Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-cphqk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-08T22:40:43.329Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

THE STRUCTURE AND HYDROLOGY OF THE EARLY DYNASTIC CITY OF LAGASH (TELL AL-HIBA) FROM SATELLITE AND AERIAL IMAGES

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 October 2022

Emily Hammer ,
Elizabeth Stone  and
Augusta McMahon
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Satellite imagery and UAV (drone) photos taken at Lagash (modern Tell al-Hiba) after rainstorms and at times of elevated soil moisture show dense near-surface architecture that dates mostly to the Early Dynastic III period (c. 2600–2350 BCE) and covers several hundred hectares. Archaeological knowledge of Mesopotamian urban structure has mostly been limited to isolated excavated neighbourhoods, such as at third millennium BCE Tutub (Khafajah) or Eshnunna (Tell Asmar), and early second millennium BCE Ur (Tell al-Muqayyar). The morphology of Tell al-Hiba and the quality of the imagery sets create a unique situation that enables the reconstruction and comparison of neighbourhoods across almost the whole of the city of Lagash. Mapping of near-surface architectural remains, streets, and water features reveals a discontinuous city located within a watery, possibly marshy environment.

بقلم : أميلي هامر، اليزابيث ستون وأوجستا مكماهون

بقلم : أميلي هامر، اليزابيث ستون وأوجستا مكماهون

الملخص

صور الأقمار الصناعية وصور الطائرات بدون طيار (بدون طيار ) التي تم التقاطها في لكش (تل الهبة الحديثة ) بعد العواصف المطيرة وأحيانا عند ارتفاع رطوبة التربة ، تُظهر بنية كثيفة قريبة من السطح تعود في الغالب إلى فترة الأسرة الثالثة المبكرة (2600–2350 قبل الميلاد ) وتغطي مساحة عدة مئات من الهكتارات .

اقتصرت المعرفة الأثرية للهيكل الحضري لبلاد الرافدين في الغالب على الأحياء المحفورة المعزولة ، مثل طوطب (خفاجة ) أو إشنونا (تل الأسمر ) التي تعود الى الألفية الثالثة قبل الميلاد و أور (تل المقير ) التابعة الى أوائل الألفية الثانية قبل الميلاد . تخلق مورفولوجيا تل الهبة وجودة مجموعات الصور حالة فريدة من نوعها تتيح فرصة إعادة إعمار صورية ومقارنة بين الأحياء في جميع أنحاء مدينة لكش تقريبًا . يكشف رسم خرائط البقايا المعمارية القريبة من السطح والشوارع والمعالم المائية عن مدينة متقطعة تقع داخل بيئة مائية وربما تكون مستنقعية .

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 84 , December 2022 , pp. 103 - 127
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 2022

