Sumerian City Of Girsu: Political, Religious Center With Large Archive Of Thousands Of Cuneiform Tablets

A. Sutherland - AncientPages.com - Modern Tello (Telloh) was an ancient Sumerian city of Girsu, located between the Tigris and Euphrates and about 20-25 kilometers north-northwest of Lagash in southern Mesopotamia (now southern Iraq).

Today, the site is marked by several mounds, about 0.9 miles in diameter.

Cuneiform Tablet from Girsu (modern: Tello), dated to 2370 BC. Image credit: Max Planck Gesellschaft

Once, Girsu was part of the city-state of Lagash. It was an important Sumerian city with many temples devoted to Ningirsu, chief god of Lagash; it served as the capital during the reign of Gudea in the 22nd century BC.

The city, whose name is written in Sumerian as ‘Shirpurla’, flourished during the Early Dynastic period (2500-2300 BC), and remained continuously inhabited until the 2nd century BC. When the capital was moved, the city remained an important religious center.

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