The Uruk State

Essay #2: The Uruk State
ANTH 1190
Tyler Lovrien

        The Uruk state was the first major civilization on Earth. It is first seen in the archaeological records roughly fifty-five thousand years ago. This major city first sprang up in the area known as Mesopotamia, between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The people living in the Uruk state set the stones in places for social characteristics such as jobs specialized to one idea, decently stable political standards, writing, social hierarchies. They also began the stepping stones for major sources of religion and literature as well as showing off some new, brilliant architecture. Uruk is also famous for its king Gilgamesh and the stories of his journey to hopefully gain immortality (Stephen, 2004).

        The agricultural set-up of Uruk was very important in the emergence of the Uruk State. The area of Mesopotamia was relatively fertile so the people of Uruk could farm and create a stable living environment from such soil. Even people not living in normally well-off areas in terms of agriculture could benefit from the Uruk state’s well-designed system of irrigation canals. The ability to transport usable water from one location to another was nothing short of amazing during the time of Uruk, as it marked a change for the history of agricultural design as we know it. In terms of storing these crops, which were only available for such sustained periods of time due to the water ways running throughout the city, the temples of Uruk were also built not only as places of worship, but also as storage rooms for extra agricultural produce and supplies (Lamberg-Karlovsky and Sabloff, 1995).

        The city of Uruk was split up into two separate areas: The E-anna District and the Anu District. Both are names of two of the gods which the people of Uruk worshipped: Inanna and her grandfather Anu. Eanna was the goddess of love and war, while Anu was the sky god in their religion (Lamberg-Karlovsky and Sabloff, 1995). The district dedicated to Eanna was walled off from the rest of the city, which many researchers have come to think was for ceremonial purposes. This also leads one to look at the state of Uruk and realize that they might have used other architectural works to immortalize their religion(s). Religion was a very important factor in the emergence of Uruk, as referenced by the various districts of Anu and Eanna.

        An element of great importance which emerged during the Uruk period was the cylinder seal. These seals would be made from lapis lazuli usually and would range in size from about one to around three inches. They had designs carved into them which would be rolled into wet clay within the state. They show instances of daily life in the Uruk culture as well as mythical beings in the religion of the Uruk people (Lamberg-Karlovsky and Sabloff, 1995). These seals might have possibly served another purpose as well. They indicate the possible scenario in which the Uruk people owned private property as well as vast trading systems between other communities and again the labor designs of the city-state.