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Uruk: The First City

• 
  Head of a ram, 3300–3100 B.C.; Late Uruk period
  Mesopotamia
  Ceramic, paint; 5 in. (12.7 cm)
  Purchase, James N. Spear Gift, 1981 (1981.53)
  
• 
  Administrative tablet with cylinder seal impression of a male figure, hunting dogs, and boars, 3100–2900 B.C.; Jemdet Nasr period (Uruk III script)
  Mesopotamia
  Clay; H. 2 in. (5.3 cm)
  Purchase, Raymond and Beverly Sackler Gift, 1988 (1988.433.1)
  
• 
  Cone mosaic, 3300–3100 B.C.; Late Uruk period
  Excavated at the "Columned Hall," Uruk, Mesopotamia
  Clay, mud plaster
  Lent by Vorderasiatisches Museum, Berlin (L.1995.48.2)
  
• 
  Vessel fragment with frieze of a bull, 3300–2900 B.C.; Late Uruk/Jemdet Nasr period
  Mesopotamia
  Steatite, chlorite; 3.75 x 4.62 in. (9.53 x 11.73 cm)
  Gift of Alastair Bradley Martin, 1950 (50.218)
  
• 
  Stamp seal amulet of a seated woman, 3300–2900 B.C.; Late Uruk/Jemdet Nasr period
  Iran or Mesopotamia
  Rhodochrosite; 0.85 x 1.02 in. (2.3 x. 3 cm)
  Gift of Martin and Sarah Cherkasky, 1988 (1988.380.1)
  

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For thousands of years, southern Mesopotamia (ancient Iraq) was home to hunters, fishers, and farmers, exploiting fertile soil, rivers, and abundant animals. By around 3200 B.C., the largest settlement in southern Mesopotamia, if not the world, was Uruk: a true city dominated by monumental mud-brick buildings decorated with mosaics of painted clay cones embedded in the walls, and extraordinary works of art. Large-scale sculpture in the round and relief carving appeared for the first time, together with metal casting using the lost-wax process. Simple pictographs were drawn on clay tablets to record the management of goods and the allocation of workers' rations. These pictographs are the precursors of later cuneiform writing. Until around 3000 B.C., objects inspired by Mesopotamia were found from central Iran to the Egyptian Nile Delta. However, this widespread culture collapsed and Mesopotamia looked inward for the next few centuries. Yet cities such as Uruk continued to expand. During the following Early Dynastic period (2900–2350 B.C.), when city-states dominated Mesopotamia, the city rulers gradually grew in importance and increasingly sought luxury materials to express their power. These goods, often from abroad, were acquired either by trade or conquest. At this time Uruk was surrounded by a massive wall, which according to tradition was built on the orders of King Gilgamesh. Although he may have been an actual king of Uruk around 2700 B.C., Gilgamesh became the hero of many later stories and epics.

At this time Uruk was surrounded by a massive wall, which according to tradition was built on the orders of King Gilgamesh.

Related

Cited Works of Art or Images (2)

• 
• 

Timelines (1)

• Mesopotamia, 8000–2000 b.c.

Primary Thematic Essays (4)

• Art of the First Cities in the Third Millennium B.C.
• Early Dynastic Sculpture, 2900–2350 B.C.
• Gilgamesh
• The Origins of Writing in Mesopotamia

Other Thematic Essays (5)

• Flood Stories
• List of Rulers of Mesopotamia
• The Halaf Period (6500
• The Ubaid Period (5500
• West Asia: Ancient Legends, Modern Idioms

Maps (2)

• West Asia, 8000-2000 B.C.
• World, 8000-2000 B.C.

Index Terms (14)

Art Movement/Style

• Early Dynastic Period in the Ancient Near East
• Uruk in the Ancient Near East

Geography/Place

• The Eastern Mediterranean
• Iran
• Iraq

Material and Technique

• Mosaic
• Plaster

Object

• Frieze
• Stamp Seal
• Tablet

Subject Matter/Theme

• Archaeology from Asia
• Cuneiform
• Hunting
• Trade (8000–2000 b.c.)

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Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Citation Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art. "Uruk: The First City". In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/uruk/hd_uruk.htm (October 2003) Further Reading Boehmer, Rainer M. "Uruk-Warka." In The Oxford Encyclopedia of Archaeology in the Near East, vol. 5, pp. 294–98.. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997. Nissen, Hans J. "Uruk and the Formation of the City." In Art of the First Cities: The Third Millennium B.C. from the Mediterranean to the Indus, edited by Joan Aruz with Ronald Wallenfels, pp. 11–16.. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003. Related exhibitions and online features Special Exhibitions (including upcoming, current, and past exhibitions)

These related Museum Bulletin or Journal articles may or may not represent the most current scholarship. Crawford, Vaughn Emerson "The Third Millenium B.C. [Art of the Ancient Near East]." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, New ser., v. 18, no. 8 (April, 1960). JSTOR | PDF