Uruk Quotes

I am Bartimaeus! I am Sakhr al-Jinni, N’gorso the Mighty, and the Serpent of Silver Plumes! I have rebuilt the walls of Uruk, Karnak, and Prague. I have spoken with Solomon. I have run with the buffalo fathers of the plains. I have watched over Old Zimbabwe till the stones fell and the jackals fed on its people. I am Bartimaeus!

The Evasive Cartwheel ™ © etc., Bartimaeus of Uruk, circa. 2800 B.C.E. Often imitated, never surpassed. As famously memorialized in the New Kingdom tomb paintings of Ramses III— you can just see me in the background of The Dedication of the Royal Family before Ra, wheeling out of sight behind the pharaoh.

Ishtar was outraged. She climbed to the top of Uruk’s great wall, she writhed in grief and wailed, “Not only did Gilgamesh slander me-now the brute has killed his own punishment, the Bull of Heaven.

Gilgamesh was king of Uruk, A city set between the Tigris And Euphrates rivers In ancient Babylonia. Enkidu was born on the Steppe Where he grew up among the animals. Gilgamesh was called a god and man; Enkidu was an animal and man. It is the story Of their becoming human together.

In the ancient cities of Uruk, Lagash and Shurupak the gods functioned as legal entities that could own fields and slaves, give and receive loans, pay salaries and build dams and canals.

Just as in present-day San Francisco John is employed by Google while Mary works for Microsoft, so in ancient Uruk one person was employed by the great god Enki while his neighbour worked for the goddess Inanna.

Whether or not the fame of Gilgamesh of Uruk had reached the Aegean – and the idea is attractive – there can be no doubt that it was as great as that of any other hero. In time his name became so much a household word that jokes and forgeries were fathered onto it, as in a popular fraud that survives on eighth-century B.C. tablets which perhaps themselves copy an older text. This is a letter supposed to be written by Gilgamesh to some other king, with commands that he should send improbable quantities of livestock and metals, along with gold and precious stones for an amulet for Enkidu, which would weigh no less that thirty pounds. The joke must have been well received, for it survives in four copies, all from Sultantepe.

Gilgamesh went abroad in the world, but he met with none who could withstand his arms till he came to Uruk. But the men of Uruk muttered in their houses, 'Gilgamesh sounds the tocsin for his amusement, his arrogance has no bounds by day or night.

Bartimaeus: By-name of the demon Sakhr al-Jinni, mentioned in Procopius and Michelot. A middle-ranking djinni of ancient standing, great ingenuity, and no little power. First recorded in Uruk; later in Jerusalem. Fought at the battle of al-Arish against the Assyrians. Known masters have included: Gilgamesh, Solomon, Zarbustibal, Heraclius, Hauser.

They are also difficult to reconcile with archaeological evidence of how cities actually began in many parts of the world: as civic experiments on a grand scale, which frequently lacked the expected features of administrative hierarchy and authoritarian rule. We do not possess an adequate terminology for these early cities. To call them ‘egalitarian’, as we’ve seen, could mean quite a number of different things. It might imply an urban parliament and co-ordinated projects of social housing, as with some pre-Columbian centres in the Americas; or the self-organizing of autonomous households into neighbourhoods and citizens’ assemblies, as with prehistoric mega-sites north of the Black Sea; or, perhaps, the introduction of some explicit notion of equality based on principles of uniformity and sameness, as in Uruk-period Mesopotamia. None of this variability is surprising once we recall what preceded cities in each region. That was not, in fact, rudimentary or isolated groups, but far-flung networks of societies, spanning diverse ecologies, with people, plants, animals, drugs, objects of value, songs and ideas moving between them in endlessly intricate ways. While the individual units were demographically small, especially at certain times of year, they were typically organized into loose coalitions or confederacies. At the very least, these were simply the logical outcome of our first freedom: to move away from one’s home, knowing one will be received and cared for, even valued, in some distant place. At most they were examples of ‘amphictyony’, in which some kind of formal organization was put in charge of the care and maintenance of sacred places. It seems that Marcel Mauss had a point when he argued that we should reserve the term ‘civilization’ for great hospitality zones such as these. Of course, we are used to thinking of ‘civilization’ as something that originates in cities – but, armed with new knowledge, it seems more realistic to put things the other way round and to imagine the first cities as one of those great regional confederacies, compressed into a small space.

