Uruk: The First Cities
The Ancients
History Hit
4.7 • 4.5K Ratings
🗓️ 1 December 2022
⏱️ 55 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
A Mesopotamian metropolis that thrived for millennia, Uruk is even claimed by some to have been the first true city in history.
Located in modern day Iraq, Uruk was certainly among the oldest urban settlements of the ancient world, and has been a treasure trove of archaeological finds. But was it really the first ever city? And what do we actually know about Uruk's inhabitants?
In this episode, Tristan is rejoined by Dr Paul Collins from the British Museum. Together, they explore Uruk's monumental building programs, pioneering irrigation systems, and the recent archaeological findings to answer the question - was Uruk one of the first cities?
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It's the ancients on History Hit. I'm Tristan Hughes your host and in today's podcast |
| 0:15.7 | while we're going back to ancient Mesopotamia, we're talking all about the first cities, |
| 0:23.1 | a place which is often associated with being the first city. But as you're going to hear |
| 0:28.8 | in this podcast episode, that association isn't quite correct. Nevertheless, it's significance |
| 0:35.5 | in ancient Mesopotamian and indeed in ancient history is seismic. We are of course talking |
| 0:42.5 | about the city of a rook. Now in today's podcast episode, we're going to be going through |
| 0:48.5 | a rook's ancient history with a man who's already been on the podcast once before. Now let's |
| 0:54.9 | just say his previous episode proved incredibly popular. I went to the British Museum a few |
| 1:02.5 | days ago to interview Dr. Paul Collins. That name may well ring a bell because Paul was on |
| 1:09.7 | the podcast a few months back to talk all about the Sumerians. That podcast has proven incredibly |
| 1:17.6 | popular. In podcast terms, it went viral. And so we've got the return of Paul today to talk |
| 1:24.4 | all about a rook's ancient history. What archaeology has been done at this ancient city? What does it |
| 1:31.3 | tell us about how this city interacted with other city states in ancient Mesopotamia? We're going |
| 1:37.3 | to be talking about other important places like Tehlbrack and a few others too. And of course, |
| 1:42.9 | we're also going to mention, and we're going to flutter around another topic that is 100% |
| 1:48.1 | worthy of his own podcast at a future date, the epic of Gilgamesh. And how that relates to a story |
| 1:55.0 | of this heroic king who once supposedly ruled over. So that further ado, here's Paul. |
| 2:06.5 | Paul, it is wonderful to be back on the podcast. Delighted to be back here, thank you. You're more |
| 2:11.2 | than welcome after the incredible popularity of our last episode, All On the Sumerians, and we're |
| 2:17.3 | doing it again in person this time in your brilliance. Quite empty at the moment, new office at the |
| 2:21.6 | British Museum, your new job, it's very, very exciting. It's talked about a rook. Now a rook, there's a lot |
| 2:27.7 | of fame around the name being the first city, but how true really is that? Well, in a way, it depends |
... |
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