Editing Lagash (section)

====Gudea====
While the [[Gutian dynasty of Sumer|Gutians]] had partially filled the power vacuum left by the fall of the Akkadian Empire, under Gudea Lagash entered a period of independence marked by riches and power.<ref>Zarins, Juris, "Lagash and the Gutians: a study of late 3rd millennium BC Mesopotamian archaeology, texts and politics", In Context: the Reade Festschrift, pp. 11-42, 2020</ref> Thousands of inscriptions of various sorts have been found from his reign and an untold number of [[statues of Gudea]].<ref name="Steible" >H. Steible, "Neusumerische Bau- und Weihinschriften, Teil 1: Inschriften der II. Dynastie von Lagas", FAOS9/1, Stuttgart 1991</ref> A number of cuneiform tablets of an administrative nature, from Gudea's rule were found at nearby [[Girsu]].<ref>Molina Martos, Manuel, and Massimo Maiocchi, "[https://digital.csic.es/bitstream/10261/245574/1/pre_ur_administrative_british_museum.pdf Pre-Ur III administrative cuneiform tablets in the British Museum. I. Texts from the archives of Gudea's Dynasty]", Kaskal, vol. 15, pp. 1-46, 2018</ref> Also found at Girsu were the famous [[Gudea cylinders]] which contain the longest known text in the [[Sumerian language]].<ref>Ira M. Price, "The great cylinder inscriptions A & B of Gudea: copied from the original clay cylinders of the Telloh Collection preserved in the Louvre. Transliteration, translation, notes, full vocabulary and sign-lifts", [https://archive.org/download/greatcylinderins01pricuoft/greatcylinderins01pricuoft.pdf Volume 1] [https://archive.org/download/greatcylinderins02pricuoft/greatcylinderins02pricuoft.pdf Volume 2], Hinrichs, 1899</ref><ref>Suter, Claudia E., "A New Edition of the Lagaš II Royal Inscriptions Including Gudea’s Cylinders", Journal of Cuneiform Studies, vol. 50,  pp. 67–75, 1998</ref> He was prolific at temple building and restoring.<ref>Suter, Claudia E. Gudea's temple building: A comparison of written and pictorial accounts", Brill, 2000 {{ISBN|978-90-56-93035-6}}</ref> He is known to have conducted some military operations to the east against [[Anshan (Persia)|Anshan]] and Elam.<ref>Bartash, Vitali, "Gudea's Iranian Slaves: An Anatomy of Transregional Forced Mobility", Iraq 84, pp. 25-42, 2022</ref><ref>Hansen, Donald P, "A sculpture of Gudea, governor of Lagash", Bulletin of the Detroit Institute of Arts 64.1, pp. 4-19, 1988</ref> Twenty of Gudea's year names are known. All are of a religious nature except for one that marks the building of a canal and year six "Year in which the city of Anszan was smitten by weapons".<ref>[https://cdli-gh.github.io/year-names/HTML/T4K2.htm Year Names of Gudea at CDLI]</ref> While the conventional view has been that the reign of Gudea fell well before that of [[Ur-Nammu]], ruler of Ur, and during a time of Gutian power, a number of researchers contend that Gudea's rule overlaps with that of Ur-Nammu and the Gutians had already been defeated.<ref>Steinkeller, Piotr, "The Date of Gudea and His Dynasty", Journal of Cuneiform Studies, vol. 40, no. 1, pp. 47–53, 1988</ref> This view is strengthened by the fact that Ur-Baba appointed Enanepada as high preiestess of Ur while Naram-Sin of Akkad had appointed her predecessor Enmenana and Ur-Namma of Ur appointed her successor Ennirgalana.<ref name="Michalowski" >Michalowski, Piotr, "Networks of Authority and Power in Ur III Times", in From the 21st Century B.C. to the 21st Century A.D.: Proceedings of the International Conference on Neo-Sumerian Studies Held in Madrid, 22–24 July 2010, edited by Steven J. Garfinkle and Manuel Molina, University Park, USA: Penn State University Press, pp. 169-206, 2013</ref>

Gudea was succeeded by his son Ur-Ningirsu, followed by Ur-gar. Little is known about either aside from an ascension year name each and a small handful of inscriptions. It has been suggested that two other brief rulers fit into the sequence here, Ur-ayabba and Ur-Mama but the evidence for that is thin.<ref>Maeda, Tohru, "Two Rulers by the Name of Ur-Ningirsu in Pre-Ur III Lagash", acta sumerologica Japan 10, pp. 19–35, 1988</ref> Two tablets dated to the reign of Ur-Nammu of Ur refer to Ur-ayabba as "ensi" of Lagash, meaning governor in Ur III terms and king in Lagash.<ref name="Michalowski" />