Sumerian scribes invented the practice of writing in cuneiform on clay tablets sometime around 3400 B.C. in the Uruk/Warka region in the south of ancient Iraq. [The etymology of 'Iraq' may come from this region, biblical Erech. Medieval Arabic sources used the name 'Iraq' as a geographical term for the area in the south and center of the modern republic.]

Although the disappearance of the true wildwood [in the British Isles] occurred in the Neolithic period, before humanity began to record its own history, creation myths in almost all cultures look fabulously back to a forested earth. In the ancient Sumerian epic of Gilgamesh, the quest-story which begins world literature, Gilgamesh sets out on his journey from Uruk to the Cedar Mountains, where he has been charged to slay the Huwawa, the guardian of the forest. The Roman empire also defined itself against the forests in which its capital city was first established, and out of which its founders, the wolf-suckled twins, emerged. It was the Roman Empire which would proceed to destroy the dense forests of the ancient world.

Go up, Ur-Shanabi, pace out the walls of Uruk. Study the foundation terrace and examine the brickwork. Is not its masonry of kiln-fired brick? And did not seven masters lay its foundations? One square mile of city, one square mile of gardens, One square mile of clay pits, a half square mile of Ishtar's dwelling, Three and a half square miles is the measure of Uruk!

Los dioses sumerios cumplían una función análoga a la de las marcas y sociedades anónimas modernas. En la actualidad, las empresas son entidades legales ficticias que poseen propiedades, prestan dinero, contratan empleados e inician proyectos comerciales. En las antiguas ciudades de Uruk, Lagash y Shurupak, los dioses hacían las veces de entidades legales que podían poseer campos y esclavos, dar y recibir préstamos, pagar salarios y construir presas y canales.

Other great centres of civilisation such as Babylon, Nineveh, Uruk and Akkad in Mesopotamia were famed for their grandeur and architectural innovation. One Chinese geographer, meanwhile, writing more than two millennia ago, noted that the inhabitants of Bactria, centred on the Oxus river and now located in northern Afghanistan, were legendary negotiators and traders; its capital city was home to a market where a huge range of products were bought and sold, carried from far and wide.

He who saw the Deep, the country's foundation, [who] knew ... , was wise in all matters! [Gilgamesh, who] saw the Deep, the country's foundation, [who] knew ... , was wise in all matters! [He] ... everywhere ... and [learnt] of everything the sum of wisdom. He saw what was secret, discovered what was hidden, he brought back a tale of before the Deluge. He came a far road, was weary, found peace, and set all his labours on a tablet of stone. He built the rampart of Uruk-the-Sheepfold, of holy Eanna, the sacred storehouse. See its wall like a strand of wool, view its parapet that none could copy! Take the stairway of a bygone era, draw near to Eanna, seat of Ishtar the goddess, that no later king could ever copy!

Las mejores mentes se concentraban en dar sentido a la muerte, no en intentar escapar de ella. Este tema lo recoge el mito más antiguo que ha llegado hasta nosotros; el mito de Gilgamesh del antiguo Sumer. Su héroe es el hombre más fuerte y hábil del mundo, el rey Gilgamesh de Uruk, que podía vencer a cualquiera en combate. Un día, el mejor amigo de Gilgamesh, Enkidu, murió. Gilgamesh se sentó junto al cadáver y lo observó durante muchos días, hasta que vio que un gusano salía de la nariz de su amigo. En aquel momento, Gilgamesh fue presa del terror, y decidió que él nunca moriría. De alguna manera, encontraría el modo de vencer a la muerte. Gilgamesh emprendió entonces un viaje hasta los confines del universo, matando leones, luchando contra hombres escorpión y encontrando el camino hacia el infierno. Allí hizo añicos a los gigantes de piedra de Urshanabi y al barquero del río de los muertos, y encontró a Utnapishtim, el último superviviente del diluvio primordial. Pero Gilgamesh fracasó en su búsqueda. Volvió a su hogar con las manos vacías, tan mortal como siempre, pero con una nueva muestra de sabiduría. Cuando los dioses crearon al hombre, había descubierto Gilgamesh, dispusieron que la muerte fuera el destino inevitable del hombre, y el hombre ha de aprender a vivir con ello.

