Uruk: First City of the Ancient World

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Nicola Crüsemann, Margarete van Ess, Markus Hilgert, Beate Salje, Timothy Potts
Getty Publications, 5 nov 2019 - 408 páginas

This abundantly illustrated volume explores the genesis and flourishing of Uruk, the first known metropolis in the history of humankind.

More than one hundred years ago, discoveries from a German archaeological dig at Uruk, roughly two hundred miles south of present-day Baghdad, sent shock waves through the scholarly world. Founded at the end of the fifth millennium BCE, Uruk was the main force for urbanization in what has come to be called the Uruk period (4000–3200 BCE), during which small, agricultural villages gave way to a larger urban center with a stratified society, complex governmental bureaucracy, and monumental architecture and art. It was here that proto-cuneiform script—the earliest known form of writing—was developed around 3400 BCE. Uruk is known too for the epic tale of its hero-king Gilgamesh, among the earliest masterpieces of world literature.


Containing 480 images, this volume represents the most comprehensive and up-to-date assessment of the archaeological evidence gathered at Uruk. More than sixty essays by renowned scholars provide glimpses into the life, culture, and art of the first great city of the ancient world. This volume will be an indispensable reference for readers interested in the ancient Near East and the origins of urbanism.

 

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Índice

Foreword to the EnglishLanguage Edition ix
Note to the Reader xi
Introduction to the EnglishLanguage Edition 1
The Exhibition 9
2 Uruk and the Vorderasiatisches Museum 16
3 UrukIts Place in Space and Time 19
4 UrukLand and People in the Twentieth Century 26
5 Gilgamesh Legendary King of Uruk 31
35 The City of Uruk throughout History 195
Lifes Basic Building Blocks 202
37 The Eanna Sanctuary in Uruk 205
38 Observations on Construction Techniques in Uruk 212
39 Religious Practices in the Ancient Near East in theEarly Periods 215
An Enduring Tradition 220
41 Uruks Old Babylonian Palace and Its Texts 223
42 Clay Loam and Ceramics in Mesopotamia 232

6 Timber for Temples 38
7 Gilgameshs Heroic Deeds in Pictorial Representations 41
8 The Gilgamesh Epic in the Art of Willi Baumeister 48
9 InannaCity Goddess of Uruk 51
10 Ancient Near Eastern Foundation Deposits 60
11 InannaIshtars Iconography in the Ancient Near East 63
12 The History of Research on Uruk 75
13 Excavation Directors in Uruk 82
14 Uruks Beginnings and Early Development 87
15 Reed as a Raw Material 94
16 Uruks Early Monumental Architecture 97
17 The Clay Cone Mosaic Technique 108
18 The Ancient Near Eastern Ruler 111
19 Irrigation in Southern Mesopotamia 116
The Art of Governancein the Late Fourth and Early Third Millennia bc 119
21 Archaic City Seals from Mesopotamia and Iran 126
22 Differentiation and Classification in FourthandThirdMillennium bc Societies 129
23 Uses of Ceramics in the Late Uruk Period 136
The Function andUse of Seals in the Fourth and Third Millennia bc 139
Making Beads and Seals 146
26 The Invention and Early Uses of Writingin Mesopotamia 149
27 Archaic Counting and Measuring Systems 154
28 Writing Cuneiform 157
29 On the Beginnings of Writing 164
30 Early Cuneiform and Its Relation to Language 167
31 The Structure of the Archaic Texts and theFurther Development of Cuneiform Signs 174
32 The Beginnings of Writing in Egypt 177
33 Early Writing in Iran 182
34 The Expansion of Uruk Culture 185
43 Trade in the Early Ancient Near East 235
44 Sheep Wool and Textiles in the Sumerian Economy 242
45 Babylonian Domestic Architecture 245
46 Anthropomorphic TerraCotta Figurinesas a Mirror of Society 252
47 Economy and Administration in Babylonia 255
Environment and Everyday Life in Uruk 262
49 Stone Vessel Production in Uruk 265
50 Metals in Uruk 270
What Did One Learnin Uruks Schools? 273
52 Stone as a Raw Material 278
53 Religion and Science in the Ancient Near East 281
54 Burials in Uruk 288
Three Millennia of Intellectual Life in Uruk 291
56 Hellenistic Seal Impressions from Uruk 298
The LateFlowering of Uruk in the Seleucid Period 301
58 Hellenistic Burial Mounds near Uruk 310
59 The Seleucid Resh Sanctuary 313
60 The Geoarchaeology of Uruk 323
Aspects ofClimate History 332
Urban Structures in Magnetic andSatellite Images 335
63 New Radiocarbon Datings from Uruk 342
64 The Visualization of Uruks Architecture 345
65 Research on Ancient Uruk 355
Eighty Yearsof History 362
Bibliography 364
Illustration Credits 379
Index 383
Back Cover
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Términos y frases comunes

addition administrative already Anatolia ancient animals appear archaeological architecture Assyria Babylon Babylonian beginning Berlin bricks building canals century BC changes clay tablets complex courtyard cult culture cuneiform cylinder depiction Deutsches Archäologisches Institut developed documents Dynasty Eanna early East especially example excavation FIGURE finds fired foundation fourth millennium BC function Gilgamesh goddess gods important impressions Inanna included indicate inscription Ishtar king known lapis lazuli Late Uruk period later material Mesopotamia meters Museen zu Berlin names Notes objects Old Babylonian original palace Photo picture possible probably produced reconstruction reed region relating rooms roughly ruler Sanctuary seal Seleucid served settlement shape side signs so-called southern Staatliche Museen stone structures suggest Sumerian temple texts third third millennium BC tion tradition Uruk’s various vessels Vorderasiatisches Museum wall writing written Ziggurat

Sobre el autor (2019)

Nicola Crüsemann is a Near Eastern archaeologist and former codirector of the Junge Museum Speyer, Historical Museum of Pfalz. 

Margarete Van Ess is scientific director at the German Archaeological Institute in Berlin. 

Markus Hilgert is former director of the Museum of the Ancient Near East in Berlin and professor of Sumerology and Assyriology at the University of Heidelberg.

Beate Salja was director of the Museum of the Ancient Near East in Berlin until her retirement in 2014.

Timothy Potts is director of the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.

Información bibliográfica

TítuloUruk: First City of the Ancient World
Getty Publications - Series
EditoresNicola Crüsemann, Margarete van Ess, Markus Hilgert, Beate Salje, Timothy Potts
Ediciónilustrada
EditorGetty Publications, 2019
ISBN1606064444, 9781606064443
N.º de páginas408 páginas
  
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