Uruk
Uruk, today known as Warka, was a city in the ancient Near East situated east of the present bed of the Euphrates River on the dried-up ancient channel of the Euphrates. The site lies 93 kilometers (58 miles) northwest of ancient Ur, 108 kilometers (67 miles) southeast of ancient Nippur, and 24 kilometers (15 miles) southeast of ancient Larsa. It is 30 km (19 mi) east of modern Samawah, Al-Muthannā, Iraq.
Shown within Iraq | |
| Location | Al-Warka, Muthanna Governorate, Iraq |
|---|---|
| Region | Mesopotamia |
| Coordinates | 31°19′27″N 45°38′14″E |
| Type | Settlement |
| Area | 6 km2 (2.3 sq mi) |
| History | |
| Founded | c. 5000 BC |
| Abandoned | c. 700 AD |
| Periods | Uruk period to Early Middle Ages |
| Site notes | |
| Excavation dates | 1850, 1854, 1902, 1912–1913, 1928–1939, 1953–1978, 2001–2002, 2016–present |
| Archaeologists | William Loftus, Walter Andrae, Julius Jordan, Heinrich Lenzen, Margarete van Ess |
| Official name | Uruk Archaeological City |
| Part of | Ahwar of Southern Iraq |
| Criteria | Mixed: (iii)(v)(ix)(x) |
| Reference | 1481-005 |
| Inscription | 2016 (40th Session) |
| Area | 541 ha (2.09 sq mi) |
| Buffer zone | 292 ha (1.13 sq mi) |
Uruk is the type site for the Uruk period. Uruk played a leading role in the early urbanization of Sumer in the mid-4th millennium BC. By the final phase of the Uruk period around 3100 BC, the city may have had 40,000 residents, with 80,000–90,000 people living in its environs, making it the largest urban area in the world at the time. King Gilgamesh, according to the chronology presented in the Sumerian King List (henceforth SKL), ruled Uruk in the 27th century BC. The city lost its prime importance around 2000 BC in the context of the struggle of Babylonia against Elam, but it remained inhabited throughout the Achaemenid (550–330 BC), Seleucid (312–63 BC) and Parthian (227 BC to AD 224) periods until it was finally abandoned shortly before or after the Islamic conquest of 633–638.
William Kennett Loftus visited the site of Uruk in 1849, identifying it as "Erech", known as "the second city of Nimrod", and led the first excavations from 1850 to 1854.