Rise Of The Uruk State Essay

The rise of the Uruk state is the most important phenomenon that happened in the universe. Known as the very first recorded city in time, in the Sumer region, it was the largest society of its generation. It was about thirty-two hectares in size with approximately twenty-five thousand inhabitants. In it were smaller centers including Eridu, Kish, and Ur. Eridu was rapidly approaching urbanism. During the Uruk period (between 3500 to 3100 B.C.) a 4-tiered settlement hierarchy arose. This well-organized hierarchy included a 1st order in respect to polity capital, a 2nd order to regional capital, a 3rd order to local capital, and a 4th order for non-administrative communities. The important factors of the emerging of the Uruk state were material conditions such as agriculture, trade, and competition for resources. This then led Uruk to become the center hub for politics and religion.
A significant material condition was agricultural. There was a form of irrigation throughout the city. This was luckily due to the fact that Uruk was in between the Tigris River and the Euphrates River. This meant that needing to wait for the raining season in order for crops to grow

was redundant. This easy access to having year-round crops meant that they could have year round trade, which happened between Uruk and other civilizations, for example, Ubaid, in the lower Mesopotamia area. This changed lower Mesopotamia from a wasteland, into an agricultural breadbasket.
Another material condition had to do with trade.

Uruk was the largest urban center and the hub of trade. They would trade throughout the Mesopotamian region. The pottery had also played an important role in the emergence of the Uruk state. They would mass-produce pottery in order to trade between each center. This made for a complex economic system with markets and full-time craft specialization. In fact, Uruk was the first recorded location in which crafting material and products were found. The cuneiform tablet, for example, shows one of the earliest, if not first, systems of writing. This also includes the cylinder seal, which was a stamp-like feature, in which a 2-D picture would come out from rolling the object onto another. At this point, they were writing about economic structures of the

city.
Being the first city to arise, Uruk had social inequality and social stratification. It was a theocracy with a pantheon of deities with temples dedicated to their worship. A priest or a type of ruler controlled each individual temple, i.e. the Ziggurat at Uruk/the Ziggurat at Ur. These “rulers” were in charge of the taxes and tributes given from the community in order to make the city run accordingly. The taxes and tributes included; crops, crafts, labor, etc., which were then stored in the Ziggurats with one “ruler” being in control. The citizens believed that the rulers and priests had special religious powers and abilities to be able to contact the many Gods whom they worshiped. Being a 4-tiered settlement showed for a politically organized state.
Material conditions played an enormous role in the creation of the first city on Earth. Everything that goes on today has to do with the rise of the City of Uruk. The city improved gradually with monumental T-shaped temples, elite burials in tombs, and its irrigational systems. . Uruk led to our understanding of economic, political, religious, and literary materials.