Why, exactly, is Marduk handing Hammurabi a one and a zero in this picture?" Hiro asks. "They were emblems of royal power," the Librarian says. "Their origin is obscure." "Enki must have been responsible for that one," Hiro says. "Enki's most important role is as the creator and guardian of the me and the gis-hur, the 'key words' and 'patterns' that rule the universe." "Tell me more about the me." "To quote Kramer and Maier again, '[They believed in] the existence from time primordial of a fundamental, unalterable, comprehensive assortment of powers and duties, norms and standards, rules and regulations, known as me, relating to the cosmos and its components, to gods and humans, to cities and countries, and to the varied aspects of civilized life.'" "Kind of like the Torah." "Yes, but they have a kind of mystical or magical force. And they often deal with banal subjects -- not just religion." "Examples?" "In one myth, the goddess Inanna goes to Eridu and tricks Enki into giving her ninety-four me and brings them back to her home town of Uruk, where they are greeted with much commotion and rejoicing." "Inanna is the person that Juanita's obsessed with." "Yes, sir. She is hailed as a savior because 'she brought the perfect execution of the me.'" "Execution? Like executing a computer program?" "Yes. Apparently, they are like algorithms for carrying out certain activities essential to the society. Some of them have to do with the workings of priesthood and kingship. Some explain how to carry out religious ceremonies. Some relate to the arts of war and diplomacy. Many of them are about the arts and crafts: music, carpentry, smithing, tanning, building, farming, even such simple tasks as lighting fires." "The operating system of society." "I'm sorry?" "When you first turn on a computer, it is an inert collection of circuits that can't really do anything. To start up the machine, you have to infuse those circuits with a collection of rules that tell it how to function. How to be a computer. It sounds as though these me served as the operating system of the society, organizing an inert collection of people into a functioning system." "As you wish. In any case, Enki was the guardian of the me." "So he was a good guy, really." "He was the most beloved of the gods." "He sounds like kind of a hacker.

the reason why Gilgamesh needed the assent of his elders to defend his city was probably that he did not have at his disposal the writing tools necessary to command absolute political control over large numbers of citizens. By the same token, Uruk’s literate, scribal elite was not yet able to disempower its illiterate masses.

its city walls encompassed an area of over two square miles, with much of the city apparently lying outside those walls. This made Uruk the largest city not only of its age but for the next three thousand years.

author” meant “father,” from the Latin word for “master,” auctor. Auctor-ship implied authority, something that, in most of the world, had been the divine right of kings and religious leaders since Gilgamesh ruled Uruk four thousand years earlier. It was not to be shared with mere mortals. An “inventor,” from invenire, “find,” was a discoverer, not a creator, until the 1550s. “Credit,” from credo, “trust,” did not mean “acknowledgment” until the late sixteenth century.

Abram watched the royal representatives from the cities: Nippur, Sippar, Borsippa, Lagash, Uruk, Ur, Eridu, Nineveh. They had come from all corners of the earth to participate in this massive orgy of idolatry. What could El Shaddai possibly have in mind that could bring justice upon this festering boil of villainy and spiritual rebellion? The thought passed through Abram’s mind that maybe God had given up.

Noah watched them walking away. A dark pall of realization swept over him. He said, “It is time for us to return to the land between the two rivers. Elohim’s work with us is not yet done.” She looked up at him. She knew what he meant and dreaded it. She also knew that their lives were in the hands of Elohim, had always been in the hands of Elohim. From the moment their tribe had been slaughtered, to her captivity in Uruk, and Noah’s descent into Sheol, God had delivered them at the last moment from the hands of Inanna and her minions. He had brought them safely through the waters of the Flood. He would take care of them now. It had taken many years for her to heal from what their son Ham had done to her. His violation was not only depraved in a personal sense of defilement, it was an act of evil that she knew would result in a generational curse that only began with the fruit of that unholy violation: Canaan.

They established a hierarchy of four High Gods over the rest of the pantheon, and Seven Who Decree the Fates. They had no idea that an insignificant scrapper, the Watcher called Gadreel, would bide his time, build his strength and perfect his fighting technique to become the mighty Ninurta of Uruk, and now Marduk of Babylon. Ishtar had to admit that he had been clever about it. She stood before her tent, watching the puny humans labor on her fabulous temple, musing on the Plan of the Watchers.

