Lagash: A Visual History

Lagash was one of the great city-states of Sumer, in the south-east of modern Iraq, with its temple city Girsu (Tello), from which come tens of thousands of tablets. Its First Dynasty (about 2500-2350 BC) under Ur-Nanshe, Eannatum and Urukagina fought a century-long border war with Umma, recorded on the Stele of the Vultures; Urukagina's reforms curbed corrupt officials and are the earliest known. Lugalzagesi of Umma destroyed the city around 2350. Under the Second Dynasty (about 2150-2110), the ensi Gudea, ruling during the Gutian interlude, built temples and had himself carved in diorite in the finest surviving Sumerian sculpture.

When it existed: the era ribbon

The bold bar is Lagash. The lighter bars are empires and wars from the same era and the same part of the world. Click any bar to jump to its page.

Estimated population of the Lagash state

Timeline of the Lagash

1. 2,500 BC
   Ur-Nanshe founds the First Dynasty
2. 2,450 BC
   Eannatum; Stele of the Vultures
3. 2,400 BC
   Entemena
4. 2,350 BC
   Urukagina's reforms
5. 2,340 BC
   Lugalzagesi sacks Lagash
6. 2,144 BC
   Gudea
7. 2,110 BC
   Absorbed by Ur III

The war with Umma

Lagash and Umma fought for generations over the Gu-edena, a border strip of farmland. Eannatum (about 2450) defeated Umma and set up the Stele of the Vultures, showing his phalanx trampling the enemy and vultures carrying off heads, with a long inscription of oaths, the earliest surviving historical document of a battle. His successors fought on; Entemena's silver vase and cone inscriptions record further rounds.

Urukagina's reforms

Urukagina (or Uruinimgina, about 2350) claimed to have restored the old order: he removed tax collectors from the temples, cut fees for burials and divorce, protected widows and orphans, and 'made the god Ningirsu master' of the temple lands. It is the first known reform edict and uses the word 'freedom' (amagi) for the first time in history. Within a decade Lugalzagesi of Umma sacked Lagash and burned its temples, an act a scribe cursed on a tablet.

Gudea

After the Akkadian Empire fell, Lagash was independent again under Ur-Baba and Gudea (about 2144-2124), who rebuilt the E-ninnu temple of Ningirsu with cedar from Lebanon and diorite from Magan, described in the longest surviving Sumerian literary text, the Gudea Cylinders. About 27 statues of Gudea, seated with hands clasped, survive. Ur-Nammu of Ur absorbed Lagash around 2110 and it became a province of Ur III.

Related empires and wars

Chosen automatically by overlap in time and geography, plus a few hand picked connections.

Empires of the same era and region

• Sumer (4,500 BC to 1,900 BC)
• Akkadian Empire (2,334 BC to 2,154 BC)
• Neo-Sumerian Empire (Ur III) (2,112 BC to 2,004 BC)
• Elamite Empire (2,700 BC to 539 BC)
• Larsa (2,025 BC to 1,763 BC)

8 surprising things about the Lagash

1. The Stele of the Vultures is the oldest known war memorial and shows the earliest depiction of a phalanx.
2. The Sumerian word amagi, 'return to the mother', appears in Urukagina's reforms and is often translated 'freedom'; the Liberty Fund uses its cuneiform sign as its logo.
3. Girsu was the first Sumerian site ever excavated, by the French from 1877, and yielded around 50,000 tablets, many looted and sold.
4. Gudea's diorite came from Magan (Oman), his cedar from the Amanus and his gold from Meluhha, per his own inscription.
5. The Gudea Cylinders, at 1,363 lines, are the longest Sumerian literary composition known.
6. Lagash and Umma's border war lasted at least 150 years, the first documented long-running territorial dispute.
7. The Lagash king list, discovered on a tablet, is a parody giving early kings reigns of thousands of years and describing a time when people did not know how to farm.
8. Gudea's temple E-ninnu was named 'house of fifty' and its bricks were made, he says, with cedar-scented water.

Sources

• Lagash Encyclopaedia Britannica
• Lagash Wikipedia
• Lagash World History Encyclopedia
• Harriet Crawford, Sumer and the Sumerians (2004) Cambridge University Press

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