At the time of Hammurabi, Lagash was much closer to the gulf. Hammurabi ( Akkadian from Amorite ˤAmmurāpi, "the kinsman is a healer" from ˤAmmu, "paternal kinsman" and Rāpi

Lagash (modern Tell al-Hiba, Iraq), northwest of the junction of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers and east of Uruk, was one of the oldest cities of Sumer and later Babylonia. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Iraq topics. The Euphrates ( ( Arabic: ar نهر الفرات; Turkish: tr Fırat Syriac: syr ܦܪܬ; Hebrew: he פרת The Tigris is the eastern member of the two great Rivers that define Mesopotamia, along with the Euphrates, which flows from the mountains of southeastern Uruk ( URU UNUG, Sumerian: unug Akkadian: uruk) from the Akkadian rendering of the Sumerian Toponym 'unug' is modern Sumer ( Sumerian: sux-Latn [[Ki (earth ki]]-[[EN (cuneiform en]]-'''ĝir15''', Akkadian: Šumeru; possibly Biblical Shinar Babylonia was an Amorite state in lower Mesopotamia (modern southern Iraq) with Babylon as its capital Nearby Ngirsu (modern Telloh) was the religious center of the Lagash state. Ngirsu (cuneiform? Sumerian:Ĝirsu Akkadian: ?) is modern Tell Telloh, Dhi Qar Governorate, Iraq, and it was a city of

Lagash's temple was E-Ninnu, dedicated to the god Ningirsu or Ninib. É is the Sumerian for "house" or " Temple " written ideographically with the Cuneiform sign 𒂍 (Borger nr Ninurta ( Nin Ur: Lord of the Earth/Plough in Sumerian and Akkadian mythology was the god of Nippur, identified with Ningirsu

Excavations

Lagash ruins were discovered in 1877 by Ernest de Sarzec, at that time French consul at Basra, who was allowed, by the Montefich chief, Nasir Pasha, the first Wali-Pasha or governor-general of Basra, to excavate at his pleasure in the territories subject to that official. This article is about ruins in Architecture; for other meanings see Ruins (disambiguation. Year 1877 ( MDCCCLXXVII) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Ernest Choquin de Sarzec (1832-1901 was a French archaeologist to whom is attributed the discovery of the civilization of ancient Sumer. Basra ( BGN: AlBasrah also called Basorah Abillah and Uruk or IRAQ The name that British colony has adopted for Basra At the outset on his own, and later as a representative of the French government, under a Turkish firman, de Sarzec continued excavations at this site, with various intermissions, until his death in 1901, when the work was continued under the supervision of Gaston Cros. The principal excavations were made in two larger mounds, one of them proving to be the site of the temple E-Ninnu - shrine of the patron god of Lagash, Ningirsu or Ninib.

Later French archeological expeditions were led by Henri de Genouillac (1929-31) and Andre Parrot (1931-33).

The site

Ancient Mesopotamia
Euphrates • Tigris
Cities / Empires
Sumer: Eridu • Kish • Uruk • Ur • Lagash • Nippur • Ngirsu
Elam: Susa
Akkadian Empire: Akkad • Mari
Amorites: Isin • Larsa
Babylonia: Babylon • Chaldea
Hittites • Kassites • Hurrians/Mitanni
Assyria: Assur • Nimrud • Dur-Sharrukin • Nineveh
Chronology
History of Mesopotamia
History of Sumer • Kings of Sumer
Kings of Assyria
Kings of Babylon
Mythology
Enûma Elish • Gilgamesh
Assyro-Babylonian religion
Language
Sumerian • Elamite
Akkadian • Aramaic
Hurrian • Hittite

Ur-Nanshe: top - creating the foundation for a shrine; bottom - presiding over the dedication (Louvre)

Eannatum's Stele of the Vultures (Louvre)

Entemena's Silver Vase (Louvre)

Gudea of Lagash, diorite statue found at Telloh (Louvre)

