Temples in Uruk

In the Social Transformation of the Territory of the second chapter Mario Liverani mentions of the “egalitarian and austere” (22) culture. Being the “First City” I found it interesting the fact that Uruk was quite plain for something that has blossomed from a small population of a loosely knit community to a functioning city. Considering the advances in agriculture with the invention of the seeder plow and the threshing sledge and other tools became more complex so would other features of the city. The main feature of Uruk was the simplicity in everything there were not any elaborate decorations on houses. There was little variety in the homes; for the most part they were all about the same size. The style of the houses is a factor to suggesting that there was little or no “social inequality” (22). And the lack of decorations and designs on the pottery, burial items and “items of prestige” (22) such as metal and stones. What confusing is why did the first city have such a simplistic cultures despite that earlier periods of the Neolithic societies hade more “lively characteristics and decorations”. (22) The question is why is it that there is such a lack of decoration and how has social inequality been maintained despite the population growth and with other opportunities emerging besides agriculture?

Now it is not to say that the Uruk period completely lacked in decorations or any kind of intricate art. According to the diagram provided on page twenty-three, there is a large increase in the size of temples while the size of house mostly remained the same. Also the structure and architecture of the temples were more complex and decorative that the houses. Why is that the temples were treated as one could say “with special care”. This already hints the importance of the temples to the Uruk people. The temple was probably significant in more that one way. Too add to that many temples were located in the center of the communities. Food is essential to the people but there could be some religious value along with the temple. I find it hard to believe that the people are simply living just to grow crops and the significance of the temple is solely for food storage. There must be an underlying reason that goes beyond it and explains why there was so much put into the temples.