Archaeology Magazine - September 1954 - 17

Stele of the Vultures: War scenesdepicting Eannatum,Ur-Nanshe'sgrandson, leadingthe Lagashitesto battleand
victory.Eannatum,who precededUrukaginaby more than a century,was the
great conqueringhero of the Lagash
Dynasty,which came to an inglorious
end when defeatedby Lugalzaggisiof
Umma.In betweenand all around the
figures,whereverspace permits, is inscribedthe oldest historiographiedocument as yet knownto man: an inscrips victoryover
tion recordingEannatum'
the Ummaitesand the treaty of peace
whichhe forcedupon them.Full details
of the stele and its inscriptionare to be
found in Heuzeyand Thureau-Dangin's
Restitutionmatériellede la Stèle des
Vautours.

the rule, and even the poor owned property and cattle.
The more enterprising artisans and craftsmen could
sell their products in the free market,. ^ravejipg merchants carried on a thriving trade with the surrounding
states. The citizens of Lagash were proud of their civil
rights and conscious of their political obligations. They
realized the value of freedom- their word for it was
amargi- and cherished it as an essential part of their
way of life.
But about 2500 b.c., new and power-hungry rulers
came to the fore in Lagash. Smitten with grandiose ambitions, they resorted to imperialistic wars and bloody
conquests. At first they met with success, and for a
short while actually extended the sway of Lagash over
Sumer as a whole, and even over several neighboring
states. The initial victories proved ephemeral, however,
and in less than a century Lagash was reduced to its
earlier boundaries and former status. It was in the
course of these useless wars and their tragic aftermath
that the citizens of Lagash were deprived of their
political freedom. For in order to raise armies the rulers
found it necessary to infringe on the personal rights of

the citizen and to tax his property to the limit. Under
the impact of war, they met with little opposition. But
when the emergency was over, the palace coterie was
unwilling to relinquish domestic controls. These had
proved highly profitable; indeed our ancient bureaucrats had devised sources of revenue and income, taxes
and imposts, which in some ways might be the envy of
their modern counterparts.
But let the hoary historian who lived in Lagash
more than four thousand years ago tell it in his own
words: The inspector of the boatmen seized the boats.
The cattle inspector seized the large cattle, seized the
small cattle. The fisheries inspector seized the fisheries.
When a citizen of Lagash brought a sheep to the palace for shearing, he had to pay five shekels if the wool
was white. If a man divorced his wife, the ruler
( ishakku, in Sumerian) got five shekels, his vizier got
one shekel. If a perfumer made an oil preparation, the
ishakku got five shekels, the vizier one shekel, and the
palace steward another shekel. As for the temple and its
property, the ishakku took it over. To quote our narrator: "The oxen of the gods plowed the ishakku s onion
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Archaeology Magazine - September 1954

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