Lagash is represented by a rather low, long line of ruin mounds, now known as Tell al-Hiba in Iraq. Mesopotamia (from the Greek meaning "land between the rivers" is an area geographically located between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers largely corresponding The Euphrates ( ( Arabic: ar نهر الفرات; Turkish: tr Fırat Syriac: syr ܦܪܬ; Hebrew: he פרת The Tigris is the eastern member of the two great Rivers that define Mesopotamia, along with the Euphrates, which flows from the mountains of southeastern Sumer ( Sumerian: sux-Latn [[Ki (earth ki]]-[[EN (cuneiform en]]-'''ĝir15''', Akkadian: Šumeru; possibly Biblical Shinar Eridu (URUNUNKI; Sumerian:eridug Akkadian: ?) from the Sumerian for 'mighty place' is modern Tell Abu Shahrain, Iraq Uruk ( URU UNUG, Sumerian: unug Akkadian: uruk) from the Akkadian rendering of the Sumerian Toponym 'unug' is modern Ur ( Sumerian:urim; Akkadian: ?) is modern Tell el-Mukayyar, Iraq, and was a city in ancient Sumer. Nippur (URUENLIL; Sumerian: Nibru Akkadian: Nibbur) from the Sumerian for 'lord wind' (Enlil is modern ? in Afak Al Qadisyah Ngirsu (cuneiform? Sumerian:Ĝirsu Akkadian: ?) is modern Tell Telloh, Dhi Qar Governorate, Iraq, and it was a city of Elam is the name of an ancient civilization located in what is now southwest Iran. Susa ( Biblical שושן ( Shushan) also Greek: Σοῦσα Transliterated as Sousa; Latin Susa) Mari (modern Tell Hariri, Syria) was an ancient Sumerian and Amorite city located 11 kilometers north-west of the modern town of Amorite ( Sumerian MARTU, Akkadian Tidnum or Amurrūm, Egyptian Amar, Hebrew ’emōrî Isin (modern Ishan al-Bahriyat was a city of lower Mesopotamia, which flourished during the 20th century BC. Larsa (also Larag or Larak, modern Tell as-Senkereh, Iraq, possibly the Biblical Ellasar) was an important city of Babylonia was an Amorite state in lower Mesopotamia (modern southern Iraq) with Babylon as its capital Babylon was a City-state of ancient Mesopotamia, the remains of which can be found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Province, Iraq Chaldea (from Greek grc Χαλδαία Chaldaia; Akkadian akk māt Kaldu Hebrew כשדים Kaśdim, "the Chaldees" of the The Hittites were an ancient Anatolian people who spoke a language of the Anatolian branch of the Indo-European language family and established The Kassites were an Ancient Near Eastern tribe who gained control of Babylonia after the fall of the Old Babylonian Empire after ca The Hurrians (also Khurrites; cuneiform Ḫu-ur-ri 𒄷𒌨𒊑 were a people of the Ancient Near East, who lived in northern Mesopotamia Mitanni ( Hittite cuneiform, also Mittani) or Hanigalbat ( Assyrian Hanigalbat Khanigalbat cuneiform) Early history The most Neolithic site in Assyria is at Tell Hassuna, the center of the Hassuna culture Assur also spelled Ashur, from Assyrian Aššur, was one of the capitals of ancient Assyria. Nimrud is an ancient Assyrian city located south of Nineveh on the river Tigris. Dur-Sharrukin ("Fortress of Sargon" present day Khorsabad, was the Assyrian capital in the time of Sargon II of Assyria. Nineveh ( Akkadian: Ninua; Aramaic: ܢܝܢܘܐ Hebrew נינוה Nīnewē; Arabic نينوى Naīnuwa) See Short chronology for a timeline in absolute dates The Chronology of the Ancient Near East is a framework of dates for Ancient Mesopotamia was settled and conquered by numerous ancient Civilizations. The history of Sumer, taken to include the prehistoric Ubaid and Uruk periods spans the 5th to 3rd millennia BC ending with the downfall of the Third The Sumerian king list is an ancient text in the Sumerian language that lists kings of Sumer from Sumerian and foreign dynasties The following is a list of the kings of Babylonia, a major city and empire in ancient lower Mesopotamia, compiled from the traditional Babylonian king lists and modern Mesopotamian mythology is the collective name given to Sumerian Akkadian Assyrian and Babylonian mythologies from the land between the Tigris The akk Enûma Eliš is the Babylonian Creation myth (named for its Incipit) Gilgamesh was the son of Lugalbanda and the fifth king of Uruk (Early Dynastic II first dynasty of Uruk ruling circa 2600 BC according to the Sumerian king The pre- Christian religions of Babylonia and Assyria are the earliest attestation of Ancient Semitic religion, in particular Mesopotamian mythology Assyriology (from Greek grc Ἀσσυρίᾱ Assyriā; and grc -λογία -logia) is the archaeological historical and linguistic study Sumerian ( " native tongue " was the language of ancient Sumer, spoken in Southern Mesopotamia since at least the 4th millennium BC Elamite is an Extinct language, which was spoken by the ancient Elamites. Aramaic is a Semitic language with Hurrian is a conventional name for the language of the Hurrians (Khurrites a people who entered northern Mesopotamia around 2300 BC and had mostly Hittite or Nesili is the Extinct language once spoken by the Hittites, a people who created an empire centered on ancient Hattusas (modern Ur-Nanshe (or Ur-Nina) was the first king of the dynasty of Lagash, probably in the first half of the 24th century BC ( Short chronology) The Louvre Museum (Musée du Louvre located in Paris is the world's most visited art museum a historic monument and a national museum of France Eannatum was a Sumerian king of Lagash who established one of the first verifiable empires in history The Louvre Museum (Musée du Louvre located in Paris is the world's most visited art museum a historic monument and a national museum of France Entemena, son of En-anna-tum I, reestablished Lagash as a power in Sumer. The Louvre Museum (Musée du Louvre located in Paris is the world's most visited art museum a historic monument and a national museum of France Gudea was a ruler ( ensi) of the city of Lagash in Southern Mesopotamia who ruled ca Ngirsu (cuneiform? Sumerian:Ĝirsu Akkadian: ?) is modern Tell Telloh, Dhi Qar Governorate, Iraq, and it was a city of The Louvre Museum (Musée du Louvre located in Paris is the world's most visited art museum a historic monument and a national museum of France For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Iraq topics. It is positioned on the dry bed of an ancient canal, some 5 km east of the Shatt-el-Haj, and about 15 km east of the modern town of Shatra in the Dhi Qar Governorate. Shatra is a town in the Dhi Qar Governorate, Iraq. Dhi Qar (ذي قار is a province in Iraq with an area of. In 2003 the estimated population of the governorate was 1472000 people Ngirsu (Telloh) lies about 25 km northwest of Al-Hiba.

