PROTOLITERATE PERIOD

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Uruk period (4300-3000)

History and society

• first, population shift from N to S Mesopotamia, to vicinity of Uruk (itself 100 ha. in size)
  • 1 hectare (ha.) = 10,000 m2
• then, urban revolution in Southern Mesopotamia, with increase in site size
• esp. in Late Uruk (3500-3000), a transition from village to complex urban system, with several defining features
  • development of writing
    • originally (c. 5500) 3-dimensional clay cones
    • then pictographs, gradually streamlined into lines and wedges--cuneiform (from Latin cunei, 'wedges')
    • cuneiform is a script, used to write several different languages
  • central temple/ceremonial center
  • production, storage and redistribution of agricultural surplus
  • social stratification
  • craft specialization
  • first cylinder seals show property ownership
  • start of monumental architecture and figurative art 
  • trade in prestige goods
  • justice and other authority based on state, not family
• Late Uruk phase contemporary with Naqada II-III Periods in Egypt (3500-3050 B.C.)

Monuments

• Uruk (Warka)
  • Eanna complex--series of phases of temples
    • at first, small square-sectioned bricks typical
    • thick coating of mud plaster, containing cones with red white and black heads to form designs--cone mosaics
  • Anu temple (to sky god Anu), 500 m. W of Eanna complex
    • also called white temple, because surface whitewashed
    • 27.5 x 22.3 m., on 40-foot high platform with sloping sides (like mountain)
    • 'ziggurat' ("temple tower"): mountains represent earth, link men with gods
    • has standard altar, offering podium
• Figurative art
  • Uruk Vase: procession bringing gifts to great mother Inanna
    • ruler and goddess shown in top register (of 4, 92 cm. high)
  • Uruk head: marble face of woman
    • flat in back with holes for attachment to (wood?) statue
  • master of animals motif on Lion Hunt stele from Uruk
    • compare same motif on Gebel el-Arak knife and wall-painting from Hierakonpolis