Uruk (Warka)
Sumer was an ancient civilization in the fertile region of southern Mesopotamia. Some 6000 years ago, one Sumerian settlement started to grow bigger and bigger: Uruk. By 3200 BC it had turned into the first city of mankind. Up to 50.000 people my have lived around the monumental temples of the Eanna district.To sustain such a large population, Uruk employed a full-time bureaucracy. The Sumerians began using clay tokens to calculate supplies and goods. In order to simplify the counting, they later replaced the tokens by symbols stamped into clay tablets - mankind's first writing was born.
The Home of Human Culture
Sumer, Uruk and Mankind’s First Script
In Southern Mesopotamia the Sumerians built one of mankind’s first civilizations. Around the temple of Inanna the world’s first city, Uruk, developed. And in order to govern an unprecendeted population, clerks came up with a brand new idea: writing!▶The Museum of the Ancient Near East, Berlin▶ Warka
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