Archaeologists began excavating in the 19th century and in the early 20th found stratified urban centers in southern Mesopotamia from between 4500 and 3750 B.C. Clay tablets from c. 3300 B.C. show early writing at Uruk. In all, there were about 1200 written pre-cuneiform pictographic signs. Late Uruk seals marking 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. There were two major (religious) centers:
- For the sky god An at Kullaba, and
- For the love and war goddess Inanna, at Eanna, where there is a ziggurat complex.
* "Uruk Colonies and Anatolian Communities: An Interim Report on the 1992-1993 Excavations at Hacinebi, Turkey," by Gil J. Stein et al. American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 100, No. 2 (Apr., 1996), pp. 205-260.
For other references and more information, see Periods of Uruk
Assyrian Empire 750-625 B.C. This map shows Uruk and comes from William Shepherd's Historical Atlas. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1911.