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adams, R. M. 1981. Heartland of cities: surveys of ancient settlement and land use on the central floodplain of the Euphrates. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Adams, R. M., and Nissen, H. J.. 1972. The Uruk countryside : the natural setting of urban societies. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Algaze, G. 2018. “Entropic Cities: The Paradox of Urbanism in Ancient Mesopotamia.” Current Anthropology 59 (1): 23–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aqrawi, A. A. 2001. “Stratigraphic signatures of climatic change during the Holocene evolution of the Tigris–Euphrates delta, lower Mesopotamia.” Global and Planetary Change 28 (1-4): 267-83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ashby, D. 2017. Late Third Millennium BCE Religious Architecture at Tell al-Hiba, Ancient Lagash, Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Bahrani, Z. 1989. The administrative building at Tell Al Hiba, Lagash. Fine Arts, New York University, New York.Google Scholar
Beld, S. G. 2002. The queen of Lagash: ritual economy in a Sumerian State. Near East Studies, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Carroué, F. 1983. “Les villes de l'Etat de Lagash au 3e millénaire” in Bruschweiler, F., Christe, Y., Martin-Achard, R., Urio, B. and Vicari, J. (eds.), La Ville dans le Proche-Orient Ancien: Actes du Colloque de Cartigny, 1979, Centre d’Étude du Proche-Orient Ancien, Université de Genève. Leuven: Peeters, pp. 97–112.Google Scholar
Carroué, F. 1986. “Le ‘Cours-d'Eau-Allant-à-NINAki.” Acta Sumerologica 8: 13–58.Google Scholar
Carter, E. 1989-90. “A Surface Survey of Lagash, Al-Hiba, 1984.” Sumer 46: 60–63.Google Scholar
Cooke, G. A. 1987. “Reconstruction of the Holocene coastline of Mesopotamia.” Geoarchaeology 2: 15–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cooper, J. S. 1983. Reconstructing History from Ancient Inscriptions: The Lagash-Umma Border Conflict. Malibu: Undena.Google Scholar
Darras, L., and Vallet, R.. 2021. “Magnetic Signatures of Urban Structures: Case Study from Larsa (Iraq, 6th–1st millennium BC).” Revue d'archéométrie 45 (1): 51–54.Google Scholar
Finkbeiner, U. 1991. Uruk; Kampagne 35-37, 1982-1984. Die archaologishe Oberflachenuntersuchung (Survey). Mainz am Rhein: Philipp von Zabern.Google Scholar
Gibson, M. 1972. The City and Area of Kish. Coconut Grove, FL: Field Research Projects.Google Scholar
Gibson, M. 1993. “Nippur, sacred city of Enlil, supreme god of Sumer and Akkad.” al-Rāfidān 14: 1–18.Google Scholar
Goodman, R. C., Renette, S., and Carter, E.. in press. “The al-Hiba Survey Revisited” in Nadali, D., Pittman, H. and Polcaro, A. (eds.), Ancient Lagash: Current Research and Future Trajectories. Proceedings of the Workshop held at 10th ICAANE. Vienna: Austrian Academy of Sciences Press.Google Scholar
Hammer, E. 2019. “The City and Landscape of Ur: An Aerial, Satellite, and Ground Reassessment.” Iraq 81: 173–206.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hammer, E. 2022. “Multi-centric, Marsh-based Urbanism at the Early Mesopotamian City of Lagash (Tell al-Hiba, Iraq).” Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 68: 101458.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hammer, E., Fitzpatrick, M., and Ur, J.. 2022. “Succeeding CORONA: Declassified HEXAGON Intelligence Imagery for Archaeological and Historical Research.” Antiquity 96 (387): 679–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hansen, D. P. 1978. “Al-Hiba, Four Seasons of Excavation.” Sumer 34: 72–85.Google Scholar
Hansen, D. P. 1980–1983. “Lagaš. B. Archäologisch.” Reallexikon der Assyriologie und Vorderasiatischen Archäologie 6: 422–30.Google Scholar
Hansen, D. P. 1990. “The Sixth Season at Al-Hiba.” Mār Šipri 3 (1): 1–3.Google Scholar
Hansen, D. P. 1992. “Royal Building Activity at Sumerian Lagash in the Early Dynastic Period.” Biblical Archaeologist 55 (4): 206–11.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hritz, C. 2010. “Tracing Settlement Patterns and Channel Systems in Southern Mesopotamia Using Remote Sensing.” Journal of Field Archaeology (35): 184–203.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hritz, C. 2021. “The Umma-Lagash Border Conflict: A View from Above” in Altaweel, M. and Hritz, C. (eds.), From Sherds to Landscapes: Studies on the Ancient Near East in Honor of McGuire Gibson. Chicago: The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, pp. 109–32.Google Scholar
Huh, S. 2008. Studien zur Region Lagaš: Von der Zeit der ubaid- bis zur altbabyloniaschen Zeit. Münster: Ugarit Verlag.Google Scholar
Jacobsen, T. 1969. “A Survey of The Girsu (Telloh) Region.” Sumer 25 (1): 103–09.Google Scholar
