Uruk: The History and Legacy of the Ancient World’s First Major City

by Charles River Editors

*Includes pictures *Describes the history, architecture, and layout of Uruk *Includes online resources and a bibliography for further reading *Includes a table of contents In southern Iraq, a crushing silence hangs over the dunes. For nearly 5,000 years, the sands of the Iraqi desert have held the remains of the oldest known the Sumerians. When American archaeologists discovered a collection of cuneiform tablets in Iraq in the late 19th century, they were confronted with a language and a people who were at the time only scarcely known to even the most knowledgeable scholars of ancient Mesopotamia. The exploits and achievements of other Mesopotamian peoples, such as the Assyrians and Babylonians, were already known to a large segment of the population through the Old Testament and the nascent field of Near Eastern studies had unraveled the enigma of the Akkadian language that was widely used throughout the region in ancient times, but the discovery of the Sumerian tablets brought to light the existence of the Sumerian culture, which was the oldest of all the Mesopotamian cultures. Although the Sumerians continue to get second or even third billing compared to the Babylonians and Assyrians, perhaps because they never built an empire as great as the Assyrians or established a city as enduring and great as Babylon, they were the people who provided the template of civilization that all later Mesopotamians built upon. The Sumerians are credited with being the first people to invent writing, libraries, cities, and schools in Mesopotamia (Ziskind 1972, 34), and many would argue that they were the first people to create and do those things anywhere in world. For a people so great it is unfortunate that their accomplishments and contributions, not only to Mesopotamian civilization but to civilization in general, largely go unnoticed by the majority of the public. Perhaps the Sumerians were victims of their own success; they gradually entered the historical record, established a fine civilization, and then slowly submerged into the cultural patchwork of their surroundings. They also never suffered a great and sudden collapse like other peoples of the ancient Near East, such as the Hittites, Assyrians and Neo-Babylonians did. A close examination of Sumerian culture and chronology reveals that the Sumerians set the cultural tone in Mesopotamia for several centuries in the realms of politics/governments, arts, literature, and religion. The Sumerians were truly a great people whose legacy continued long after they were gone. No site better represents the importance of the Sumerians than the city of Uruk. Between the fourth and the third millennium BCE, Uruk was one of several city-states in the land of Sumer, located in the southern end of the Fertile Crescent, between the two great rivers of the Tigris and the Euphrates. Discovered in the late 19th century by the British archaeologist William Loftus, it is this site that has revealed much of what is now known of the Sumerian, Akkadian, and Neo-Sumerian people. Although Uruk was not the only city that the Sumerians built during the Uruk period, it was by far the greatest and also the source of most of the archeological and written evidence concerning early Sumerian culture (Kuhrt 2010, 1:23). Uruk went from being the world’s first city to the most important political and cultural center in the ancient Near East in relatively quick fashion. Around 3200 BCE, the Sumerian Uruk culture began to expand beyond the borders of Sumer, which coincided with the emergence of writing (Kuhrt 2010, 1:23). The form of writing that the Sumerians developed became known by its Greek name, “cuneiform,” for the wedge style characters that it employed (van de Mieroop 2007, 28).

Genres: History, Ancient History, Cities

90 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 7, 2016

About the author

Charles River Editors is an independent publisher of thousands of ebooks on Kindle, Nook, Kobo, and Apple iBookstore & provider of original content for third parties.

Reviews

[Alice · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good overview

The great city of Uruk still lingers in the name of Iraq. This was the city Gilgamesh was King over. And he is considered to be a historical figure. Nice.

[niabh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Estos apuntes no están centrados en sí en Uruk, sino en la región de Sumeria; sobre la ciudad de Uruk sólo se hace un pequeño énfasis. Hay datos sobre cómo fueron los primeros asentamientos en la zona según se puede deducir de los yacimientos arqueológicos; cómo, con el tiempo, se conformó el Estado, surgieron los primeros especialistas y aparecieron grandes estructuras como los Zigurats; cómo llegaron a dominar Sumeria los llamados pueblos semíticos; y cómo un pequeño cambio climático llevó a la población a abandonar de la ciudad. Al igual que en otras publicaciones del mismo estilo, echo en falta algún tipo de narrativa que haga de hilo conductor entre los capítulos, pues, aunque te permite empezar a familiarizarte con una cronología, no te conduce a formar una imagen mental clara de estos pueblos. Quizás el período abarcado también sea demasiado amplio para ello.

[Liam Malone · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first part of the book doesn't mention Uruk so I thought it was the wrong book cover...! Then the body of the book presented a great story of this wonderfully important city. One quibble or two: the books says the Sumerians hoped for an eternal life in the afterlife and we really don't know fully their philosophy of death and dying and what comes after if anything. It also mentions the wealth found in Ur's Royal Tombs, but a book by the same editors on Ur doesn't details the objects discovered in Queen Puabi's tomb.

This very short book is a good study of Uruk and makes for wonderful reading while staying home during COVID 19!

[Lantern of Diogenes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ideal Summary Sized Book

If you are new to Mesopotamia history, the level of detail presented in this brief book is ideal to map out in your mind sufficient historical facts to have an effective working knowledge of a key civilization center. If you greater depth of knowledge, but Mesopotamia history doesn’t exercise your memory banks daily, this sized book is an effective, cost effective, summary resource if you enjoy to refresh your memory banks before reading another related book.

[Mick Pletcher · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is definitely worth reading if you are interested in history. What an impressive society the Sumerians were. They invented the wheel, the first major city, contractual law, the drinking straw, and many other major inventions and developments. The more impressive thing is how the people of Iraq still use the same process of sealing ship hauls that was used 5000+ years ago by the Sumerians.

[Rob Roy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a nice overview of the Sumerian civilization for the armchair archeologist. There is not much depth here, but then it is not really needed. For those looking for the classical list of kings and their dates, they will not find them. We no far too little of this, the Earth's first civilization, yet, much of what we call civilized achievements, first occurred here.

[Sarah - All The Book Blog Names Are Taken · Rating 4 out of 5]

Decent look at a fascinating culture. The books by this company are really hit or miss sometimes, but this one was well-done.

[Dan Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good .... informative but basic.