Uruk
Sign in to saveUruk, 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 (58 miles) northwest of ancient Ur, 108 kilometers (67 miles) southeast of ancient Nippur, and 24 kilometers (15 miles) northwest of ancient Larsa.
AI overview
Uruk, located in modern-day Iraq and now known as the archaeological site of Warka, was an ancient city in the Near East that sat on a dried-up channel of the Euphrates River. It matters to historians and archaeologists as an important site for understanding ancient civilizations in the region, positioned strategically between other major ancient cities like Ur, Nippur, and Larsa.
AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.
Key facts
- Ancient site.name
- Uruk
- Ancient site.native_name
- , (Sumerian) or , (Akkadian)
- Ancient site.map_type
- Iraq
- Ancient site.relief
- yes
- Ancient site.location
- Muthanna Governorate, Iraq
- Ancient site.region
- Mesopotamia
- Ancient site.type
- Settlement
- Ancient site.epochs
- Uruk period to Early Middle Ages
- Ancient site.excavations
- 1850, 1854, 1902, 1912–1913, 1928–1939, 1953–1978, 2001–2002, 2016–present
- Ancient site.archaeologists
- William Loftus, Walter Andrae, Julius Jordan, Heinrich Lenzen, Margarete van Ess
- UNESCO World Heritage Site.child
- yes
- UNESCO World Heritage Site.Official_name
Article
19 sectionsContents
- Toponymy
- History
- Uruk period
- Early Dynastic, Akkadian, Ur III, and Old Babylonian period
- Uruk into Late Antiquity
- Political history
- Architecture
- Archaeology
- Cuneiform tablets
- Artifacts
- Archaeological levels of Uruk
- Anu District
- Eanna District
- Possible tomb of Gilgamesh
- List of rulers
- See also
- References
- Further reading
- External links
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 (58 miles) northwest of ancient Ur, 108 kilometers (67 miles) southeast of ancient Nippur, and 24 kilometers (15 miles) 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 (SKL), 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 (550–330 BC), Seleucid (312–63 BC) and Parthian (227 BC to AD 224) 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.
Gallery (52)
Connections
Categories
Ancient MesopotamiaArchaeological sites in IraqAssyriologyCommons link from WikidataCuneiformEpic of GilgameshFormer kingdomsFormer populated places in IraqHistory of Muthanna GovernorateJemdet Nasr periodNimrodPopulated places disestablished in the 7th centuryPopulated places established in the 4th millennium BC