Within moments, they were through the sanctuary tunnel way and headed down into the cavern below the altar. But the gods were gone. “Deplorable,” said Uriel, gazing upon the dismembered body parts of his brother archangel on the wall. They carefully took down the arms, legs, torso and head of Mikael and reattached them like a human anatomy puzzle. Uriel said, “Why would they have left all of him here for us to find and heal?” Uriel remembered all too terribly when he had been decapitated by Anu in the primeval city of Uruk. Anu had kept Uriel’s head separated from his body so that the angel could not heal and fight them. Gabriel said, “They must have wanted us to find him.” Raphael said, “But they did not want us to follow them, as we would have, had they taken part of his body.” The angels had done so in the past when Ishtar had cut Gabriel in half and threw his legs into the Abyss. “Which means we should follow them,” said Uriel. “But where?” It would take some time for his organic tissue to reconnect, including his voice box. But Mikael could not wait for that healing. His hand wrote out on the sandy floor, “Ashkelon.

Although writing was first invented in Uruk, it came relatively late in the cultural phase, and because of that modern scholars are forced to make guesses as to the city’s population during the period. Most assume that the agricultural output from the surrounding rural area was high enough to support a regional center and true city, which means that Uruk was the world’s first true city (van de Mieroop 2007, 23).

By 2500 BCE, there were half a million Sumerians of which the vast majority lived in cities including Uruk, Kish, Nippur, Ur, Lagash, Umma, and Ur.

En el cuarto bloque de tablillas sumerias tenemos a los Mitos de los Héroes, por ejemplo, Gilgamesh, rey de Uruk. Otro héroe es Lugalbanda, señor de Aratta.

He established Uruk as the main city of Sumer and set up his palace there. Lugal-Zage-Si ruled for 25 years,

He attacked Sumer, and in a battle at Uruk he defeated Lugal-Zage-Si and took control of all the Sumerian city states.

The city of Uruk, for example, controlled 76 nearby towns and villages.

The entire process [Uruk expansion] was, in a sense, colonial, and it did not go unopposed. As it turns out, we cannot really understand the rise of what we have come to call 'the star' - and specifically of aristocracies and monarchies - except in the larger context of that counter-reaction.

Clutching his burning body were these impossibly strong arms, thick and hard and veiny, smooth, cold, so like the stony arms of an ogre Wayne expected to hear the battle-chant of Sauron’s army of Uruk-hai all around him, and the clank and clash of iron swords, and battle cries in unintelligible tongues.

With the thirty-foot miniature of Helm’s Deep, complete with the Hornburg keep, Deeping Wall and polystyrene cliffsides recently constructed with Lee’s assistance, Jackson went out and bought 5,000 1/32nd scale plastic soldiers. ‘Sort of Medieval guys with pikes,’ he reports happily, having cleaned out Wellington’s toyshops. A poor soul spent two weeks laboriously gluing them down in groups of twelve to blocks of wood so the director could move formations of Uruk-hai around like Napoleon.

Por vezes, um governante autoritário vindo de fora fazia a vida urbana retroceder. Foi o caso da dinastia amorita dos Lim — Yaggid-Lim, Yahudun-Lim e Zimri-Lim —, que dominou grande parte do Eufrates sírio na mesma época em que Mashkan-shapir prosperava no extremo sul. Os Lim decidiram instalar seu centro de operações na antiga cidade de Mari (atual Tell Hariri, no trecho sírio do Eufrates) e ocupar as edificações governamentais existentes em seu centro. A chegada dos Lim parece ter desencadeado um êxodo maciço da população de Mari, que se dispersou por povoados menores ou, juntando-se a pastores itinerantes, por toda a estepe síria. Antes do saque de Mari por Hamurabi da Babilônia, em 1761 a.C., a última “cidade” dos reis amoritas nada mais continha do que a residência real, o harém, os templos adjacentes e um punhado de edifícios públicos.60 Uma correspondência escrita nesse período comprova a antipatia entre uma monarquia arrivista desse tipo e o poder estabelecido das assembleias urbanas. Cartas enviadas a Zimri-Lim por Terru — senhor da antiga capital hurrita de Urkesh (atual Tell Mozan) — retratam sua impotência diante dos conselhos e assembleias da cidade. Em certa ocasião, Terru conta a Zimri-Lim: “Como estou sujeito à vontade de meu senhor, os moradores da vila me desprezam, e duas ou três vezes escapei por pouco da morte nas mãos deles”. Assim responde o rei em Mari: “Não sabia que os moradores de sua vila o desprezam por minha causa. Você pertence a mim, mesmo que a vila de Urkesh pertença a outro”. Tudo isso chegou ao fim quando Terru confessou que fora obrigado a fugir por causa da opinião pública (“a boca de Urkesh”) e a buscar abrigo numa vila próxima.61 Portanto, longe de dependerem de governantes para gerenciar a vida urbana, a maioria dos moradores de cidades estava organizada em unidades autônomas, capazes de se governar e de reagir a superiores injuriosos, fosse expulsando-os, fosse abandonando eles mesmos a cidade. Nada disso responde necessariamente ao questionamento de “qual era a natureza do governo nas cidades mesopotâmicas antes do surgimento da realeza” (embora seja muito sugestivo). Em vez disso, as respostas dependem, numa medida um tanto preocupante, de descobertas feitas num único sítio: a cidade de Uruk — a atual Warka, e a Erech da Bíblia —, cuja mitologia posterior inspirou a busca original de Jacobsen por uma “democracia primitiva”.62

