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#Post#: 5305--------------------------------------------------
The Birth of Civilisation - Rise of Uruk (6500 BC to 3200 BC)
By: guest5 Date: April 4, 2021, 6:42 pm
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The Birth of Civilisation - Rise of Uruk (6500 BC to 3200 BC)
[quote]In the final episode of our three part series, we examine
the rapid organisation of communities throughout Mesopotamia
from the 7th millennia, which culminated in the rise of the
worlds first true city.[/quote]
HTML https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aowNRbEdqPQ
[quote]Uruk (/ˈʊrʊk/;[1] Sumerian: Cuneiform:
𒀕𒆠, unugki,[2] Akkadian: 𒌷𒀕 or
𒌷𒀔 Uruk (URUUNUG); Arabic:
وركاء or
أوروك‎, Warkāʼ or
Auruk; Syriac:
ܐܘܿܪܘܿܟ,‘Úrūk;
Hebrew: אֶרֶךְ‎
ʼÉreḵ; Ancient Greek:
Ὀρχόη, romanized: Orkhóē,
Ὀρέχ Orékh,
Ὠρύγεια Ōrúgeia) was an
ancient city of Sumer (and later of Babylonia) situated east of
the present bed of the Euphrates River on the dried-up ancient
channel of the Euphrates 30 km (19 mi) east of modern Samawah,
Al-Muthannā, Iraq.[3]
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
BCE, the city may have had 40,000 residents,[4] with
80,000-90,000 people living in its environs,[5] making it the
largest urban area in the world at the time. The legendary 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 Seleucid (312–63 BC) and Parthian (227
BC to 224 AD) 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.[6]
The Arabic name of the present-day country, al-ʿIrāq
cannot derive from the name Uruk, but is loaned via Middle
Persian (Erāq) and then Aramaic ’yrg[7] transmission.[8]
[/quote]
[img width=1280
height=850]
HTML https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/83/Uruk_Archaealogical_site_at_Warka.jpg/1920px-Uruk_Archaealogical_site_at_Warka.jpg[/img]
[quote]Geographic factors
Geographic factors underpin Uruk's unprecedented growth. The
city was located in the southern part of Mesopotamia, an ancient
site of civilization, on the Euphrates river. Through the
gradual and eventual domestication of native grains from the
Zagros foothills and extensive irrigation techniques, the area
supported a vast variety of edible vegetation. This
domestication of grain and its proximity to rivers enabled
Uruk's growth into the largest Sumerian settlement, in both
population and area, with relative ease.[10]
Uruk's agricultural surplus and large population base
facilitated processes such as trade, specialization of crafts
and the evolution of writing; writing may have originated in
Uruk around 3300 BC.[11] Evidence from excavations such as
extensive pottery and the earliest known tablets of writing
support these events. Excavation of Uruk is highly complex
because older buildings were recycled into newer ones, thus
blurring the layers of different historic periods. The topmost
layer most likely originated in the Jemdet Nasr period
(3100–2900 BC) and is built on structures from earlier periods
dating back to the Ubaid period.[/quote]
HTML https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a1/Sumer_map.jpg
[quote]History
According to the SKL, Uruk was founded by the king Enmerkar.
Though the king-list mentions a king of Eanna before him, the
epic Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta relates that Enmerkar
constructed the House of Heaven (Sumerian: e2-anna; Cuneiform:
𒂍𒀭 E2.AN) for the goddess Inanna in the Eanna
District of Uruk. In the Epic of Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh builds the
city wall around Uruk and is king of the city.
Uruk went through several phases of growth, from the Early Uruk
period (4000–3500 BC) to the Late Uruk period (3500–3100 BC).[3]
The city was formed when two smaller Ubaid settlements merged.
The temple complexes at their cores became the Eanna District
and the Anu District dedicated to Inanna and Anu,
respectively.[3] The Anu District was originally called
'Kullaba' (Kulab or Unug-Kulaba) prior to merging with the Eanna
District. Kullaba dates to the Eridu period when it was one of
the oldest and most important cities of Sumer. There are
different interpretations about the purposes of the temples.
However, it is generally believed they were a unifying feature
of the city. It also seems clear that temples served both an
important religious function and state function. The surviving
temple archive of the Neo-Babylonian period documents the social
function of the temple as a redistribution center.
The Eanna District was composed of several buildings with spaces
for workshops, and it was walled off from the city. By contrast,
the Anu District was built on a terrace with a temple at the
top. It is clear Eanna was dedicated to Inanna from the earliest
Uruk period throughout the history of the city.[12] The rest of
the city was composed of typical courtyard houses, grouped by
profession of the occupants, in districts around Eanna and Anu.
Uruk was extremely well penetrated by a canal system that has
been described as, "Venice in the desert."[13] This canal system
flowed throughout the city connecting it with the maritime trade
on the ancient Euphrates River as well as the surrounding
agricultural belt.
The original city of Uruk was situated southwest of the ancient
Euphrates River, now dry. Currently, the site of Warka is
northeast of the modern Euphrates river. The change in position
was caused by a shift in the Euphrates at some point in history,
which, together with salination due to irrigation, may have
contributed to the decline of Uruk. [/quote]
HTML https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uruk
[img width=1280
height=632]
HTML https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e4/White_Temple_%27E_at_Uruk%2C_3500-3000_BCE.jpg/1920px-White_Temple_%27E_at_Uruk%2C_3500-3000_BCE.jpg[/img]
#Post#: 31428--------------------------------------------------
Re: The Birth of Civilisation - Rise of Uruk (6500 BC to 3200 BC
)
By: SodaPop Date: November 22, 2025, 2:49 pm
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Which Ancient Society REALLY Invented the Wheel?
