Final answer:
Founded around 3500 BCE, the city of Uruk developed into one of the first major urban centers with a population of about 50,000 by 2500 BCE. It had an economy based on a redistributive system and was prominent in long-distance trade across the Middle East. Uruk featured monumental architecture such as the Anu Ziggurat and invented cuneiform writing.
Step-by-step explanation:
The ancient city of Uruk was founded around 3500 BCE. It is recognized as one of the earliest significant cities in human history. By 2500 BCE, Uruk had burgeoned into a vibrant urban center with an estimated population of 50,000 inhabitants within the city itself and additional populations in the surrounding areas. The city's economy was powered through a redistributive system, controlled by the ruling authorities who oversaw the collection and distribution of resources, ensuring a structured and functional society. Major urban construction, such as city walls and temples, were financed through this economic system, employing a workforce that maintained infrastructure and grand architectural projects, illustrating a shift from simple village life to a more complex urban existence.
The city of Uruk was also a nodal point for long-distance trade networks that stretched across the Middle East and as far as the Indus river valley. Notable features of Uruk during this period include the invention of cuneiform writing for record-keeping and accounts, as well as the construction of impressive temples and city walls. The Anu Ziggurat, with the White Temple upon it, exemplified the monumental architecture characteristic of this era and underscored the theocratic nature of the city's governance. The urban growth of Uruk, fueled by intensive agriculture and irrigation, paved the way for a class of craftsmen and construction workers, thus laying the foundation for societies where not everyone needed to engage in subsistence activities.