Early Dynastic IIIb

The Early Dynastic IIIb period, ca. 2540-2350 BCE, (abbreviated ED IIIb) is conventionally described as covering the century before the defeat of Lugalzagesi by Sargon of Akkad, the founder of the Old Akkadian empire. While the end of the ED IIIb period can, therefore, be assigned to this particular event, the beginning of the ED IIIb period is far more difficult to define.

The traditional schema outlined for the Early Dynastic period is based, above all, on a somewhat problematic assignment of major archaeological sites and text-artifactual corpora to … Bauer (1998, 431) refers to two distinct models (?) / definitions (?) of the beginning of the ED IIIb period: the theory that . . . proposed by Falkenstein and his students and the alternative model suggested by Hallo. These efforts to define the start of the period in political rather than archaeological terms may well be misguided and Van De Mieroop has recently argued that the entire Early Dynastic Period should be treated as a single organic whole from a historical perspective.

This period is often subdivided into Early Dynastic I (ca. 2900-2750), II (ca. 2750-2600), IIIa (2600-2450), and IIIb (ca. 2450-2350), but these are archaeological distinctions based on stylistic changes in the material remains that have little historical value. The period should be regarded as a unit in political terms, displaying the same basic characteristics for its entire duration (Van De Mieroop 2004, 39-40).

Van De Mieroop has suggested that there were approximately 35 urban centers "directly controlling a hinterland with a radius of some 15 kilometers" (Van De Mieroop 2004, 43) that can be defined as city-states in the ED IIIb period.

Ur-Nanshe (Urnanshe) was the first to establish the dynastic principle at Lagash, according to William W. Hallo's The Ancient Near East (51), assuming the title from the ED II ruler, Enhegal. He was of nonroyal lineage, but cemented his power in the region, leaving "numerous short inscriptions that reveal his ancestry, his progeny, his religious benefactions, and the fact that he exacted tribute from the mountains…and brought it to Lagash by ship" (Hallo 51). Many reliefs attempt to convey his humble origins, including a relief at the Louvre Museum, showing him doing the job of a bricklayer and providing food for his family. According to the magazine arteHistoria, Ur-Nanshe's reign was characterized by public-works projects like temple and canal construction, using wood brought from Dilmun (present-day Bahrain) by chartered cargo ships, and it is from the inscriptions on these that most of the information about Ur-Nanshe is drawn.

Akurgal was the son of ur-Nanshe and King of Lagash. During his reign, some ground was lost to Lagash's rival, Umma.

Eannatum was the son of Akurgal, and reknown as the greatest ruler of Lagash. He defeated the rival powers, Elam and destroyed its capital at Susa, Uruk, Ur, and Akshak, and made an enemy out of Mari. His military campaigns were so widespread that he was able to claim the title "King of Kish", which during ED I, especially had been a title denoting the unity of the Mesopotamian city-states and their submission (although they retained much autonomy) to a single ruler. During his reign, however, the border conflict with Lagash's neighbor Umma also came to a climax. Because the cities had historically shared the same resources, including the fertile land of Edin and the Adab Canal, they had been historic rival; Eannatum going so far as to say that the border (which was different from the border Umma claimed) was marked by the gods and reiterated by Mesilim (Mesalim), legendary king of Kish. According to the Stele of Vultures, through his use of the military technique, the battle-phalanx, Lagash was able to retain the upper hand on the Umma king, Enakalle. (Hallo 51-52)

Enannatum I was the brother of Eannatum and another son of Akurgal. During his reign, Lagash was plagued by war with Umma, under the leadership of Ur-Lumma.

Son of Enannatum I, Entemena was able to forge an alliance with the rulers of Uruk and Ur, who had recently combined under Lugal-Kingineshdudu, and they were able to suppress Ur-Lumma.

Enannatum II was the son of Entemena and the last ruler of the dynasty of Ur-Nashe. During his reign, Il, the nephew of Ur-Lumma siezed control of the remains of the Umma city-state and defeated Lagash.

Urukagina, also written Uru-inim-gina, came to power in Lagash two generations later. Contrary to the previous rulers of Ur-Nansche's lineage, he sponsored political and religious reform intended to curtail the encroachment of the royal authority on the traditional power of the temple rulers. For his attempts at reform, that included the limiting of royal administrative powers, and his successful obtaining of lower class support, he became known as "the reformer." However, according to A. Bernard Knapp in The History and Culture of Ancient Western Asia and Egypt, the notion of widespread reform during his reign is false, and that in fact, the entire social landscape was far more radically altered through the ending of his reign, which ushered in the Sargonic era.

• Bauer, Josef. 1998. Der Vorsargonische Abschnitt der Mesopotamischen Geschichte. In P. Attinger and M. Wäfler, eds., Mesopotamien: Späturuk-Zeit und Frühdynastische Zeit, pp. 431-585. Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis 160/1. Göttingen: Vendenhoeck & Ruprecht.
• Cabrera, Victor, Federico Bernaldo De Quiros, Miquel Molist, et. al. comps. La Historia y sus Protagonistas. ArteHistoria. 10 Nov. 2005 Link.
• Hallo, William W. and William Kelly Simpson. 1971. The Ancient Near East A History. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc. pp. 46-54
• Knapp, A. Bernard, 1988. The History and Culture of Ancient Western Asia and Egypt. Wadsworth Publishing Company. pp. 66-77
• Van De Mieroop, Marc. 2004. A History of the Ancient Near East, ca. 3000-323 BC. Blackwell Publishing. [The Early Dynastic period as a whole is dealt with in chapter 3, pp. 39-58, but since relatively is known about the periods that preceded the ED IIIb period, much of the chapter focuses on ED IIIb.]