Sumer · About 4000-3000 BC

Uruk: the first great city

Between the Tigris and the Euphrates, a town of farmers grew into Uruk, probably the largest city in the world around 3000 BC. Students explore how canals, temples, trade and the first writing made city life possible.

Teach it live New Open on the map
Length
50 minutes
Ages
11–14
On the map
3 steps, 3500 BC to 3300 BC
Live lesson
7 rounds, 3 on the map
Worksheet
Two A4 pages, with Classroom
You need
A projector; phones for live

Live lesson · new in Classroom

Teach it live. The class answers on their phones.

Put the board on the projector. Students join with a six-digit code, no account needed, and tap the map: where was the frontier, where did the grain come from. Their pins drop in together when you reveal, and the closest student takes the round.

€19 per month: every lesson live, every worksheet, cancel anytime. Rome at its height runs live for free.

A live lesson on the projector: the class's pins on the map around Alexandria, the closest students listed beside it A student's phone: the question and a map to tap
7 rounds
3 places to find on the map, quiz questions, a class vote and a one-line answer.
About 15 minutes
Run it as the map step, or to open the discussion. You move on with the space bar.
A report
Every answer, per student and per round, to read back or print after the lesson.
1

Introduction

5 min

Read aloud

Between the Tigris and the Euphrates, a town of farmers grew into Uruk, probably the largest city in the world around 3000 BC. Students explore how canals, temples, trade and the first writing made city life possible.

By the end of the lesson, students can

  • Locate Uruk and explain how rivers and canals made a city possible in a dry land.
  • Describe the role of temples, trade and record-keeping in early Uruk.
  • Explain what made Uruk a city rather than a large village.
2

Explore the map

15 min

Project the map, or let students follow on their own devices. Each step opens the map at the right year and place.

a

3500 BC

Land between the rivers

Open the map in 3500 BC and find the Tigris and Euphrates in southern Mesopotamia. Hardly any rain falls here. Where could farmers get water for their fields?

Open this view on the map
b

3400 BC

The city of Uruk

Jump to 3400 BC and zoom in on Uruk, east of the Euphrates. Turn on Historical Events and open the marker about the invention of writing. Why would a big city need writing?

Open this view on the map
c

3300 BC

Trading for stone and wood

Zoom out. Southern Mesopotamia had mud, reeds and water, but almost no stone, timber or metal. Which mountains on the map could supply them?

Open this view on the map
3

Class discussion

15 min

Pick two or three. They run from what happened to why it mattered.

  1. By about 3000 BC Uruk may have had tens of thousands of people. What problems does a city that size create?
  2. Southern Mesopotamia gets very little rain. How did farmers there grow enough food for a city?
  3. The temples of Uruk stored grain and organized work. Why might priests become powerful in such a city?
  4. Uruk had to trade for stone, wood and metal. How might trade also spread Uruk's ideas?
  5. Is a city just a big village, or something new? Use Uruk to explain.
4

Game round

10 min

Play one round of Rule History as Hatshepsut, the earliest ruler in the game, who lived about 1,700 years after Uruk's first great age. Compare: in early Uruk, temples and their officials organized food and work. How is that different from rule by a pharaoh?

Open Rule History
5

Worksheet

5 min

This worksheet comes with Classroom

€19 per month unlocks every worksheet, every live lesson and the class workspace. The free lesson prints without a subscription.