Girsu

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Ancient Mesopotamia

Euphrates · Tigris
Cities / Empires
Sumer: Uruk · Ur · Eridu
Kish · Lagash · Nippur
Akkadian Empire: Akkad
Babylon · Isin · Susa
Assyria: Assur · Nineveh
Dur-Sharrukin · Nimrud
Babylonia · Chaldea
Elam · Amorites
Hurrians · Mitanni
Kassites · Urartu
Chronology
Kings of Sumer
Kings of Assyria
Kings of Babylon
Language
Aramaic
Sumerian · Akkadian
Elamite · Hurrian
Mythology
Enûma Elish
Gilgamesh · Marduk

Girsu (modern Telloh, Dhi Qar Governorate, Iraq) is a city of ancient Sumer, situated some 25 km northwest of Lagash. At the time of Gudea, it was in fact the capital of the Lagash kingdom, and it continued to be its religious center after political power had shifted to Lagash.

Telloh was the first Sumerian site to be extensively excavated, at first under the French vice-consul at Basra, Ernest de Sarzec, from 1877 to 1900, then in 1903 1909, 1929 1931 and under André Parrot in 1931 1933.

The site has suffered from poor excavation standards and also from illegal excavations. About 50,000 cuneiform tablets have been recovered from the site.

Girsu was possibly inhabited in the Ubaid period (5th millennium BC), but the main settlement dates to the Early Dynastic period (25th-24th centuries BC). Girsu lost all importance after the Third Dynasty of Ur, but remained inhabited until the 2nd century BC.