Girsu (Sumerian . cuneiform ) was a city of ancient Sumer, situated some northwest of Lagash, at the site of what is now Tell Telloh in Dhi Qar Governorate, Iraq. Because of the initial velar nasal ŋ, the transcription of Ĝirsu is sometimes spelled as Ngirsu (also: G̃irsu, Girsu, Jirsu). As the religious center of the kingdom of Lagash, it contained significant temples to the god Ningirsu (E-ninnu) and his wife Bau and hosted multi-day festivals in their honor. Jongsma-Greenfield, Tina, et al., "Sacred Space and Ritual Behaviour in Ancient Mesopotamia: A View from Tello/Girsu", Humans 4.3, pp. 239-263, 2024Sébastien Rey, 'Divine Cults in the Sacred Precinct of Girsu', Near Eastern Archaeology; Chicago, vol. 84, iss. 2, pp. 130–139, June 2021
History
The city lay on a branch of the ancient Iturungal canal, the southern of two major east west canals in Mesopotamia, that also runs to Niĝin and then to Gu'abba. Jacobsen, Thorkild, "A Survey of Girsu the (Telloh) Region", Sumer 25, pp. 103–09, 1969Thorkild Jacobsen, "The Waters of Ur", Toward the Image of Tammuz and Other Essays on Mesopotamian History and Culture, Cambridge, MA and London, England: Harvard University Press, pp. 231-244, 1970
Radiocarbon dating indicates that the canals running in and through Girsu date back to at least the Early Dynastic I period and went out of use after the Isin-Larsa period (2000–1800 BC). Egberts, Ella, et al. "Dating ancient canal systems using radiocarbon dating and archaeological evidence at Tello/Girsu, southern Mesopotamia, Iraq." Radiocarbon 65.4, pp. 979-1002, 2023
Girsu was inhabited in the Ubaid 4 (4900-4500 BC) and also the Uruk period (4200-3200 BC), with beveled rim bowls, the diagnostic pottery of that period being found.Potts, Daniel, "Bevel-Rim Bowls and Bakeries: Evidence and Explanations from Iran and the Indo-Iranian Borderlands", Journal of Cuneiform Studies, vol. 61, pp. 1–23, 2009 Significant levels of activity began in the Early Dynastic period (2900-2335 BC). After a brief hiatus occupation resumed in the Early Dynastic I period, continuing during the Akkadian Empire. After the decline of that empire local control of the Girsu/Lagash area was asserted under the Second Dynasty of Lagash. Maiocchi, Massimo, and Visicato Giuseppe, "Administration at Girsu in Gudea’s Time", Vol. 27. Edizioni Ca'Foscari, 2020 At the time of Gudea, during the Second Dynasty of Lagash, Girsu became the capital of the Lagash kingdom and continued to be its religious center after political power had shifted to the city of Lagash. During the Ur III period, Girsu was a major administrative center for the empire. During the Old Babylonian period Rim-Sîn II, ruler of Larsa c. 1742 BC to 1739 BC (MC), led a rebellion by a number of southern cities against the First Dynasty of Babylon which at that time was led by Samsu-iluna.Jean-Jacques Glassner, Benjamin R. Foster, "Mesopotamian chronicles", Brill, Boston, 2005 The rebellious cities included Girsu.Marine Béranger, "Dur-Abi-ešuh and the Abandonment of Nippur During the Late Old Babylonian Period: A Historical Survey", Journal of Cuneiform Studies 75, pp. 27-47, 2023 First Sealand dynasty, c. 1796–1524 BC (MC), pottery has been found at Girsu.Al-Hamdani, A., "The Settlement and Canal Systems During the First Sealand Dynasty (1721–1340 BCE)", S. Paulus & T. Clayden (Ed.), Babylonia under the Sealand and Kassite Dynasties, Berlin, pp. 28–57, 2020 Girsu was then abandoned aropund 1600 BC until occupation resumed in the Hellenistic period Parthian periods before ending around 200 BC. A 4th century BC bilingual Greek/Aramaic inscription was found there.Naveh J., "The Development of the Aramaic Script (Proceedings of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities 5/1)", Jerusalem, 1970
A few ruler year names mention Girsu, Pirig-me of Lagash II "Year the royal measuring rope of the fields kept in Girsu was brought out", Ur III ruler Shulgi "Year the Ehalbi, (the palace) of the king, was built (in Girsu)", and Larsa ruler Gungunum "Year the canal of Girsu (called) 'Baba is abundance' was dug".Girsu year names - CDLI