The E-Ninnu temple had been razed and a fortress built upon its ruins, in the Greek or Seleucid period, some of the bricks found bearing the inscription in Aramaic and Greek of a certain Hadad-nadin-akhe,^[1] king of a small Babylonian kingdom. The Seleucid Empire /sə'lusɪd/ ( 312 - 63 BC) was a Hellenistic empire i Aramaic is a Semitic language with Greek (el ελληνική γλώσσα or simply el ελληνικά — "Hellenic" is an Indo-European language, spoken today by 15-22 million people mainly It was beneath this fortress that numerous statues of Gudea were found, constituting one of the prizes of the Near Eastern Antiquities collection at the Louvre. Gudea was a ruler ( ensi) of the city of Lagash in Southern Mesopotamia who ruled ca The Louvre Museum (Musée du Louvre located in Paris is the world's most visited art museum a historic monument and a national museum of France These had been decapitated and otherwise mutilated, and thrown into the foundations of the new fortress. From this stratum also came various fragments of bas reliefs of high artistic excellence. The excavations in the other larger mound resulted in the discovery of the remains of buildings containing objects of all sorts in bronze and stone, dating from the earliest Sumerian period onward, and enabling the art history of the ancient Near East to be traced to a date some hundreds of years before the time of Gudea.

Apparently this mound had been occupied largely by store houses, where were stored not only grain, figs, etc. , but also vessels, weapons, sculptures and every possible object connected with the use and administration of palace and temple. In a small outlying mound, de Sarzec discovered the archives of the temple — about 30,000 inscribed clay tablets containing the business records, and revealing in extraordinary detail the administration of an ancient Near Eastern temple, the character of its property, the method of farming its lands, herding its flocks, and its commercial and industrial dealings and enterprises - an ancient Near Eastern temple was a great industrial, commercial, agricultural and stock-raising establishment. Unfortunately, before these archives could be removed, the galleries containing them were rifled by looters, and large numbers of the tablets were sold to antiquity dealers, by whom they have been scattered all over Europe and America.

History

From inscriptions found at Telloh, it appears that Lagash was an important Sumerian city in the late 3rd millennium BC. Ngirsu (cuneiform? Sumerian:Ĝirsu Akkadian: ?) is modern Tell Telloh, Dhi Qar Governorate, Iraq, and it was a city of The 3rd millennium BC spans the Early to Middle Bronze Age. It represents a period of time in which Imperialism, or the desire to conquer grew to prominence It was at that time ruled by independent kings, Ur-Nanshe (24th century BC) and his successors, who were engaged in contests with the Elamites on the east and the kings of "Kengi" and Kish on the north. Ur-Nanshe (or Ur-Nina) was the first king of the dynasty of Lagash, probably in the first half of the 24th century BC ( Short chronology) The 24th century BC is a Century which lasted from the year 2400 BC to 2301 BC Elam is the name of an ancient civilization located in what is now southwest Iran.

Some of the earlier works from before the Akkadian conquest are also extremely interesting, in particular Eannatum's Stele of the Vultures and a Entemena's great silver vase ornamented with what may be called the coat of arms of Lagash: a lion-headed eagle with wings outspread, grasping a lion in each talon.