A class of people who worked for the temple (which functioned as a proto–city hall) figured out how to keep track of stuff by elaborating on the tokens-pressed-in-clay system. They used a reed stylus to make marks on a little clay tablet and started using abstract symbols for numbers themselves. The first writers weren’t poets; they were accountants. For a long time, that’s all writing was. No love notes. No eulogies. No stories. Just IOU six sheep. Or, as a tablet from a famous mound in a Sumerian city called Uruk, in present-day Iraq, said: “Lu-Nanna, the head of the temple, received one cow and its two young suckling bull calves from the royal delivery from [a guy named] Abasaga.

A class of people who worked for the temple (which functioned as a proto–city hall) figured out how to keep track of stuff by elaborating on the tokens-pressed-in-clay system. They used a reed stylus to make marks on a little clay tablet and started using abstract symbols for numbers themselves. The first writers weren’t poets; they were accountants. For a long time, that’s all writing was. No love notes. No eulogies. No stories. Just IOU six sheep. Or, as a tablet from a famous mound in a Sumerian city called Uruk, in present-day Iraq, said: “Lu-Nanna, the head of the temple, received one cow and its two young suckling bull calves from the royal delivery from [a guy named] Abasaga.” Silver—a metal people had used previously for jewelry and rituals—was desirable and scarce and easy to store and divide, and it became money-ish in Mesopotamia, but for lots of people—maybe most people—money still wasn’t a thing.

In one of the first wide shots of Gimli, Legolas and Aragorn tracking the Uruks, all three actors are running injured. Viggo had broken his toes doing a previous scene, Orlando Bloom had a cracked rib from falling off a horse and the scale double of John Rhys-Davies had a knee problem.

The first laws we know about that make females inferior Uruk (Sumer). These laws list a new crime - adultery - that only women could commit. And in Sumer, a knew occupation - prostitution - is devised by the temple priests. The coincidence (in the same culture if not at the same moment) of an assertion of female inferiority, the criminalisation of free sexuality in women, and the use of female sexuality in commercial transactions benefiting men demonstrates the new male vision of women: as sexual objects to be possessed and used by men.

The variety of goods and materials that survive from Uruk suggests that most of its ancient inhabitants had distinct trades. Labor was specialized. Undoubtedly some of its citizens were shepherds; others were farmers, bakers, brewers, weavers, even accountants, scribes, and teachers. The Warka Vase hints at the importance of individual obligation to the temple, which was fundamental to the agricultural production and distribution system.

The city’s name was Uruk. It was situated by the Euphrates River,

A bowl of fermented barley beer was, apparently, the daily ration for temple laborers in Uruk.

