Lagaš Umma War
The Lagaš Umma War was a military conflict between the two early dynastic Sumerian city-states Umma and Lagaš in southern Mesopotamia . The event took place in the 25th century BC. Chr. (Ca. 2500-2450 v. Chr.) In today's province Dhi Qar in Iraq from.
course
Umma and Lagaš were two neighboring Sumerian city-states in Mesopotamia, in what is now Iraq. The maintenance and expansion of the irrigation system was a top priority for both, as the harvest depended on it. Umma was further upstream on the Tigris and was able to divert large amounts of water through canals into its own country. A border dispute broke out between Umma and Lagaš over the possession of a fertile area, which grew into a war that lasted for years and lasted in later generations until the end of the first dynasty of Lagaš (approx. 2340 BC).
King Mesilim of Kiš , who held a special position among the Sumerian city rulers, wanted to mediate in the conflict as an arbitrator and placed around 2530/2500 BC A stele on which should mark the border between the two city-states. Umma, however, felt that he was at a disadvantage and later removed the stele again, with which the fighting continued. Around 2470 BC Chr. Was e-ana-tum king of Lagash and Umma could conquer territories and recover their own lost territory. He had a report of his victory chiseled on a border post and the new border set by a ditch. Umma vowed officially take an oath before the gods that it should be in the event of a peace breakthrough destroyed by the gods. It also had to deliver crop yields to Lagaš.
consequences
Relations between Umma and Lagaš remained hostile thereafter. As around 2430 BC When En-metena became king of Lagaš, Ummah refused to continue paying taxes to Lagaš, and clashes broke out again.
Archaeological source
An extensive representation of this dispute can be found on the so-called vulture stele , the fragments of which are now in the Louvre in Paris . The fragments were discovered in 1878 by the French archaeologist Ernest de Sarzec about 28 kilometers northwest of Lagaš (now Tell el-Hiba ) in the temple district of Telloh in southern Iraq. On the stele in relief there are inscriptions of the Sumerian king E-ana-tum of Lagaš, which tell of the continuation of the conflict with the northern neighbor Umma. In addition to the extensive text, pictorial representations of defeated enemies can also be seen. You can also see a phalanx (battle formation), a chariot (earliest military use of the wheel), helmets and shields.
See also
literature
- Dietz-Otto Edzard : History of Mesopotamia. From the Sumerians to Alexander the Great . CH Beck, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-406-51664-5 .
Individual evidence
- ^ A b c d e Dietz-Otto Edzard: History of Mesopotamia. From the Sumerians to Alexander the Great. CH Beck, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-406-51664-5 , p. 56.
- ↑ E. Seidl, V. Korosec, E. Pritsch, O. Spies, J. Baz, Ch Chehata, E. Tyan, Ch Samaran, J. Roussier, J. Lapanne-Joinville, SS Ansay, Orientalisches Recht . Brill, 1964, ISBN 9004008675 , p. 62
- ↑ a b Hans Jörg Nissen , History of the Ancient Near East . Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, 1999, ISBN 3486563734 , p. 53.
- ↑ Heinz Barta, Graeca Non Leguntur ?: On the origins of European law in ancient Greece. A contribution to the scientific and cultural history of law . Otto Harrassowitz Verlag, 2010, ISBN 3447061219 , p. 454 f.
- ↑ Heinz Barta, Graeca Non Leguntur ?: On the origins of European law in ancient Greece. A contribution to the scientific and cultural history of law . Otto Harrassowitz Verlag, 2010, ISBN 3447061219 , p. 454.