The Rise of the Uruk State

The Uruk state from 3700-2900 B.C.E. grew to a size that anthropologists had never seen before in this time period. The rise of the Uruk state came about through two different factors. First, many theorists believe that materialism is one of the key factors of this drastic emergence. The key component to this materialism was the way in which Uruk's citizens and rulers were able to utilize their surroundings through trade, craft specialization, and irrigation agriculture. These conditions had a direct effect on the rise of the Uruk state. The second factor was the establishment of religion in the Uruk culture, which greatly contributed to its massive size in comparison to earlier cultures. In their society of strangers, a common belief system was crucial to create a common ground to which the whole community could relate. Throughout my essay, I will discuss these causal factors and how they acted together, to maintain the environmental equilibrium, and contributed toward the rise of the Uruk state its massive size.

Gordon V. Childe, who modernized the idea of materialism, best explains the concept by stating that cultural evolution does not only come about through geographical changes, but also through the way in which the culture uses their geographic resources for production. He believed that these material forces are what drive the culture toward increasing complexity, politically and religiously (Lamberg-Karlovsky, Sabloff, 28). During the Uruk period (3700-3100 B.C.E.), the people of Uruk expanded their irrigation system by 10 miles with help from the state. The state was able to organize labor, funds, and materials necessary to complete the irrigation project. This new irrigation system led to the surplus production of agriculture, which then led to better trade and material resources that Uruk did not have before. This is a direct example of what Childe believed would happen. In order to build this expansive irrigation system the state was forced to organize a power structure in order to establish such a large irrigation project. In turn, this forced social classes to grow further apart through economic specialization. The inequality, surplus

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