City and urbanism

What it is

A settlement of over 100 hectares and tens of thousands of inhabitants, with temple districts, storehouses, walls and full-time craftspeople. The city concentrates a non-farming population and creates the state, bureaucracy and writing.

Tell Brak and Hamoukar in northern Mesopotamia reach urban scale around 4000 BCE, which questions the purely Sumerian origin of the city.

What it led to

• A state with administration, tribute and compulsory labour
• Division of labour and social classes: priests, scribes, craftspeople, slaves
• Epidemics from density and poor sanitation
• Uruk's trading colonies in Anatolia and Iran (the Uruk expansion)

Built on

• Mud brick (adobe)c. 9000 BCE
• Rectangular house with stone foundationsc. 8600 BCE
• Canal irrigationc. 6000 BCE
• Stamp seal and clay sealingsc. 6000 BCE
• Platform temple (proto-ziggurat)c. 5300 BCE
• Urban platform temple

Made possible

• Mould-made and fired brickc. 3500 BCE
• Cylinder sealc. 3500 BCE
• Proto-cuneiform writingc. 3300 BCE
• Moulded brick and fired brick
• Serial pottery production (bevelled-rim bowls)

Links

Sources✓ verified 2026-09-25

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tell_Brak
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamoukar