The Siege of Uruk: Humanity's Second Recorded War

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There’s something haunting about the way we overlook beginnings. We study the great empires, the global wars, the treaties carved into marble—but we forget to ask: who fought the first battles of history? Who raised the first banners of ambition, blood, and defiance?

This is the story of the Siege of Uruk—what I believe to be the second recorded war in human history, following the first known campaign waged by Sumer against Elam. This isn’t mythology. This is a real event between real kings, real cities, and a real clash of power. And the deeper you go, the more you see how everything we experience today—political tension, tyranny, resistance, alliances—it all started here, in the soil of ancient Sumer.

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Uruk vs. Kish: The Real Battle Behind the Legend

Around c. 2600 BCE, a powerful king named Aga of Kish launched a military campaign to subdue Uruk, one of the most prosperous and independent Sumerian city-states. Kish, already known as a dominating force in early Sumer, had a reputation for asserting control over nearby cities. But Uruk, led by the enigmatic and rebellious Gilgamesh, refused to bow.

This moment wasn’t just another city-state feud. It was a declaration of sovereignty.

We know this conflict occurred from one of the earliest surviving pieces of Sumerian literature: the poetic composition “Gilgamesh and Aga.” While written in literary form and preserved from the Old Babylonian period, scholars agree it reflects an authentic historical struggle between these two rulers. The poem describes Aga’s demand that Uruk submit to forced labor under Kish’s rule, and Gilgamesh’s bold refusal. What followed was a siege.

"Say to Aga, the son of Enmebaragesi: 'Let him not force us to carry baskets for him... let him not yoke us like oxen!'" – Gilgamesh and Aga (ETCSL: c.1.8.1.1)

This quote reflects a core reality of early Mesopotamian imperialism: Kish used corvée labor (forced civic labor) as a form of submission and control. Demanding that Uruk’s citizens carry baskets for Kish’s building projects was not just symbolic—it was a way of imposing dominance over subject cities. It was early propaganda in action: forcing a rival city to physically build your monuments, roads, or temples was a psychological and political conquest.

As Aga’s army approached Uruk, the city’s elders hesitated, fearing war. But Gilgamesh rallied the city’s youth and prepared for resistance. He not only repelled the attack but reportedly captured Aga himself, bringing a humiliating end to the siege.

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Sumerian King List(Wikimedia Commons)