With the Semitic Akkadian conquest, Lagash lost its independence, its rulers or patesis becoming vassals of Sargon of Akkad and his successors; but it remained Sumerian, continuing to be a city of much importance and above all, a centre of artistic development. In Linguistics and Ethnology, Semitic (from the Biblical " Shem " Hebrew שם translated as "name" Arabic: ساميّ You may be looking for the Assyrian kings Sargon I Indeed, it was in this period and under the immediately succeeding supremacy of the kings of Ur, Ur-Gur and Dungi, that it reached its highest artistic development. Ur ( Sumerian:urim; Akkadian: ?) is modern Tell el-Mukayyar, Iraq, and was a city in ancient Sumer. Shulgi (also formerly read as Dungi) of Urim was the second king of the " Sumerian Renaissance " {fact}

After the collapse of Sargon's Empire under pressure from the Guti tribes, Lagash again thrived under the patesis Ur-Bau and Gudea, and had extensive commercial communications with distant realms. Gutium was a tribe that overran southern Mesopotamia when the Akkadian empire collapsed ca Gudea was a ruler ( ensi) of the city of Lagash in Southern Mesopotamia who ruled ca According to his own records, Gudea brought cedars from the Amanus and Lebanon mountains in Syria, diorite from eastern Arabia, copper and gold from central and southern Arabia and from Sinai, while his armies were engaged in battles in Elam on the east. The Nur Mountains (Nur Dağları or the "Mountains of Holy Light" also the Amanus or Gâvur Mountains) is a Mountain range in the Hatay Lebanon (ˈlɛbənɒn Arabic: ar لبنان Lubnān) officially the Republic of Lebanon or Lebanese Republic (ar الجمهورية اللبنانية Syria ( سوريّة or) officially the Syrian Arab Republic (Arabic ar الجمهورية العربية السورية Diorite (ˈdaɪəraɪt is a grey to dark grey intermediate intrusive Igneous rock composed principally of Plagioclase Feldspar (typically Elam is the name of an ancient civilization located in what is now southwest Iran. His was especially the era of artistic development. Gudea, following Sargon, was one of the first rulers to claim divinity for himself; and we have even a fairly good idea of what Gudea looked like, since he had his numerous statues or idols depicting himself with lifelike realism, placed in temples throughout Sumer.

At the time of Gudea, the capital of Lagash was actually in Ngirsu (Telloh). Ngirsu (cuneiform? Sumerian:Ĝirsu Akkadian: ?) is modern Tell Telloh, Dhi Qar Governorate, Iraq, and it was a city of The kingdom covered an area of approximately 1,600 km². It contained 17 larger cities, eight district capitals, and numerous villages (about 40 known by name).

According to one estimate, Lagash was the largest city in the world from ca. 2075 to 2030 BC. [1]

After the time of Gudea, Lagash seems to have lost its importance; at least we know nothing more about it until the construction of the Seleucid fortress mentioned, when it seems to have become part of the Greek kingdom of Characene. The Seleucid Empire /sə'lusɪd/ ( 312 - 63 BC) was a Hellenistic empire i Mesene redirects here For the Genus of Metalmark butterflies, see Mesene (butterfly.

Lagash Dynasties

See also: History of Sumer and Sumerian king list

These dynasties are not found on the Sumerian king list, although one extremely fragmentary supplement has been found in Sumerian, known as the The rulers of Lagash (English translation). The history of Sumer, taken to include the prehistoric Ubaid and Uruk periods spans the 5th to 3rd millennia BC ending with the downfall of the Third The Sumerian king list is an ancient text in the Sumerian language that lists kings of Sumer from Sumerian and foreign dynasties The Sumerian king list is an ancient text in the Sumerian language that lists kings of Sumer from Sumerian and foreign dynasties It recounts how after the flood mankind was having difficulty growing food for itself, being dependent solely on rainwater; it further relates that techniques of irrigation and cultivation of barley were then imparted by the gods. At the end of the list is the statement "Written in the school", suggesting this was a school exercise. A few of the names from the Lagash rulers listed below may be made out, including Ur-Nanshe, "Ane-tum", En-entar-zid, Ur-Ningirsu, Ur-Bau, and Gudea.

First Dynasty of Lagash

Second Dynasty of Lagash (short chronology)

Notes

1. ^ Corpus Inscriptionum Semiticarumm, Part 2, Tome 1, inscription #72:

   הדדנ

   דנאח

   ΑΔΑΔΝΑ

   ΔΙΝΑΧΗΣ

References

• Corpus Inscriptionum Semiticarum, Pars Secunda: Inscriptiones Aramaicas Continens, tom. The short chronology is one chronology of the Near Eastern Bronze and Early Iron Age, which fixes the reign of Hammurabi to 1728 BC – 1686 BC and the Sack of Ur-Nammu (or Ur-Namma, Ur-Engur, Ur-Gur, ca 2112-2095 BC Middle chronology) founded the Sumerian 3rd dynasty of Ur I, (Paris, 1881)
• E. de Sarzec, Découvertes en Chaldée (1887).
• A. Parrot, Tello, vingt campagnes des fouilles (1877-1933), (Paris 1948).
• Donald P. Hansen, Al-Hiba, 1968-1969, a Preliminary Report, Artibus Asiae (1970).