- Uruk culture
Uruk (Sumer. Unug, Bibl. Erech, Greek. Orchoë, modern. Warka) — in the 3rd millennium BC, an ancient city-state of the Sumerians in Southern Mesopotamia (Southern Iraq). It was Uruk that became the first city of Southern Mesopotamia. A wall was built around it — which testified that Uruk had become a city, not just a settlement. Up to 6 thousand inhabitants lived in this city, representing 3-4 peoples speaking different languages. The city became the temple and military center of Southern Mesopotamia.
Excavations have uncovered architectural monuments of the 4th millennium BC: the "Red Building" (possibly a place of popular assemblies; remains of a platform with columns and semi-columns decorated with mosaics of three-colored terracotta cones, and a staircase), the "White Temple" (on a rectangular pedestal), as well as the temple of the Kassite king Karaindash (15th century BC), the Hellenistic temple of Anu-Antum (ca. 170 BC; in the traditions of Babylonian architecture); sculptures, glyptics, all dictionaries. The wars that took place over the centuries in this region and the desert climate almost completely destroyed this city. Currently, on the site of Uruk is the village of Warka in Southern Iraq (65 km northwest of the city of Nasiriyah), and about 30 km to the west is the large city of Es-Samawah.
History of Uruk
In the 28th-27th centuries BC (under the semi-legendary rulers Enmerkar, Lugalbanda, Gilgamesh, about whom epic tales have been preserved) the city-states of Southern Mesopotamia were united under the hegemony of Uruk (1st dynasty of Uruk). In the 24th century BC, under Lugalzagesi, Uruk was the capital of Sumer. After the conquest by Sargon the Ancient (24th century BC), Uruk became part of his state. At the end of the 22nd century BC, the king of Uruk, Utuhegal, created a united "kingdom of Sumer and Akkad" in Mesopotamia; after his death, power passed to Ur-Nammu — the founder of the 3rd dynasty of Ur. Uruk remained an important city until the end of the 1st millennium BC. In the 8th-2nd centuries BC — an autonomous temple city within the Babylonian, then Achaemenid and Seleucid kingdoms. In the 3rd century AD, it was destroyed by the Sassanids. Systematic excavations of Uruk have been conducted since the beginning of the 20th century by a German expedition under the direction first of J. Jordan, then A. Nöldeke, and H. Lenzen (FRG).
Uruk, one of the oldest cities in the world, developed in parallel with the entire history of Mesopotamia. The Warka hill is located northwest of Ur, 56 km upstream of the Euphrates. The site has been explored since 1912 by a number of German expeditions, whose work was distinguished by great scientific rigor. The early layers of the settlement gave the name to the archaeological phase of Uruk (second half of the 4th millennium BC), which replaced the layers of the Ubaid period.
In the middle of the 4th millennium BC, on the site of the future city, there was a rural district — about a hundred villages located around a network of channels and small artificial canals. Its center was the walled sacred area of E-Ana, a place of veneration of the goddess known in historical times as Inanna. On the territory of the sacred area, the foundations of several temples were discovered, of which the so-called White Temple (ca. 3000 BC) on a high, reaching 13 m, mud-brick platform — a prototype of future ziggurats — is of particular importance. Nearby was an architectural complex contemporary to the White Temple, called the "Red Building", which was possibly a meeting place for the council of elders. It was a courtyard surrounded by walls with an area of about 600 m², on which there was a platform-elevation made of mud brick. The walls and massive columns of the building were decorated with polychrome mosaics of fired clay cones, which were pressed into wet plaster and formed geometric ornaments.
At the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC, Uruk was the largest of the agricultural settlements of Mesopotamia, the center of the cult of the goddess Inanna and the sky god Anu, revered by the Sumerians. The city was formed as a result of the merger of the settlements of E-Ana, Uruk, and Kulaba, occupied an area of about 125 hectares and was the center of a small state. The territory of Uruk was surrounded by a wall of bricks 9 km long, built, according to legend, by the legendary king Gilgamesh. The construction of the wall testifies to the wars that Uruk waged with neighboring city-states of Mesopotamia.
The epic tale "Gilgamesh and Agga" tells of the struggle of Uruk with the city of Kish, whose ruler undertook its siege. The victory of Gilgamesh brought Uruk dominance over Southern Mesopotamia, which lasted throughout the reign of the 1st dynasty of Uruk (c. 2615—2500 BC). In the middle of the 3rd millennium BC, it was replaced by the 1st dynasty of Ur, to which control over the irrigation systems in the lower reaches of the Euphrates passed.
In the 26th century BC, starting with Gilgamesh, the rulers of Uruk dominated Southern Mesopotamia. However, around the 25th century BC, hegemony in the region passed to the city of Ur.
