|
Uruk (Cuneiform: ,URU UNUG; (アラビア語:وركاء), '; Sumerian: Unug; Akkadian: ''Uruk'';Aramaic/Hebrew: '; , ') was an ancient city of Sumer and later Babylonia, situated east of the present bed of the Euphrates river, on the dried-up, ancient channel of the Euphrates River, some 30 km east of modern As-Samawah, Al-Muthannā, Iraq.〔Harmansah, 2007〕 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. At its height c. 2900 BC, Uruk probably had 50,000–80,000 residents living in 6 km2 of walled area; making it the largest city in the world at the time.〔 The legendary king Gilgamesh, according to the chronology presented in the Sumerian king list, ruled Uruk in the 27th century BC. The city lost its prime importance around 2000 BC, in the context of the struggle of Babylonia with Elam, but it remained inhabited throughout the Seleucid and Parthian periods until it was finally abandoned shortly before or after the Islamic conquest. The site of Uruk was visited in 1849 by William Kennett Loftus who led the first excavations from 1850 to 1854. The Arabic name of Babylonia, ''al-ʿIrāq'', is thought to be derived from the name ''Uruk'', via Aramaic (''Erech'') and possibly Middle Persian (''Erāq'') transmission.〔"The name ''al-ʿIrāq'', for all its Arabic appearance, is derived from Middle Persian ''erāq'' 'lowlands'" W. Eilers (1983), "Iran and Mesopotamia" in E. Yarshater, ''The Cambridge History of Iran'', vol. 3, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.〕 ==Prominence== In myth and literature, Uruk was famous as the capital city of Gilgamesh, hero of the Epic of Gilgamesh. It is also believed Uruk is the biblical Erech (Genesis 10:10), the second city founded by Nimrod in Shinar.〔While earlier scholars such as Jerome (4th century) had identified Erech with the Syrian city of Edessa (now within Turkey), the modern consensus is that it refers to the Sumerian city-state of Uruk in south Mesopotamia. See Warwick Ball, 2001, ''Rome in the East: the transformation of an empire'', p. 89. Ball further speculates that the earlier traditions connecting Edessa (Orhai) with Erech might have arisen because the ancient Uruk was possibly 'transferred' to the more northerly location in the reign of Nabonidus of Babylon, 6th century BC.〕 In addition to being one of the first cities, Uruk was the main force of urbanization and state formation during the Uruk period (4000–3200 BC). This period of 800 years saw a shift from small, agricultural villages to a larger urban center with a full-time bureaucracy, military, and stratified society. Although other settlements coexisted with Uruk, they were generally about 10 hectares while Uruk was significantly larger and more complex. The Uruk period culture exported by Sumerian traders and colonists had an effect on all surrounding peoples, who gradually evolved their own comparable, competing economies and cultures. Ultimately, Uruk could not maintain long-distance control over colonies such as Tell Brak by military force. 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 rivers. 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.〔Tertius Chandler, Four Thousand Years of Urban Growth: An Historical Census, Edwin Mellen Press, 1987, ISBN 0-88946-207-0〕 Uruk's agricultural surplus and large population base facilitated processes such as trade, specialization of crafts and the evolution of writing. 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. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Uruk」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|