[quote]Few inventions have reshaped human history as profoundly
as the wheel. For a long time, it was assumed that Mesopotamia —
as “the cradle of civilization” — was the birthplace of the
wheel. But over the last few decades, new discoveries in Europe
have challenged this old assumption.
Because the earliest known tracks of wheeled vehicles anywhere
in the world are from northern Germany. The oldest model wheels
in the world are from Ukraine. The oldest preserved wooden wheel
in the world comes from Slovenia. And the earliest graves
containing wheels and wagons were dug into the East European
steppe. So who invented the wheel? And when was the wheel
invented? And why was the wheel invented, as well as the axle,
the wagon, and the cart?
This is the story of the invention of the wheel.[/quote]
HTML https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTmt6PUryT0
[quote][...]The oldest forms of the potter's wheel (called
tourneys or slow wheels) were probably developed as an extension
to this procedure. Tournettes, in use around 3500 BC in the Near
East, were turned slowly by hand or by foot while coiling a pot.
Only a small range of vessels were fashioned on the tournette,
suggesting that it was used by a limited number of potters.[2]
The introduction of the slow wheel increased the efficiency of
hand-powered pottery production.
In the mid to late 3rd millennium BC the fast wheel was
developed, which operated on the flywheel principle. It utilised
energy stored in the rotating mass of the heavy stone wheel
itself to speed the process. This wheel was wound up and charged
with energy by kicking, or pushing it around with a stick,
providing angular momentum. The fast wheel enabled a new process
of pottery-making to develop, called throwing, in which a lump
of clay was placed centrally on the wheel and then squeezed,
lifted and shaped as the wheel turned. The process tends to
leave rings on the inside of the pot and can be used to create
thinner-walled pieces and a wider variety of shapes, including
stemmed vessels, so wheel-thrown pottery can be distinguished
from handmade. Potters could now produce many more pots per
hour, a first step towards industrialization.
Many modern scholars suggest that the first potter's wheel was
first developed by the ancient Sumerians in Mesopotamia.[3] A
stone potter's wheel found at the Sumerian city of Ur in
modern-day Iraq and Parthia has been dated to about 3129 BC,[4]
but fragments of wheel-thrown pottery of an even earlier date
have been recovered in the same area.[4] However, southeastern
Europe[5] and China[6] have also been claimed as possible places
of origin. A potter's wheel in western Ukraine, from the
Cucuteni–Trypillia culture, has been dated to the middle of the
5th millennium BC, and is the oldest ever found, and which
further precedes the earliest use of the potter's wheel in
Mesopotamia by several hundred years.[7] On the other hand,
Egypt is considered as "being the place of origin of the
potter's wheel. It was here that the turntable shaft was
lengthened about 3000 BC and a flywheel added. The flywheel was
kicked and later was moved by pulling the edge with the left
hand while forming the clay with the right. This led to the
counterclockwise motion for the potter's wheel which is almost
universal."[8] Thus, the exact origin of the wheel is not wholly
clear yet.
A potter shapes pottery with his hands while operating a
mechanical potter's wheel with his foot, 1902
In the Iron Age, the potter's wheel in common use had a turning
platform about one metre (3 feet) over the floor, connected by a
long axle to a heavy flywheel at ground level. This arrangement
allowed the potter to keep the turning wheel rotating by kicking
the flywheel with the foot, leaving both hands free for
manipulating the vessel under construction. However, from an
ergonomic standpoint, sweeping the foot from side to side
against the spinning hub is rather awkward. At some
point[when?], an alternative solution was invented that involved
a crankshaft with a lever that converted up-and-down motion into
rotary motion.
In Japan the potter's wheel first showed by in the Asuka or
Sueki period (552–710 CE) where wares were more sophisticated
and complicated. In addition to the new technology of the wheel,
firing was also changed to a much higher temperature in a
rudimentary kiln. The industrialization continued through the
Nara period (710–794) and into the Heian, or Fujiwara, period
(794–1185). With higher temperature firings, new glazes followed
(green, yellowish brown, and white), in addition new styles and
techniques of glazing emerged. [9]
Ceramic wares that emerged from China were processed with a very
similar beginning as Japan. The history of Chinese pottery began
in the Neolithic era about 4300 BC down to 2000 BC. Unlike
Japan, which focused on production of everyday wares, China
created mostly decorative pieces with few opportunities for
industrialization and production of ceramic wares. Because China
focused on decorative wares, most of their pottery was centered
around porcelain instead of earthen wares seem almost everywhere
else, and they used the potter's wheel for the development of
porcelain clay culture. Porcelain took off during the Ming
Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), when the iconic blue
and white porcelain ceramics emerged. Several places in China
mix traditional elements and methods with modern design and
technologies. [10]
Native Americans have been creating ceramics by hand and in more
modern eras started incorporating a wheel into their work.
Pottery can be identified in the Southwest of North American
dating back to 150 CE and has been an important part of Native
American culture for over 2,000 years. [11] Historically Native
Americans have been using the coiling method to achieve their
decorative and functional pieces, and the technology to create
an electric wheel did not show up until the arrival of
Europeans. However, smaller turntables or slow wheels could have
been used occasionally.
[12][...][/quote]
HTML https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potter%27s_wheel
I suspect Alexandr Dugin may not have understood that the
potter's wheel mostly likely came before the wagon wheel when he
claimed that "Turanian's invented the wheel"? Either that, or he
was being intentionally deceptive?
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