Blackwell Reference Online

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Archaeological site in southern Mesopotamia on the bank of the Euphrates, present-day Iraq. Because of a number of archaic inscribed clay tablets discovered at the site of Uruk level IV, the name is associated with the earliest known writing, conventionally dated c. 3200–2800 bce . The writing on the tablets of Uruk IV shows more or less stylized pictograms and also numerals ( Figure 6 ). Figure 6 Archaic Uruk tablet When the pictograms of the Uruk inscriptions came to be written with a pointed stylus, the cuneiform script evolved. See also C uneiform writing ; S umerian writing . Reading Falkenstein 1936; Nissen 1986. ... log in or subscribe to read full text