LAGASH, one of the oldest and most important of the ancient Sumerian cities of Mesopotamia. It is now known as Telloh and consists of a long line of mounds along a dry canal, three miles east of the Shatt al Hai in 31° 3o' N. 46° E. about ten miles from the modern town of Shatra. The mounds occupy a great oval running north and south, about 24 miles long and i4 miles broad. The old canal, which rendered the site possible for a city, lies just east of the mounds. Inscriptions suggest that in ancient times there were numerous canals. The most northerly mound which rises to a height of 46 feet covers the site of the great temple of Ningursu, the god of Lagash. This temple is comparatively late and belongs to the time of Ur-Bau, about the middle of the third millenium ac. In the centre lies the oldest part of the city, the pre-historic site of Girsu. A short distance south-east of this mound is a mound called by the excavators "tablet hill," from the number of temple records which were found there. The ancient city was surrounded by a thick wall, of which part, including the fortified west gate has been excavated. This old wall encompassed not only the later temple and ziggurat (stage tower), but also the more ancient buildings. Girsu covers the re
mains of the oldest buildings of Sumer. Twelve feet below the pavement of Ur-nina, the earliest historical ruler of Lagash, there was found a building 26X 20 ft. oriented to the points of the compass. The walls which are intact to nine feet high are built of plano-convex bricks. The building is divided into two unequal compartments by a solid wall, and there is no com munication.
The city was of considerable importance in early Sumerian times and its eastern position rendered it a frontier city against the men of Elam on the east, while it also seems to have engaged in struggles with the dominant city of Kish in the north. In Sar gonic times it ceased to lead an independent existence but re mained a city of importance, especially as an artistic centre and the French excavators found abundant evidence of its products. Lagash however ceased to be inhabited after the time of Ham murabi, and the mounds appear to have been deserted until the time of the Seleucid kingdom in the second century B.C.