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.

The status of this first figure as ruler of Lagash is disputed, as it is inferred from an economic text recording a sale of land by two men designated as Sidu and Lugalshagengur…… In their treatment of the text, Gelb, Steinkeller and Whiting date the document to the Fara Period (ca. 2600 BC).(see ELTS) However M.A. Powell (footnote) disagrees over Enhegal’s status as ruler of the city, and further dates the text to the time of Urnanshe.

The first clearly attested ruler of Lagash is Lugalshagengur, whose name is attested only in a macehead inscription of Mesalim (FAOS 05/2, Mesalim 1), the king of Kish who is known in connection with Lagash primarily through his arbitration in the protracted border war between that city-state and its neighbor Umma.

Ur-Nanshe's rule is significant as it stands at the beginning of a continuous documentary tradition illuminating the political events of the ED III period. He was likely of non-royal lineage, since in his inscriptions he refers to his father as one Gu-NI.DU without an accompanying royal title. The fact that the name does appear in offering lists from the time of the later kings Lugalanda and Uruinimgina suggests that Gu-NI.DU nevertheless held an important, possibily religious, office in Lagash (Bauer pg. 447).

Ur-Nanshe carried through a large number of building and renovation projects that have been recorded in his many royal inscriptions. These include a system of nine canals, the renovation of Nanshe's Sirara temple in Nina (or Nimin), and the renovation of Ningirsu's E-ninnu temple in Girsu. The unexpectedly wide scope of his building activity, especially of religious structures, has been taken as a sign of the hastening trend toward anthropomorphized deities whose status required a more substantial visual presence than the earlier tradition of divine emblems and totems (Bauer pg. 450). He also had wood brought from the state of Dilmun (modern Bahrain) via a special boat called the 'ma2-dilmun' for various building projects, especially temples.

Already before Ur-Nanshe a conflict between Lagash and Umma had broken out over the control of a fertile area between the two cities known as the Guedena. The historical roots of the dispute are not clear. A cone inscription of Enmetena (FAOS 05/1, Ent 28, A) frames them as a primordial issue involving the gods, where Enlil divides the Guedinna between Ningirsu and Shara, the principle gods of Lagash and Umma respectively. Regardless of its origins, by the time of Ur-Nanshe the conflict grew to the point that an outsider, Mesalim the king of Kish, was called in to arbitrate the conflict, declaring a border that divided the land and marking it with a now lost inscription. However this settlement did not keep the peace for long, at least if we are to consider a text excavated from the Bagara Temple of Girsu in the 1970's (FAOS 05/1, Urn 51), which indicates Ur-Nanshe defeated Umma in battle and captured some of its leaders as prisoners.

The king also left behind a number of plates depicting himself, members of his family, and some of his followers. These early works illustrate several important elements of Mesopotamian iconography, such as the ruler standing with hands clasped as a typical depiction of piety (FAOS 05/1, Urn 21) or holding a basket on his head to signal participation in foundational building projects (FAOS 05/1, Urn 20).

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.]