Jotheri, J., and Allen, M. B.. 2020. “Recognition of ancient channels and archaeological sites in the Mesopotamian floodplain using satellite imagery and digital topography” in Lawrence, D., Altaweel, M. and Philip, G. (eds.), New Agendas in Remote Sensing and Landscape Archaeology in the Near East: Studies in Honour of Tony J. Wilkinson. Oxford: Archaeopress, pp. 283–305.Google Scholar
Kennett, D. J., and Kennett, J. P.. 2006. “Early State Formation in Southern Mesopotamia: Sea Levels, Shorelines, and Climate Change.” Journal of Island & Coastal Archaeology 1 (1): 67–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kenoyer, J. M. 1989-1990. “Shell artifacts from Lagash, al-Hiba.” Sumer 46 (1/2): 64–67.Google Scholar
Lambeck, K. 1996. “Shoreline reconstructions for the Persian Gulf since the last glacial maximum.” Earth and Planetary Science Letters 142: 43–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marchetti, N., Al-Hussainy, A., Benati, G., Luglio, G., Scazzosi, G., Valeri, M., and Zaina, F.. 2019. “The Rise of Urbanized Landscapes in Mesopotamia: The QADIS Integrated Survey Results and the Interpretation of Multi-Layered Historical Landscapes.” Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und vorderasiatische Archäologie 109 (2): 214–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martin, H. P. 1983. “Settlement Patterns at Shuruppak.” Iraq 45: 24–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McMahon, A., Pittman, H., Al-Rawi, Z., Ashby, D., Burge, K., Goodman, R. C., Hammer, E., and Pizzimenti, S.. 2023, forthcoming. “Dense Urbanism and Economic Multi-Centrism at Third Millennium BC Lagash, South Iraq.” Antiquity.Google Scholar
Mudar, K. 1982. “Early Dynastic III animal utilization in Lagash: a report on the fauna of Tell al-Hiba.” Journal of Near Eastern Studies 41 (1): 23-34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nadali, D. 2021. “Cities in the Water: Waterscape and Evolution of Urban Civilisation in Southern Mesopotamia as Seen from Tell Zurghul, Iraq” in Jawad, L. A. (ed.), Southern Iraq's Marshes. Their Environment and Conservation. New York: Springer International Publishing, pp. 15-31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nadali, D., and Polcaro, A.. 2016. “The Early Stages of the Sumerian City at Tell Zurghul: New Results from Recent Excavations.” Origini 39: 75–100.Google Scholar
Nissen, H. J. 1972. “The City Wall of Uruk” in Ucko, P. J., Tringham, R. and Dimbleby, G. W. (eds.), Man, Settlement and Urbanism. London: Duckworth, pp. 793–98.Google Scholar
Ochsenschlager, E. L. 2004. Iraq's Marsh Arabs in the Garden of Eden. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.Google Scholar
Pennington, B. T., Bunbury, J., and Hovius, N.. 2016. “Emergence of Civilization, Changes in Fluvio-Deltaic Style, and Nutrient Redistribution Forced by Holocene Sea-Level Rise.” Geoarchaeology 31: 194–210.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Potts, D. T. 1997. Mesopotamian Civilization: The Material Foundations. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Pournelle, J. 2003. Marshland of Cities: Deltaic Landscapes and the Evolution of Early Mesopotamian Civilization. Anthropology, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla.Google Scholar
Pournelle, J. 2013. “Physical Geography” in Crawford, H. E. W. (ed.), The Sumerian World. London: Routledge, pp. 13–32.Google Scholar
Pournelle, J., and Algaze, G.. 2014. “Travels in Edin: Deltaic Resilience and Early Urbanism in Greater Mesopotamia” in McMahon, A. and Crawford, H. E. W. (eds.), Preludes to urbanism: Studies in the Late Chalcolithic of Mesopotamia in honour of Joan Oates. Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, pp. 7–34.Google Scholar
Prentice, R. 2010. The exchange of goods and services in pre-Sargonic Lagash. Münster: Ugarit-Verlag.Google Scholar
Rey, S. 2016. For the Gods of Girsu: City-State Formation in Ancient Sumer: Archaeopress.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rey, S., and Lecompte, C.. 2020. “Resurrecting Tello (Ancient Girsu): The Topographical Layout of an Early Dynastic Sumerian City” in Lawrence, D., Altaweel, M. and Philip, G. (eds.), New Agendas in Remote Sensing and Landscape Archaeology in the Near East: Studies in Honour of Tony J. Wilkinson. Oxford: Archaeopress, pp. 213–27.Google Scholar
Rost, S. 2011. “Irrigation management in the Ur III period: a reconsideration based on a case study of the maintenance of the íd-NINA-šè-DU canal of the province Lagaš” in Selz, G. and Wagensonner, K. (eds.), The Empirical Dimension of Ancient Near Eastern Studies / Die empirische Dimension altorientalischer Forschungen. Vienna: Lit-Verlag, pp. 211–70.Google Scholar
