Assignment for Sept.27

Uruk,on an ancient branch of the Euphrates River in Iraq now is the first major city in Sumer built in the 5th century BC, and is considered one of the largest Sumerian settlements and most important religious centers in Mesopotamia. It was continuously inhabited from about 5000 BC up to the 5th century AD.

Artistic- Uruk dominated by monumental mud-brick buildings decorated with mosaics of painted clay cones embedded in the walls, and extraordinary works of art. They first started to make a sculpture for representing of human faces. Large-scale sculpture in the round and relief carving appeared for the first time, together with metal casting using the lost-wax process. Also stone sculptures were created.

Society- Social classes began to emerge based on increasingly entrenched differences in wealth, power, and access to resources; the more stratified society became, the greater the coercive power its rulers could exercise over those beneath them in the social hierarchy.The difference of social statuses were implied by monumental architecture which was temples or halls and fancy goods that only rich people own. However we cannot recognize it with burials, because burials were scarce.

Politic- Gilgamesh who was king at this time ruled the city of Uruk at around 2750 BCE. He gradually grew in importance and increasingly sought luxury materials to express his power. These often spread from abroad, which caused to acquire either by trade or conquest. Further, Gilgamesh became the hero of many later stories and epics.

intelligence- Uruk people used simple labels and lists with pictographic symbols to use clay tablets; it helped to development of writing.

Religious: There was no organized set of gods; each city-state had its own patrons, temples, and priest-kings. The Sumerians were probably the first to write down their beliefs, which were the inspiration for much of later Mesopotamian mythology, religion, and astrology.

Inanna, the deification of Venus, the morning (eastern) and evening (western) star, at the temple (shared with An) at Uruk.

Economy- people in numbers larger than had ever before been possible, could be marshaled and deployed to build their city's infrastructure—monumental buildings, defensive walls, and irrigation systems; to produce the economic surpluses necessary to support their rulers and others, including artists and artisans, who were not directly engaged in subsistence activities; and, when necessary, to fight in their city's army.