Structure of the nome
The city of Uruk consisted of the merged settlements of E-Ana, Uruk, and Kulaba. The communal gods of Uruk were Anu and Inanna. The later cities of Larsa (Larsam, modern Sinkara) at the junction of the Euphrates with the Iturungal (the communal god of Larsa was the god Utu), Kutallu (modern Tell Sifr), as well as one of the oldest cities in Mesopotamia — Bad-Tibira ("Fortress of Coppersmiths") — also belonged to this nome.
Archaeological culture
An archaeological culture of the Eneolithic era, widespread in the 4th millennium BC in Southern Mesopotamia. Named after characteristic finds in layers XIV—IV of the excavations of the ancient city of Uruk (see below). It is preceded by the Ubaid culture, represented in Uruk by earlier layers (XVIII—XV). The Uruk culture is characterized by red and gray pottery made on a potter's wheel, and developed metallurgy. At this time, cylinder seals appear (layer X), the oldest Sumerian pictographic documents on clay tablets (layer IV), and monumental mud-brick buildings were erected — the "Red Building" (possibly a place of popular assemblies) and the "White Temple" discovered by excavations in the center of Uruk. The bearers of the Uruk culture were engaged in agriculture and cattle breeding. The decomposition of primitive communal relations took place and elements of class relations emerged, which received further development at the next stage (end of the 4th millennium BC), which is characterized by finds (in layer III of Uruk and other places) of the Jemdet Nasr type.
The Warka culture is characterized by a number of outstanding achievements in the history of the formation of Sumerian civilization. During this era, the potter's wheel and the first pottery workshops producing unpainted ceramics of various types appeared. The Warka period is characterized by the spread of carved cylinder seals with images of animals, cult scenes, and heraldic compositions. The earliest monuments of writing date back to the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC — clay tablets covered with ideograms, reflecting the economic activities of the inhabitants of Uruk: lists of goods, livestock counts, expenditure records. Interesting are the finds of the first educational texts, used for memorizing signs and their combinations, lists of professions and names of officials.
Specialists of the Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences attribute artifacts from the lower layer of excavations at Tell Khazna I to the Uruk culture.
Uruk culture. Valery Gulyaev
This rather slow process of change in the life of Mesopotamian society was called the "urban revolution" by G. Childe. It included the emergence of writing and the development of a monumental style of architecture, most vividly expressed in temple buildings.
What explains the profound changes that occurred in Southern Iraq at the end of the 4th millennium BC? There are many hypotheses. Some scholars believe that the changes in Mesopotamia took place so rapidly that they certainly could not have occurred without the influence of some foreigners. And indeed, within a few centuries, a genuine upheaval took place on the southern Mesopotamian plain: the relocation of people from villages to cities, the emergence of new forms of ceramics, the invention of writing, and the appearance of cylindrical stone seals as an indicator of the establishment of private property.
But to consider the invasion of some foreigners as the cause of major socio-economic changes in Mesopotamia would be too much of a stretch. Moreover, this hypothesis is refuted by archaeological data indicating a clear continuity, starting from Ubaid times, in architecture, religious beliefs, and technological traditions.
Another hypothesis claiming to reveal the origins of the "urban revolution" is based on the idea that irrigation – artificial watering of lands using canals, dams, and embankments – played an exceptional role in the development of states (and civilization). Its author, Karl Wittfogel, in his work "Oriental Despotism," directly linked the emergence of complex irrigation systems with the presence of a strong central authority that provided the labor force necessary for the construction and maintenance of canals. According to Wittfogel, the irrigation of Mesopotamia was a key factor in the development of its urban civilization. The hypothesis was subjected to sharp but fair criticism. For example, R. McAdams proved that complex political and economic institutions existed in Southern Iraq long before a complex network of irrigation structures was created there. It is more reasonable to consider irrigation as only one of the reasons for the emergence of Sumerian civilization, but not necessarily the main one.
Another hypothesis explains the emergence of the Sumerian city-states by the interaction of the sedentary agricultural population of Mesopotamia and the nomadic tribes of the surrounding territories. Apparently, this factor should also be taken into account, but it also cannot be the only one, although, of course, such contacts could well have played the role of a catalyst in the formation of the state. Judging by written sources dating back to a later time, relations between sedentary communities and nomads were built on mutual suspicion, and even open hostility and military clashes. Such relations, reflected in cuneiform texts of the 3rd–2nd millennia BC, persisted until recent times. "And yet," notes C.C. Lamberg-Karlovsky, "despite the hostility in relations, nomads, thanks to their mobility and pastoral way of life, were necessary for the inhabitants of agricultural settlements for communication, trade, and livestock breeding, in particular, sheep and goats. Nomads possessed valuable information. Thanks to constant migrations, they always knew where to find certain resources, and were aware of political events in different regions. These migrations also allowed them to act as intermediaries in the exchange of goods and ideas between the sedentary inhabitants of mountainous regions and the inhabitants of the Mesopotamian plain."
Thus, the first civilization in human history probably originated in Southern Mesopotamia, and the initial stage of its development is best documented by excavations at Uruk (Warka).
Hallstatt culture