>The line in the chronicle stating, "Uruk was defeated," may refer to a military conquest, but could as easily mean that it lost its position of leadership
Interesting (but not surprising?) that semantic drift has been with us since the beginning of language.
A word that once meant "succeeded in time" can shift in usage over a few scant generations (and motivated, "my side winning is as inevitable as the passage of time" rhetoric) to eventually become a synonym with "defeated in battle."
Indeed. I mean, the Mother of all Drifts comes with the entire logographic system shifting to accommodate more and more meanings, and abstract concepts ...
... enough to support a flourishing civilization (several) over thousands of years.-
Also, the parallels with today (power, war, "leadership" ...), "our highways are covered with weed and no wine nor syrup flows forth ..." are considerable.-
A word that once meant "succeeded in time" can shift in usage over a few scant generations (and motivated, "my side winning is as inevitable as the passage of time" rhetoric) to eventually become a synonym with "defeated in battle."
... enough to support a flourishing civilization (several) over thousands of years.-
Also, the parallels with today (power, war, "leadership" ...), "our highways are covered with weed and no wine nor syrup flows forth ..." are considerable.-