From Prehistory to History 2: The Rise of Urban Civilzation in the Ancient Near East

Terminology

Dry farming

SurplusAlluvial plains, irrigation

Craft specialization

Social complexity

Pristine civilizations

Uruk

Wheel-made pottery

Fact: Establishment of First Villages and then Agricultural Transformation

Settlement in Mesopotamia

Alluvial Plains created by the Euphrates and Tigris rivers = Mesopotamia (modern term)

Village type of settlements begin here in the course of the 6th millennium (irrigation)

Settlement pattern studies

In the course of the 4th millennium development of one major urban scale center: the city of URUK (Warka in modern Arabic, Erech in the Old Testament),

How do we define an urban center?

Following criteria derived from G. Childe’s original proposal:

Uruk Period: 4th Millenium BC, Peak around 3000 BC. Below is a plan of Uruk city.

Anu Temple in Uruk, ca 3200 BC:

Monumental buildings in URUK, ca. 3200 BC:

Early Dynastic Political Economy

Size of settlements

Full-time specialization of labor

Economic surplus

Monumental public works

Long-distance trade

Institutionalization of religion

Emergence of writing