The door opened. I stopped. Beyond it, orks lined both sides of the corridor. They had been watching for me. The moment I appeared, they roared their approval. They did not attack. They simply stood, clashed guns against blades, and hooted brute enthusiasm. I had been subjected to too many celebratory parades on Armageddon not to recognise one when it confronted me. I went numb from the unreality before me. I stepped forward, though. I had no choice. I walked. It was the most obscene victory march of my life. I moved through corridor, hold and bay, and the massed ranks of the greenskins hailed my passage. I saw the evidence of the destruction I had caused around every bend. Scorch marks, patched ruptures, buckled flooring, collapsed ceilings. But it hadn’t been enough. Not nearly enough. Only enough for this… this… At length, I arrived at a launch bay. There was a ship on the pad before the door. It was human, a small in-system shuttle. It was not built for long voyages. No matter, as long as its vox-system was still operative. I knew that it would be. Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka awaited me beside the ship’s access ramp. I did not let my confusion or the sense that I had slipped into an endless waking nightmare slow my stride. I did not hesitate as I strode towards the monster. I stopped before him. I met his gaze with all the cold hatred of my soul. He radiated delight. Then he leaned forward, a colossus of armour and bestial strength. Our faces were mere centimetres apart. My soul bears many scars from the days and months of my defeat and captivity. But there is one memory that, above all others, haunts me. By day, it is a goad to action. By night, it murders sleep. It lives with me always, the proof that there could hardly be a more terrible threat to the Imperium than this ork. Thraka spoke to me. Not in orkish. Not even in Low Gothic. In High Gothic. ‘A great fight,’ he said. He extended a huge, clawed finger and tapped me once on the chest. ‘My best enemy.’ He stepped aside and gestured to the ramp. ‘Go to Armageddon,’ he said. ‘Make ready for the greatest fight.’ I entered the ship, my being marked by words whose full measure of horror lay not in their content, but in the fact of their existence. I stumbled to the cockpit, and discovered that I had a pilot. It was Commander Rogge. His mouth was parted in a scream, but there was no sound. He had no vocal cords any longer. There was very little of his body recognisable. He had been opened up, reorganised, fused with the ship’s control and guidance systems. He had been transformed into a fully aware servitor. ‘Take us out of here,’ I ordered. The rumble of the ship’s engines powering up was drowned by the even greater roar of the orks. I knew that roar for what it was: the promise of war beyond description.

Off to the east, though not visible from Uruk, flowed the Euphrates’s twin river,

Off to the east, though not visible from Uruk, flowed the Euphrates’s twin river, the Tigris.

Even in the Maya case, to describe the entire period between AD 900 and 1520 as ‘Post-Classic’ is to suggest that the only really significant thing about it is the degree to which it can be seen as the waning of a Golden Age. In a similar way, terms like ‘Proto-palatial Crete’, ‘Predynastic Egypt’ or ‘Formative Peru’ convey a sense of impatience, as if Minoans, Egyptians or Andean peoples spent centuries doing little but laying the groundwork for such a Golden Age – and, it is implied, for strong, stable government – to come about.33 We’ve already seen how this played out in Uruk, where at least seven centuries of collective self-rule (also termed ‘Predynastic’ in earlier scholarship) comes to be written off as a mere prelude to the ‘real’ history of Mesopotamia – which is then presented as a history of conquerors, dynasts, lawgivers and kings.

In the last years of Denethor I the race of uruks, black orcs of great strength, first appeared out of Mordor, and in 2475 they swept across Ithilien and took Osgiliath.

The ancient gods and goddesses who were worshiped in Uruk when it first grew to be a city

This was Inana, to whom the Eanna temple in Uruk was dedicated.

Your precious mankind!" she said. "It has learned nothing in six thousand years! You speak to me of ideals and goals! There were men in my father's court in Uruk who knew the hungry ought to be fed. Do you know what your modern world is? Televisions are tabernacles of the miraculous and helicopters are its angels of death!

Sumerian king list, which lists Gilgamesh among the kings of Uruk, identifies him as “the son of a spirit” or a “ghost.” The Book of the Giants from the Dead Sea Scrolls identifies Gilgamesh as one of the Nephilim. Genesis can, therefore, be seen to be interpreting what was, for its original hearers, the historical record of gods and kings through a very different theological lens.

Versions of urban life were being sampled simultaneously on several continents. In China, there were towns on the Yellow River and in the north, at Shimao (Shaanxi). In Ukraine, Taljanky, containing 10,000 people, was larger and maybe even earlier than the first city at Uruk. In America, long since separated from Asia, people in Mexico and Guatemala were building towns with as many as 10,000 inhabitants and pyramidal mounds that reflected their sacred calendar, using a form of writing, storing surplus maize in storehouses, and sculpting giant heads, probably of their rulers, who seem to be sporting helmets worn for their ballgames.[*10] On the Mississippi, people were raising monumental earthworks that somehow linked stars and calendar: the inhabitants of the largest of these – now called Poverty Point – were not farmers but nomadic hunters who somehow came together to build massive structures.

