Handmade concrete lamp dedicated to Uruk the first city of the ancient world.

Founded at the end of the fifth millennium BC, Uruk was the main force for urbanization in what has come to be called the Uruk period (4000– 3200 BC), during which small, agricultural villages gradually gave way to a larger urban center with a stratified society, complex governmental bureaucracy, and monumental architecture and art. It was here that we find, circa 3400 BC, protocuneiform script—the earliest known form of writing. One of the most fascinating Mesopotamian sites ever discovered, Uruk is also known for the epic tale of its hero-king Gilgamesh, among the earliest masterpieces of world literature.