Sumerian city of Lagash slowly emerging from desert sands
NASIRIYAH, Iraq — The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) added Iraq's Ahwar marshes, including the sites of Uruk, Ur and Tell Eridu, to its World Heritage List on July 17. Iraq has many other sites deserving of such recognition, among them the ancient Sumerian city of Lagash.
Archaeologists have resumed excavations at the site of the ancient city of Lagash in Iraq, but so have smugglers.
Author Adnan Abu Zeed Posted July 19, 2016
TranslatorSahar Ghoussoub
A desert wind has been blowing for hundreds of years over the hills of Lagash, today's al-Hiba, in al-Dawayah district, north of Nasiriyah. There have been intermittent excavations since the city was first excavated by a group of German archaeologists led by Robert Koldewey in 1877, but the majority of the city's ruins remain buried beneath sand.
What distinguishes the site from many others is that it extends over a large area, some 15 square miles. The city of Lagash was the political capital of the Lagash city-state. The site is considered an archaeological treasure in the Middle East.
Amer Abdul Razzaq, the director of the archaeology department of Dhi Qar province and lecturer in the faculty of archaeology at Baghdad University, told Al-Monitor, “Lagash is one the most important Sumerian cities in the Shinar plain in Iraq, where the first Sumerian cities emerged more than 4,000 years ago. Lagash was the most important one founded by King Ur in 1900 B.C., with its temples and palaces.”
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