The Early Dynastic period (abbreviated as ED, further divided into ED I, II, and III) which succeeds the Protoliterate marks the first historical era in Mesopotamia. However, the written evidence about the history of ED city-states is fragmentary until ca. 2500—2400 BC, when king lists become credible (see the Introduction) and objects inscribed with kings’ names become prevalent. As a result, archaeological finds have continued to provide our fundamental knowledge of this period. The relative stratigraphy of the ED period was established in excavations in north-east Sumer, in the area along the Diyala River east of Baghdad. One of those sites, important for its temples, is Khafajeh, presented below.
Dominant among Sumerian cities through ED I, Uruk lost its preeminent position in ED II and especially ED III. In this period of increasing prosperity, many cities had now joined Uruk in firmly establishing their political and economic authority. But the period was hardly peaceful: warfare between city-states was unremitting. Never very distant one from another, the cities frequently quarreled over territory, with all-important water supplies often a bone of contention. Since so many texts come from Lagash, we hear much about the struggles between that city-state and its upstream arch-rival, Umma. A depiction of this rivalry has survived in the fragmentary Stele of the Vultures, discovered by French archaeologists at Telloh (ancient Girsu, a town in the state of Lagash) and now on display in the Louvre Museum (Figure 2.11a and b). The reliefs celebrate the victory of Eannatum, ensi (ruler) of Lagash, over Umma. Eannatum, one of the powerful rulers of late ED Sumer, leads a group of helmeted, sword-wielding infantrymen, depicted in tight ranks as if packed in a box. Elsewhere he presides from his chariot over a mass of marching soldiers, carrying spears. On the reverse, the warrior-god Ningirsu, the patron deity of Eannatum, has trapped their enemies in a net. Imdugud (sometimes called Anzu), the lion-headed eagle, watches over the capture. This collaborative triumph of king and god together becomes a staple of pictorial imagery in the official, royal art of the Ancient Near East, Egypt, and, later, the Roman Empire.
Figure 2.11a Obverse, Stele of the Vultures, ED III, from Telloh (Girsu). Louvre Museum, Paris.
The ED period and the first era of Sumerian supremacy came to an end with the victory of Sargon the Great, the Semitic ruler of Akkad, over Lugalzagesi, the powerful ensi of Uruk, and Sargon’s subsequent conquest of the entire region (see Chapter 3).
To illustrate selected aspects of ED city life, we shall examine the Temple Oval at Khafajeh and evidence for temple decoration and religious practice from Ubaid and Tell Asmar, and an important cemetery at Ur, the so-called “Royal Tombs.”
World History
