Lagash, 2nd Dynasty of

A one hundred and eighty kilometer-long wall, the "Repeller of the Amorites," is built across central Mesopotamia to stem nomadic incursions to the south.

The Guti will prove to be poor rulers.

Under their crude rule, which is to last about a century, prosperity will decline.

They are too unaccustomed to the complexities of civilization to organize matters properly, particularly in connection with the canal network, which will be allowed to sink into disrepair, with consequent famine and death.

Thus, a short "dark age" will sweep Mesopotamia.

The neighboring state of Lagash enjoys a century of complete independence, between Shar-kali-sharri and the beginning of Ur III, during which time it shows expansionist tendencies and has widely ranging trade connections.

The Akkadian Empire had reached its zenith under Naram-Sin, a grandson of Sargon of Akkad, his third successor.

Part of Mesopotamian mythology has it that the goddess Inanna abandoned the former capital of Akkad due to Naram-sin's plunder of the Ekur (temple of the god Enlil) in Nippur.

In his anger, Enlil brought the Gutians down from the hills to bring plague, famine and death throughout Mesopotamia.

To prevent this destruction, eight of the gods decreed that Agade (Akkad) should be destroyed to spare the remaining cities.

While this story is mostly mythological, it does suggest that Gutian raids contributing to the downfall of the Akkadian empire began during this period.

The Akkadian Empire—which in 2300 BCE had become the second civilization to subsume independent societies into a single state (the first being ancient Egypt at around 3100 BCE)—is brought low by the wide-ranging, centuries-long drought.

The Sargonic dynasty collapses around 2180 amid a prolonged drought in the region from the Aegean to the Indus, possibly triggered by volcanic eruptions elsewhere, and invasions by two groups.

Archaeological evidence documents widespread abandonment of the agricultural plains of northern Mesopotamia and dramatic influxes of refugees into southern Mesopotamia around 2170 BCE.

The nomadic Amorites, called Martu by the Sumerians, invade from the northwest.

Mountain tribesmen called the Gutians, who are possibly Caucasian-speakers, infiltrate Akkad from the region between the Tigris and the Zagros Mountains to the east, though these people probably also live on the middle Euphrates during the third millennium.

…the capital is moved back to Erech (location unknown, but probably Uruk, in southern Mesopotamia) at the end of his reign.

Ziggurat designs range from simple bases upon which a temple sits, to marvels of mathematics and construction that span several terraced stories and are topped with a temple.

Mesopotamian builders, beginning in the the late third millennium BCE, place temples at the base of their ziggurats as well as on the top.

Ziggurats are built by the Sumerians, Babylonians, Elamites, Akkadians, and Assyrians for local religions.

Each ziggurat is part of a temple complex which includes other buildings.

The precursors of the ziggurat were raised platforms that date from the Ubaid period during the fourth millennium BCE.

The earliest ziggurats began near the end of the Early Dynastic Period; the latest Mesopotamian ziggurats date from the sixth century BCE.

Built in receding tiers upon a rectangular, oval, or square platform, the ziggurat is a pyramidal structure with a flat top.

Sun-baked bricks make up the core of the ziggurat with facings of fired bricks on the outside.

The facings are often glazed in different colors and may have had astrological significance.

Kings sometimes have their names engraved on these glazed bricks.

The number of tiers ranges from two to seven.

It is assumed that they had shrines at the top, but there is no archaeological evidence for this and the only textual evidence is from Herodotus.

Access to the shrine would have been by a series of ramps on one side of the ziggurat or by a spiral ramp from base to summit.

The Mesopotamian ziggurats are not places for public worship or ceremonies.

They are believed to be dwelling places for the gods and each city has its own patron god.

Only priests are permitted on the ziggurat or in the rooms at its base, and it is their responsibility to care for the gods and attend to their needs.

The priests are very powerful members of Sumerian society.

...Lagash again thrives under its independent kings (ensis), Ur-Bau and Gudea, and has extensive commercial communications with distant realms.

A Sumerian temple hymn of the Gutian period commemorates the rededication of the main temple of Lagash by Gudea, the kingdom’s ruler.

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.

A group of diorite statues of Gudea represents the finest works of the artistic revival of the so-called neo-Sumerian period.

A hardstone sculpture of the period depicts a tranquil Gudea of benevolent aspect, a change from the tension portrayed in earlier Akkadian forms.

At the time of Gudea, the capital of Lagash is actually in Girsu.

The kingdom covers an area of approximately sixteen hundred square kilometers (six hundred and twenty square miles).

It contains seventeen larger cities, eight district capitals, and numerous villages (about forty known by name).

Lagash is, according to one estimate, the largest city in the world from about 2075 BCE to 2030 BCE.

Hereditary kings in lower Mesopotamia rule such Sumerian cities as Eridu, Kish, Larsa, Lagash, Sippar, Umma, Uruk, and Ur, representatives of which convene as a league in Nippur, the religious center.

Nippur never enjoys political hegemony in its own right, but its control is crucial, as it is considered capable of conferring the overall "kingship" on monarchs from other city-states.

It is distinctively a sacred city, important from the possession of the famous shrine of Enlil.

According to the Tummal Chronicle, Enmebaragesi, an early ruler of Kish, was the first to build up this temple.

His influence over Nippur has also been detected archaeologically.

The Chronicle lists successive early Sumerian rulers who kept up intermittent ceremonies at the temple: Aga of Kish, son of Enmebaragesi; Mesannepada of Ur; his son Meskiang-nunna; Gilgamesh of Uruk; his son Ur-Nungal; Nanni of Ur and his son Meskiang-nanna.

It also indicates that the practice was revived in Neo-Sumerian times by Ur-Nammu of Ur, and continues until Ibbi-Sin appoints Enmegalana high priest in Uruk around 1950 BCE.

Inscriptions of Lugal-Zage-Si and Lugal-kigub-nidudu, kings of Uruk and Ur respectively, and of other early pre-Semitic rulers, on door-sockets and stone vases, show the veneration in which the ancient shrine was then held, and the importance attached to its possession, as giving a certain stamp of legitimacy.

On their votive offerings, some of these rulers designate themselves as ensis, or governors.

Ur, its population approximately sixty-five thousand, replaces Lagash as the largest city in the world from about 2030 BCE to about 1980 BCE, according to one estimate.

The word for "horse,” literally translated as ass of the mountains, first appears in Sumerian documents during the Third Dynasty of Ur, whose kings apparently feed horses to lions for royal entertainment.

This perhaps indicates that horses are still regarded as more exotic than useful.

However, King Shulgi compares himself to “a horse of the highway that swishes its tail”, and one image from his reign shows a man apparently riding a horse at full gallop.