ABSTRACT
This chapter examines two lexical lists of the Late Uruk period, the Vessels and Metals Lists, using them to assess the interrelationships among different groups of technology practitioners at the advent of urbanism. The Uruk period, together with the so-called Jemdet Nasr period is the earliest phase of urban and city-state development in Mesopotamia. Urbanization, at Uruk and elsewhere, is a demographic, political, and socioeconomic process, bringing a substantial population into a single confined locale, and setting off a series of changes in the administrative organization, social structure, and economic activities of a significant proportion of that population. The Uruk period in southern Mesopotamia is typically subdivided into Early, Middle, and Late phases, with cultural developments accelerating toward the later part of the period. An examination of the evidence for ceramic production shows that major technological changes took place between the Ubaid and Uruk, and during the Uruk period, as was true of metals.
