Lagash 
Lagash or Shirpurla, was flourishing by 2400 BC. Traces of habitation, however, go back at least to the 4th millennium BC. Under its ruler Gudea, Lagash was able to maintain peace and prosperity whilst other city-states were in turmoil after the fall of Akkad in 2180 BC.
This was the first city to have a significant excavation in Mesopotamia by the French under Ernest de Sarzec. The team began digging at Telloh in 1877. The principal excavations were made in two larger mounds, one of them proving to be the site of the temple E-Ninnu, the shrine of the patron goddess of Lagash, Nin-girsu or Ninib. Many statues, primarily of Gudea, steles, the Gudea cylinders and thousands of tablets were found between 1877 and 1900.
From the inscriptions found at Telloh, it appears that Lagash was a city of great importance in the Sumerian period, some time probably in the 4th millennium BC. It was at that time ruled by independent kings, Ur-Nina (34th century BC) and his successors, who were engaged in contests with the Elamites on the east and the kings of Kengi and Kish on the north. With the Semitic conquest, it lost its independence, its rulers became patesis, dependent rulers, under Sargon of Akkad and his successors; but it still remained Sumerian and continued to be a city of much importance. But, above all, it was a center of artistic development. Indeed, it was in this period and under the immediately succeeding supremacy of the kings of Ur, Ur-Gur and Dungi, that it reached its highest artistic development.
During this period, under its patesis Ur-bau and Gudea, Lagash had extensive commercial communications with distant realms. According to his own records, Gudea brought cedars from the Amanus and Lebanon mountains in Syria, diorite from eastern Arabia, copper and gold from central and southern Arabia and from Sinai, while his armies, presumably under his over-lord, Ur-Gur, were engaged in battles in Elam on the east. His was especially the era of artistic development. Some of the earlier works of Ur-Nina, En-anna-turn, Entemena and others, before the Semitic conquest, are also extremely interesting, especially the famous stele of the vultures and a great silver vase ornamented with what may be called the coat of arms of Lagash, a lion-headed eagle with wings outspread, grasping a lion in each talon. After the time of Gudea, Lagash seems to have lost its importance; at least we know nothing more about it until the construction of the Seleucid fortress mentioned, when it seems to have become part of the Greek kingdom of Characene. The objects found at Telloh are the most valuable art treasures up to this time discovered in Babylonia.
At the time of Gudea, the capital of Lagash was really Girsu (Telloh). The kingdom covered an area of approximately 1,600 kmē. It contained 17 bigger towns, eight district capitals, and numerous villages (about 40 known by name).
Lagash can be found at Telloh, which is in southeastern Iraq. It is represented by a rather low, long line of ruin mounds, now known as Tell al-Hiba, which is northwest of the junction of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers and east of Uruk. It is positioned on the dry bed of an ancient canal.
