Uruk was one of the largest cities in early Mesopotamia. It was thought to have a population of about 50,000 people according to Conrad Phillip Kottak in Anthropology, the Exploration of Human Diversity. The former city was located in the present day Iraq along the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. By 6000 B. C. population was increasing more rapidly in the alluvial plain of southern Mesopotamia according to Conrad Phillip Kottak in Anthropology, the Exploration of Human Diversity.
The population expansion can mainly be explained by the irrigation systems that were supplementing this dry low land. The geographic, environmental, economic and surrounding plains and highlands imposed a number of enduring constraints on the development of society in this area. Materials needed to sustain a city in this area were brought down from the highlands that surrounded the area.
The necessary resources were largely found in distant highland areas inhabited by communities which, if we may judge from existing historical and archaeological evidence, were characterized by a significantly lower level of sociopolitical and economic integration according to Guillermo Algaze in "Current Anthropology." So we can see that a social system of upper and lower classes had started here.
We know that grain grew wild on these sites and that it was later domesticated. The agricultural intensification made it possible for the number of people supported by a given area of land to increase according to Conrad Phillip Kottak in Anthropology, the Exploration of Human Diversity. It was this agriculture that allowed some to become socially elite because they controlled large amounts of land.
The excavations at Hacinebi, Turkey show that it acted as an outpost for the Uruk capital because of its ideal location. Hacinebi is located on the bluffs overlooking the east bank of the Euphrates River. This seems to be an ideal spot for an outpost or fort because it is on the trade route and trade was important because Uruk relied on irrigation and grain from the highlands. The Tigris-Euphrates survey project conducted by Guillermo Algaze discovered Hacinebi, and is described in the Journal of Archaeology. The report gives specifics about what was found at each level of digging.
Sources
Algaze, Guillermo. "The Uruk Expansion." Current Anthropology, 5 November. 1989, p. 206
Kottak, Conrad. "The Exploration of human diversity." Anthropology.1997. P. 200-201
Stein, Gil. "Uruk Colonies and Anatolian Communities." Journal of Archaeology.100 (1996) 205-60
Eric Andrew Baker