Lagashs

Lagash, sometimes rendered Lagashs in older transliterations, refers to an ancient Sumerian city-state located in southern Mesopotamia. The political and religious center was the city of Girsu, near the site of modern Telloh in present-day Iraq. Lagash flourished most prominently during the Early Dynastic period (roughly the 26th to the 24th centuries BCE) as one of the major urban centers of Sumer.

The city-state was governed by ensi or lugal rulers within a temple-centered economy. Notable Lagash rulers include Eannatum, who expanded Lagash’s influence and commissioned monumental inscriptions such as the Stele of the Vulture; and Enmetena, associated with the Cone of Enmetena, a clay inscription concerning alliances and debt relations with neighboring Umma. Lagash and Umma endured a long-running rivalry, which figures prominently in Sumerian literature and stone monuments. Lagash eventually fell under the rising power of the Akkadian Empire after Sargon the Great’s campaigns in the late 3rd millennium BCE.

Religion played a central role in Lagash’s administration. The city’s chief deity was Ningirsu, a god of farming and war, who was worshipped in a major temple precinct at Girsu. Temple endowments and ritual offerings helped sustain the city’s economy and bureaucratic record-keeping, including a large archive of cuneiform tablets.

Archaeology and legacy: Telloh (ancient Girsu) was excavated beginning in the late 19th century by Ernest de Sarzec and later teams, yielding monumental stelae, statues, and thousands of administrative tablets. Lagash is important for understanding early urbanism, state formation, and Sumerian language and culture.