Babylon, and later Achaemenid, Seleucid, and Parthian Empires. It enjoyed brief periods of independence during the Isin-Larsa period, under kings such as, Sîn-kāšid, his son Sîn-irībam, his son Sîn-gāmil, Ilum-gāmil, brother of Sîn-gāmil, Etēia, AN-am3, ÌR3-ne-ne, who was defeated by Rīm-Sîn I of Larsa in his year 14, Rîm-Anum and Nabi-ilīšu.
It is known that during the time of Ilum-gāmil a temple was built for the god Iškur based on a clay cone inscription reading "For the god Iškur, lord, fearsome splendour of heaven and earth, his lord, for the life of Ilum-gāmil, king of Uruk, son of Sîn-irībam, Ubar-Adad, his servant, son of Apil-Kubi, built the Esaggianidu,, the residence of his office of en, and thereby made it truly befitting his own li".

Uruk into Late Antiquity

Although it had been a thriving city in Early Dynastic Sumer, especially Early Dynastic II, Uruk was ultimately annexed by the Akkadian Empire and went into decline. Later, in the Neo-Sumerian period, Uruk enjoyed a revival as a major economic and cultural center under the sovereignty of Ur. The Eanna District was restored as part of an ambitious building program, which included a new temple for Inanna. This temple included a ziggurat, the 'House of the Universe' to the northeast of the Uruk period Eanna ruins.
Following the collapse of Ur, Uruk went into a steep decline until about 850 BC when the Neo-Assyrian Empire annexed it as a provincial capital. Under the Neo-Assyrians and Neo-Babylonians, Uruk regained much of its former glory. By 250 BC, a new temple complex, the 'Head Temple', was added northeast of the Uruk-period Anu district. The Bīt Reš along with the Esagila was one of the two main centers of Neo-Babylonian astronomy. All of the temples and canals were restored again under Nabopolassar. During this era, Uruk was divided into five main districts: the Adad Temple, Royal Orchard, Ištar Gate, Lugalirra Temple, and Šamaš Gate districts.
Uruk, known as Orcha to the Greeks, continued to thrive under the Seleucid Empire. During this period, Uruk was a city of 300 hectares and perhaps 40,000 inhabitants. In 200 BC, the 'Great Sanctuary' of Ishtar was added between the Anu and Eanna districts. The ziggurat of the temple of Anu, which was rebuilt in this period, was the largest ever built in Mesopotamia. When the Seleucids lost Mesopotamia to the Parthians in 141 BC, Uruk continued in use. The decline of Uruk after the Parthians may have been in part caused by a shift in the Euphrates River. By 300 AD, Uruk was mostly abandoned, but a group of Mandaeans settled there, based on some finds of Mandaic incantation bowls, and by it was completely abandoned.

Political history

Uruk played a very important part in the political history of Sumer. From the Early Uruk period onward, the city exerted hegemony over nearby settlements. At this time, there were two centers of, Uruk in the south and Nippur in the north surrounded by much smaller settlements. Later, in the Late Uruk period, its sphere of influence extended over all Sumer and beyond to external colonies in upper Mesopotamia and Syria.
The recorded chronology of rulers of Uruk includes both mythological and historical figures across five dynasties. As in the rest of Sumer, power moved progressively from the temple to the palace. Rulers from the Early Dynastic period exercised control over Uruk and, at times, over all of Sumer. In myth, kingship was brought down from heaven to Eridu, then passed through five cities in succession until the deluge, which ended the Uruk period. Afterwards, kingship passed to Kish at the beginning of the Early Dynastic period, which corresponds to the beginning of the Early Bronze Age in Sumer. In the Early Dynastic I period, Uruk was in theory under the control of Kish. This period is sometimes called the Golden Age. During the Early Dynastic II period, Uruk was again the dominant city exercising control of Sumer. This period corresponds to the First Dynasty of Uruk, also known as the Heroic Age. However, by the Early Dynastic IIIa period Uruk had lost sovereignty, this time to Ur. This period, corresponding to the Early Bronze Age III, is the end of the First Dynasty of Uruk. In the Early Dynastic IIIb period, also called the Pre-Sargonic period, Uruk remained under Ur's rule.

Architecture

Uruk has some of the first monumental constructions in architectural history, and certainly the largest of its era. Much of Near Eastern architecture can trace its roots to these prototypical buildings. The structures of Uruk are cited under two different naming conventions: one in German from the initial expedition and the English translation of the same. The site's stratigraphy is complex, and as a result, much of the dating is disputed. In general, the structures follow the two main typologies of Sumerian architecture: Tripartite, with three parallel halls, and T-Shaped, with three halls, with the central hall extending into two perpendicular bays at one end. The following table summarizes the significant architecture of the Eanna and Anu Districts. Temple N, the Cone-Mosaic Courtyard, and the Round Pillar Hall are often referred to as a single structure: the Cone-Mosaic Temple.
It is clear that Eanna was dedicated to Inanna, symbolized by Venus from the Uruk period. At that time, she was worshipped in four aspects as Inanna of the netherworld, Inanna of the morning, Inanna of the evening, and Inanna. The names of four temples in Uruk at this time are known, but it is impossible to match them with either a specific structure and in some cases a deity.
  • sanctuary of Inanna
  • sanctuary of Inanna of the evening
  • temple of heaven
  • temple of heaven and netherworld