 |
|
Cities: Uruk
 Return to Cities
From around 3400 B.C. settlements grew in size throughout southern Mesopotamia. The largest was the site of Uruk (called Unug in antiquity). At the center of the city, raised high on platforms, stood two areas of monumental mud-brick buildings. To the east lay the "White Temple." This area was later dedicated to the heaven god, Anu. To the west lay a complex of buildings. This region was later known as E-anna, "the house of heaven," where the fertility goddess, Inanna, was worshipped. Clay tablets had been thrown away in the foundation rubble of some monumental buildings. Pictographs and impressions drawn in the damp clay record the management of goods and the allocation of rations to workers and represent some of the world's earliest writing. During the early third millennium B.C., Uruk was surrounded by a massive wall. According to later tradition the wall was built on the orders of king Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh may have been an actual king of Uruk around 2700 B.C. He became the hero of many later stories and epics. From 1912, Uruk was excavated by German archaeologists.
|
|
|
|
Select an image below to learn more and see the enlarged view.
|
|
|
|
|
