History glossary

Uruk

one of the world's earliest major cities, in southern Mesopotamia near modern Warka in Iraq.

Category
City
Region
Southern Iraq
Date range
major growth c. 4000-3000 BCE

What it means

Uruk was a large Sumerian city in southern Mesopotamia, near the modern archaeological site of Warka in Iraq. Around the fourth millennium BCE, it became a center of temples, administration, trade, craft production, and early writing.

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