Uruk clay tablets from c. 3300 B.C. show early writing. In all, there were about 1200 written pre-cuneiform pictographic signs. Late Uruk seals (to mark property), tablets, or signs, show plows and, possibly, wheeled vehicles. The legendary king Gilgamesh is said to have built the walls around the city of Uruk.
The Early and Middle Uruk Periods ran to about 3450 B.C. when the area underwent a transition from village to city. During this period, the Tigris and Euphrates probably were joined further upstream than they are now; they flowed through many channels in the alluvial plain, and Uruk covered 70 hectares (c. 173 acres).
In the Late Uruk Period, there may have been a change in the courses of the rivers. People migrated south from Nippur to Uruk, and Uruk grew to about 100 hectares, making it what was probably the largest urban area of southern Mesopotamia. People from southern Mesopotamia traveled to the Mediterranean and the Iranian plateau, establishing colonies in southwest Iran.
By the Early Dynastic I Period (c. 3000 B.C.), the Uruk region was about 850 hectares, with Uruk itself comprising about half of that. Small villages decreased and large centers increased. Uruk was abandoned after the 1st century A.D.
Sources:
- Cultural Atlas of Mesopotamia and the Ancient Near East, by Michael Roaf. Oxford: Anromeda Book. 2004. ISBN 0816022186.
- James A. Armstrong "Mesopotamia" The Oxford Companion to Archaeology. Brian M. Fagan, ed., Oxford University Press 1996. Oxford University Press.
Assyrian Empire 750-625 B.C. Shows Uruk. Map from William Shepherd's Historical Atlas. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1911.
