Editing Uruk (section)

===Political history===
[[File:Gebel el-Arak Knife ivory handle (front top part detail).jpg|thumb|150px|Mesopotamian king as [[Master of Animals]] on the [[Gebel el-Arak Knife]] (c. 3300–3200 BCE, [[Abydos, Egypt]]), a work indicating [[Egypt-Mesopotamia relations]] and showing the early influence of Mesopotamia on [[Egypt]] and the state of Mesopotamian royal iconography in the Uruk period. [[Louvre Museum|Louvre]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Couteau du Gebel el-Arak at the Louvre Museum |url=http://cartelfr.louvre.fr/cartelfr/visite?srv=car_not_frame&idNotice=668 |website=cartelfr.louvre.fr}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Cooper |first1=Jerrol S. |pages=10–14|title=The Study of the Ancient Near East in the Twenty-first Century: The William Foxwell Albright Centennial Conference |date=1996 |publisher=Eisenbrauns |isbn=978-0-931464-96-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3hc1Yp0VcjoC&pg=PA10 |language=en}}</ref>]]

Uruk played a very important part in the political history of Sumer. Starting from the Early Uruk period, the city exercised [[hegemony]] over nearby settlements. At this time ({{circa|3800&nbsp;BC}}), there were two centers of {{Convert|20|ha|abbr=on}}, Uruk in the south and [[Nippur]] in the north surrounded by much smaller {{Convert|10|ha|abbr=on}} settlements.<ref>[[Harriet Crawford|Crawford, Harriet E.W.]], "Sumer and the Sumerians", Cambridge University Press, 2004. {{ISBN|0-521-53338-4}}</ref> Later, in the Late Uruk period, its sphere of influence extended over all Sumer and beyond to external colonies in upper Mesopotamia and Syria.
{{blockquote|In Uruk, in southern Mesopotamia, Sumerian civilization seems to have reached its creative peak. This is pointed out repeatedly in the references to this city in religious and, especially, in literary texts, including those of mythological content; the historical tradition as preserved in the Sumerian king-list confirms it. From Uruk the center of political gravity seems to have moved to [[Ur]].|Oppenheim<ref>{{Cite book | last = Oppenheim | first = A. Leo |author2=Erica Reiner  | title = Ancient Mesopotamia: Portrait of a Dead Civilization | publisher = University of Chicago Press | year = 1977 | location = Chicago | pages = [https://archive.org/details/ancientmesopotam00aleo/page/445 445] | url = https://archive.org/details/ancientmesopotam00aleo | url-access = registration | isbn = 0-226-63187-7| author2-link = Erica Reiner
}}</ref>}}

[[File:Uruk King-Priest 3300 BCE portrait detail.jpg|thumb|left|Probable Uruk King-Priest with a beard and hat (c. 3300 BCE, Uruk). [[Louvre Museum|Louvre]]<ref>{{cite web |title=Site officiel du musée du Louvre |url=http://cartelfr.louvre.fr/cartelfr/visite?srv=car_not_frame&idNotice=11232 |website=cartelfr.louvre.fr}}</ref>]]
The recorded chronology of rulers over Uruk includes both mythological and historic figures in five dynasties. As in the rest of Sumer, power moved progressively from the temple to the palace. Rulers from the Early Dynastic period exercised control over Uruk and at times over all of Sumer. In myth, kingship was lowered from heaven to Eridu then passed successively through five cities until the deluge which ended the Uruk period. Afterwards, kingship passed to [[Kish (Sumer)|Kish]] at the beginning of the Early Dynastic period, which corresponds to the beginning of the [[Early Bronze Age]] in Sumer. In the Early Dynastic I period (2900–2800&nbsp;BCE), Uruk was in theory under the control of Kish. This period is sometimes called the Golden Age. During the Early Dynastic II period (2800–2600&nbsp;BCE), Uruk was again the dominant city exercising control of Sumer. This period is the time of the First Dynasty of Uruk sometimes called the Heroic Age. However, by the Early Dynastic IIIa period (2600–2500&nbsp;BCE) Uruk had lost sovereignty, this time to Ur. This period, corresponding to the Early Bronze Age III, is the end of the First Dynasty of Uruk. In the Early Dynastic IIIb period (2500–2334&nbsp;BCE), also called the Pre-Sargonic period (before the rise of the [[Akkadian Empire]] under [[Sargon of Akkad]]), Uruk continued to be ruled by Ur.