Lagash
| Author:Laxman Burdak, IFS (R) |
Lagash was an ancient city state located northwest of the junction of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers and east of Uruk, about 22 km east of the modern town of Al-Shatrah, Iraq.
Variants
- Lagash (modern Al-Hiba)
Location
Lagash (modern Al-Hiba) was one of the oldest cities of the Ancient Near East. The ancient site of Nina (Tell Zurghul) is around 10 km away and marks the southern limit of the state. Nearby Girsu (modern Telloh), about 25 km northwest of Lagash, was the religious center of the Lagash state. Lagash's main temple was the E-ninnu at Girsu, dedicated to the god Ningirsu. Lagash seems to have incorporated the ancient cities of Girsu, Nina, Uruazagga and Erim.[1]
History
From inscriptions found at Girsu such as the Gudea cylinders, it appears that Lagash was an important Sumerian city in the late 3rd millennium BC. 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 to the east and the kings of Kienĝir and Kish to the north. Some of the earlier works from before the Akkadian conquest are also extremely interesting, in particular Eanatum's Stele of the Vultures and Entemena's great silver vase ornamented with Ningirsu's sacred animal Anzû: a lion-headed eagle with wings outspread, grasping a lion in each talon. With the Akkadian conquest Lagash lost its independence, its ruler or ensi becoming a vassal of Sargon of Akkad and his successors; but Lagash continued to be a city of much importance and, above all, a centre of artistic development. Early scholars suggested that Lagash was a temple theocracy which had absolute control, but Samuel Noah Kramer argued that further discoveries of documents have shown this to be an error.[2]
After the collapse of Sargon's state, Lagash again thrived under its independent kings (ensis), Ur-Baba and Gudea, and had extensive commercial communications with distant realms. 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, while his armies were engaged in battles with Elam on the east. His was especially the era of artistic development. We even have a fairly good idea of what Gudea looked like, since he placed in temples throughout his city numerous statues or idols depicting himself with lifelike realism (Statues of Gudea). At the time of Gudea, the capital of Lagash was actually in Girsu. The kingdom covered an area of approximately 1,600 square kilometres. 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 c. 2075 to 2030 BC.[3]
Soon after the time of Gudea, Lagash was absorbed into the Ur III state as one of its prime provinces.[4] There is some information about the area during the Old Babylonian period. After that it 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 Iranian kingdom of Characene.
References
- ↑ Williams, Henry (2018). Ancient Mesopotamia. Ozymandias Press. p. 57. ISBN 978-1-5312-6292-1.
- ↑ Kramer, Samuel Noah (17 September 2010). The Sumerians: Their History, Culture, and Character. University of Chicago Press. pp. 75–76. ISBN 978-0-226-45232-6
- ↑ Chandler (1987). Four thousand years of urban growth: an historical census. Lewiston (etc.): The Edwin Meller Press. ISBN 978-0-88946-207-6. OCLC 1126378552.
- ↑ Westenholz, Joan Goodnick (1984). "Kaku of Ur and Kaku of Lagash". Journal of Near Eastern Studies. 43 (4): 339–342. doi:10.1086/373095. ISSN 0022-2968. JSTOR 544849. S2CID 161962784.
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