This was the first known great civilization and was located between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers at the headwaters of the Persian Gulf. In biblical times, it was called Chaldea or Shinar. Today, it is known as Iraq, which derived its name from the ancient Sumerian city of Uruk. The Sumerian culture seemed to appear from nowhere more than 6,000 years ago and before it ended, it had greatly influenced life as far east as the Indus River, which flows from the Himalayas through Pakistan to the Arabian Sea, and the Nile of the later Egyptian kingdoms.

Early Near Eastern villages domesticated plants and animals. Uruk urban institutions, in turn, domesticated humans.

I have a soft spot for minions. Lackeys. Henchmen. The sycophantic underlings who make a good villain great. Who would the Joker be without his flunkies? Hans Gruber without his crack team of gun-toting criminals? Sauron without his Uruk-hai?

Uruk retained a certain importance, but it never recovered its former political power. Its ruins now lie isolated in the deserts of Iraq.

The Historical Setting of Genesis Mesopotamia: Sumer Through Old Babylonia Sumerians. It is not possible at this time to put Ge 1–11 into a specific place in the historical record. Our history of the ancient Near East begins in earnest after writing has been invented, and the earliest civilization known to us in the historical record is that of the Sumerians. This culture dominated southern Mesopotamia for over 500 years during the first half of the third millennium BC (2900–2350 BC), known as the Early Dynastic Period. The Sumerians have become known through the excavation of several of their principal cities, which include Eridu, Uruk and Ur. The Sumerians are credited with many of the important developments in civilization, including the foundations of mathematics, astronomy, law and medicine. Urbanization is also first witnessed among the Sumerians. By the time of Abraham, the Sumerians no longer dominate the ancient Near East politically, but their culture continues to influence the region. Other cultures replace them in the political arena but benefit from the advances they made. Dynasty of Akkad. In the middle of the twenty-fourth century BC, the Sumerian culture was overrun by the formation of an empire under the kingship of Sargon I, who established his capital at Akkad. He ruled all of southern Mesopotamia and ranged eastward into Elam and northwest to the Mediterranean on campaigns of a military and economic nature. The empire lasted for almost 150 years before being apparently overthrown by the Gutians (a barbaric people from the Zagros Mountains east of the Tigris), though other factors, including internal dissent, may have contributed to the downfall. Ur III. Of the next century little is known as more than 20 Gutian kings succeeded one another. Just before 2100 BC, the city of Ur took control of southern Mesopotamia under the kingship of Ur-Nammu, and for the next century there was a Sumerian renaissance in what has been called the Ur III period. It is difficult to ascertain the limits of territorial control of the Ur III kings, though the territory does not seem to have been as extensive as that of the dynasty of Akkad. Under Ur-Nammu’s son Shulgi, the region enjoyed almost a half century of peace. Decline and fall came late in the twenty-first century BC through the infiltration of the Amorites and the increased aggression of the Elamites to the east. The Elamites finally overthrew the city. It is against this backdrop of history that the OT patriarchs emerge. Some have pictured Abraham as leaving the sophisticated Ur that was the center of the powerful Ur III period to settle in the unknown wilderness of Canaan, but that involves both chronological and geographic speculation. By the highest chronology (i.e., the earliest dates attributed to him), Abraham probably would have traveled from Ur to Harran during the reign of Ur-Nammu, but many scholars are inclined to place Abraham in the later Isin-Larsa period or even the Old Babylonian period. From a geographic standpoint it is difficult to be sure that the Ur mentioned in the Bible is the famous city in southern Mesopotamia (see note on 11:28). All this makes it impossible to give a precise background of Abraham. The Ur III period ended in southern Mesopotamia as the last king of Ur, Ibbi-Sin, lost the support of one city after another and was finally overthrown by the Elamites, who lived just east of the Tigris. In the ensuing two centuries (c. 2000–1800 BC), power was again returned to city-states that controlled more local areas. Isin, Larsa, Eshnunna, Lagash, Mari, Assur and Babylon all served as major political centers.

Uruk town-so-full-of-shepherds. Divided into three parts: The town itself, the palm grove and the prairie.