Rost, S. 2017. “Water management in Mesopotamia from the sixth till the first millennium B.C.” WIREs Water 4: 1–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sanlaville, P. 1989. “Considérations sur l'évolution de la Basse Mésopotamie au cours des derniers millenaires.” Paléorient 15 (2): 5–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sanlaville, P. 2003. “The deltaic complex of the lower Mesopotamian plain and its evolution through millennia̕ in Nicholson, E. and Clark, P. (eds.), The Iraqi Marshlands. London: Politicos Publishing, pp. 133–50.Google Scholar
Schrakamp, I. 2019. “Irrigation in 3rd Millennium Southern Mesopotamia: Cuneiform Evidence from the Early Dynastic IIIb City-State of Lagash (2475–2315 BC)” in Berking, J. (ed.), Water Management in Ancient Civilizations. Proceedings of the Topoi Water Management Workshop 2016, Berlin Studies in the Ancient World. Berlin: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, pp. 117–95.Google Scholar
Smith, A. T. 2003. The Political Landscape: Constellations of Authority in Early Complex Polities Berkeley: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Steinkeller, P. 2007. “City and Countryside in Third-Millennium Southern Babylonia” in Stone, E. C. (ed.), Settlement and Society: Essays Dedicated to Robert McCormick Adams. Los Angeles: Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, pp. 185–211.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stone, E. 2012. “Surface Survey and Satellite Reconnaissance: Reconstructing the Urban Layout of Mashkan-Shapir.” Iraq 74: 65–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stone, E. 2013. “Organisation of a Sumerian Town: Physical Remains of Ancient Social Systems” in Crawford, H. E. W. (ed.), The Sumerian World. London: Routledge, pp. 156–78.Google Scholar
Stone, E. 2014. “High-Resolution Imagery and the Recovery of Surface Architectural Patterns.” Advances in Archaeological Practice: A Journal of the Society for American Archaeology 2 (3): 180–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stone, E. 2018. “The Trajectory of Social Inequality in Ancient Mesopotamia” in Kohler, T. A. and Smith, M. E. (eds.), Ten Thousand Years of Inequality: The Archaeology of Wealth Differences. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, pp. 230–61.Google Scholar
Stone, E. 2023, in press. “The city of Lagash: reconstructing the urban layout based on high-resolution imagery” in Renette, S. and Pittman, H. (eds.), Lagash II - Final Report of Six Seasons of Excavation at al-Hiba, 1968–1990. The Early Dynastic I Occupation in Area G and Site Surveys. Turnhout: Brepols.Google Scholar
Stone, E., and Zimansky, P.. 2004. The anatomy of a Mesopotamian city: survey and soundings at Mashkan-shapir. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns.Google Scholar
Stone, E., and Zimansky, P.. 2016. “Archaeology returns to Ur: A new dialog with old houses.” Near Eastern Archaeology 79 (4): 246–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Teller, J. T., Glennie, K. W., Lancaster, N., and Singhvi, A. K.. 2000. “Calcareous dunes of the United Arab Emirates and Noah's Flood: the postglacial reflooding of the Persian (Arabian) Gulf.” Quaternary International 68: 297–308.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ur, J. 2013. “Patterns of Settlement in Sumer and Akkad” in Crawford, H. E. W. (ed.), The Sumerian World. London: Routledge, pp. 131–55.Google Scholar
Ur, J. 2014. “Umma. B. Archäologische.” Reallexikon der Assyriologie und Vorderasiatischen Archäologie 14: 327–30.Google Scholar
Ur, J. 2021. “Kish and the Spatial Organization of Cities in Third-Millennium BC Southern Iraq” in Altaweel, M. and Hritz, C. (eds.), From Sherds to Landscapes: Studies on the Ancient Near East in Honor of McGuire Gibson. Chicago: The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, pp. 227–42.Google Scholar
Wilkinson, T. J. 2003. Archaeological Landscapes of the Near East. Tucson: University of Arizona.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilkinson, T. J. 2012. “Wetland Archaeology and the Role of Marshes in the Ancient Middle East” in Menotti, F. and O'Sullivan, A. (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Wetland Archaeology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Wilkinson, T. J. 2013. “Hydraulic landscapes and irrigation systems of Sumer” in Crawford, H. E. W. (ed.), The Sumerian World. London: Routledge, pp. 57–78.Google Scholar
Wilkinson, T. J., Rayne, L., and Jotheri, J.. 2015. “Hydraulic landscapes in Mesopotamia: the role of human niche construction.” Water History 7 (4): 397–418.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woolley, C. L., and Mallowan, M.. 1976. Ur Excavations: Volume VII: The Old Babylonian Period. London: British Museum.Google Scholar
Yoffee, N. 2005. Myths of the Archaic State: Evolution of the Earliest Cities, States, and Civilizations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar