Located in Iraq by the Euphrates River, Uruk expanded during a long period of poor harvests, as people were forced to organize to survive.

There is evidence here of rationing, taxation, an increasingly hierarchical society, and an emerging state. Uruk culture came to dominate cities from Syria to Iran.

The legendary king Gilgamesh, memorialized in the early epic, ruled Uruk around the 27th century B.C.

Uruk began losing ground to regional rivals a century or two later.