The earliest known written magical incantations come from ancient Mesopotamia (modern Iraq), where they have been found inscribed on various cuneiform clay tablets excavated by archaeologists from the city of Uruk and dated to between the 5th and 4th centuries BCE.
In Morgoth's Ring, Tolkien states that Saruman did interbreed orcs and men, resulting in "Man-orcs large and cunning, and Orc-men treacherous and vile."
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An account of the first Battle of the Fords of Isen in Unfinished Tales apparently treats Uruk-hai and "orc-men" separately.
With excavations in historically important cities like Uruk, Shuruppak, Assur, Hattusha, Tell el Amarna, Tell Halaf (Guzana), Sam'al, Toprakkale or Babylon came the ground of the museum collection.
The arrival of God Nabu in boats accompanied by his assistants of brave Gods coming from Nippur, Uruk, Kish, and Eridu (cities ancient Babylonia).
The sorcerer travels to Eresh where he bewitches Enmerkar's livestock, but a wise woman outperforms his magic and casts him into the Euphrates; En-suhgir-ana then admits the loss of Inanna, and submits his kingdom to Uruk.
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A sorcerer from the recently-defeated Hamazi then arrives in Aratta, and offers to make Uruk submit.
Dumuzid, the Fisherman, a king of the 1st Dynasty of Uruk named on the Sumerian king list;
He also appears in the posthumously published Unfinished Tales, as the captain of the riders that allowed their companions to escape of the siege of the uruk-hai during the Battles of the Fords of Isen.
Enmerkar furthermore seeks to restore the disrupted linguistic unity of the inhabited regions around Uruk, listed as Shubur, Hamazi, Sumer, Uri-ki (the region around Akkad), and the Martu land.
His first appearance in the story is in The Two Towers, as the leader of the éored who attacked and killed the Uruk-hai who had kidnapped the Hobbits Meriadoc Brandybuck and Peregrin Took as they camped near Fangorn forest.
The uneven spacing of the impressions on brick stamps found in the Mesopotamian cities of Uruk and Larsa, dating from the 2nd millennium BC, has been conjectured by some archaeologists as evidence that the stamps were made using movable type.
After the decline of Babylon following the Seleucid founding of Seleucia, Uruk became the largest city in southern Babylonia, and its name (Erech) came to replace Babili (Babylonia), as the city long outlived the former capital, surviving into the 7th century AD.
Located 3 km to the North is the archaeological site of Coba Höyük, which contains Pottery Neolithic, Halaf, Ubaid, Late Chalcolithic/Uruk and Neo-Hittite material culture.
Tirigan was the last Gutian ruler in Sumer, who ruled for 40 days before being defeated by Utu-hengal of Uruk, ca.