Unug
/ˈu.nuɡ/noun
Unug is the Sumerian name for the ancient Mesopotamian city later known as Uruk.
Did you know?Unug is associated with Uruk, the city of Inanna and Gilgamesh, and its temple institutions helped preserve some of the world’s earliest written records.
Etymological Timeline
Late 4th–3rd Millennium BCE
Sumerian
Unug
“Sumerian name for the city later known as Uruk”
3rd Millennium BCE
Sumerian
Unugki
“Unug city; the suffix -ki marked a place name”
2nd–1st Millennium BCE
Akkadian
Uruk
“Akkadian form of the city’s name”
1st Millennium BCE
Biblical Hebrew
אֶרֶךְ (Erech)
“Biblical form of the name Uruk”
Classical and later usage
Greek/Latin
Orchoë
“Classical forms referring to the ancient city”
Modern English
English
Uruk; Warka
“Modern English names for the archaeological site and ancient city”