September
08
/ 2023
Uruk, in southern Iraq, has reached superstar status in the realm of archaeological excavations of ancient civilizations by delivering the Sumerian King Lists among the 5,000 cuneiform tablets discovered there; it is also the place where the first potter’s wheel was designed; and it is the setting for the mythological or legendary Sumerian king Gilgamesh, immortalized in the very first literary work, the Song or Epic of Gilgamesh. Located 80 kilometers (50 miles) northwest of Ur, for a period of almost 1,300 years, Uruk was ruled by five dynasties of kings, stretching from 3400 – 2112 BC, but it was inhabited for thousands of years before that and hundreds of years after. [[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"111628","attributes":{"alt":"Remains of the ziggurat of Uruk, dominating the