Archaeology The site consists of two main mounds, one rising 50 feet above the plain and the other 56 feet. Analysis of 1968 CORONOA satellite images indicated the site has an area of about 130 hectares. A number of small mounds dot the site. The mounds are designated Tell A through Tell Y with most of them having little or no archaeological significance. The notable mounds areRey, Sébastien, and Camille Lecompte, "Resurrecting Tello (ancient Girsu): the topographical layout of an Early Dynastic Sumerian city", New agendas in remote sensing and landscape archaeology in the Near East. Studies in Honour of Tony J. Wilkinson, pp. 213-227, 2020 Tell A - Mound of the Palace. Topped by the palace of an obscure Hellenistic period (alternately Aramaic Period) ruler Adad-Nadin-Akhe based on the inscribed Adadnadinakhe bricks. The palace included a number of reused early inscribed diorite statues of Gudea. Wood, Rachel, and Rachel Wood, "After the Achaemenids: exchange, transmission and transformation in the visual culture of Babylonia, Iran and Bactria c. 330-c. 100 BC.", Dissertation, Oxford University, UK, 2012 Modern excavations revealed under it a temple precinct including the E-ninnu temple of NingirsuHeimpel, Wolfgang, "The Gates of the Eninnu", Journal of Cuneiform Studies, vol. 48, pp. 17–29, 1996 Tell B - Early Dynastic buildings and tablets Tell K - Maison des Fruits, a 10.5 meter by 7.30 meter temple built by Early Dynastic ruler Ur-Nanshe. It was built atop an unidentified earlier construction sealed by a 70 centimeter clay layer which the excavators named the Construction Inférieure. A number of foundation tablets and two inscribed door sockets were found Tsouparopoulou, Christina, "The Early Dynastic “Maison des Fruits” at Tell K in Tello (Ĝirsu)", Bulletin of the American Society of Overseas Research 391.1, pp. 191-225, 2024Harriet Crawford, "The Construction Inférieure at Tello. A Reassessment", Iraq, vol. 49, pp. 71–76, 1987 Tells L/M - near city wall, temple associated structures and cones Tell P - Porte du Diable Cros, Gaston, "Nouvelles fouilles de Tello, par le commandant Gaston Cros", Paris:Leroux, 1914 Tell V - Location of the temple of Ningešzida and the area of the site called Tablet Hill as many cuneiform tablets have been found there. Thomas, Ariane, and Laurent Colonna d'Istria, "Le temple de Ningešzida à Girsu", Akkadica: Revue Semestrielle de la Fondation Assyriologique Georges Dossin 2, pp. 105-148, 2019
Telloh was the first Sumerian site to be extensively excavated, at first under the French vice-consul at Basra, Ernest de Sarzec, in eleven campaigns between 1877 and 1900. Between excavation seasons the site was subject to extensive looking and an estimated 35 to 40 thousand cuneiform tablets entered the antiquities market.Caubet, A., "The historical context of the Sumerian discoveries", Museum International 61, pp. 74–80, 2009 He was followed by his successor Gaston Cros from 1903–1909. All finds were divided between the Archaeological Museum of Istanbul and the Louvre Museum in Paris,Sarzec, E. de, Arthur Amiaud LéonHeuzey, and François Thureau-Dangin, "Découvertes en Chaldée", Paris: E. Leroux, 1912 Finds included an alabaster statue of a woman, with copper bracelets coated in gold and a fragment of a stone lion carved dish with a partial Sumerian inscription. In 1879 the site was visited by Hormuzd Rassam.Verderame, Lorenzo, "Rassam’s Activity in Tello (1879) and the Earliest Acquisition of Neo-Sumerian Tablets in the British Museum", on the Third Dynasty of Ur. Studies in Honor of Marcel Sigrist. ed. by Piotr Michalowski, Boston: American Schools of Oriental Research, 2008 (Journal of Cuneiform Studies supplemental series 1), 2008 Also found were two steatite statue portions (AO 00036 + Ist EŞEM 00438) with inscriptions by the Ur III ruler Shulgi dedicated to the local god Igalim.Claudia E. Suter, "A Shulgi Statuette from Tello", Journal of Cuneiform Studies, vol. 43/45, pp. 63–70, (1991–1993)
Excavations continued under Abbé Henri de Genouillac in 1929–1931 and under André Parrot in 1931–1933. Abbé Henri de Genouillac, "Fouilles de Telloh I: Epoques présargo-niques", Paris, 1934 Abbé Henri de Genouillac, "Fouilles de Telloh II: Epoques d'Ur III Dynastie et de Larsa, avec un appendice sur les fouilles de Médaïn", Paris, 1936 It was at Girsu that the fragments of the Stele of the Vultures were found. The site has suffered from poor excavation standards and also from illegal excavations. About 50,000 cuneiform tablets have been recovered from the site. Barton, George A, "Haverford Library Collection, Cuneiform Tablets, Documents From The Temple Archives Of Telloh, Part I", The John C Winston Company, Philadelphia PA, 1901 Barton, George A, "Haverford Library Collection, Cuneiform Tablets, Documents From The Temple Archives Of Telloh, Part II", The John C Winston Company, Philadelphia PA, 1905 Barton, George A, Haverford Library Collection, Cuneiform Tablets, Documents From The Temple Archives Of Telloh, Part III, The John C Winston Company, Philadelphia PA, 1914
Excavations at Telloh resumed in 2016 as part of a training program for Iraqi archaeologists organized by the British Museum.The Iraq Emergency Heritage Management Training Scheme: an update - British Museum A foundation tablet and a number of inscribed building cones have been found. In the 5th season, in autumn 2019, work concentrated on the Mound of the Palace where E-ninnu, a temple to Ningirsu, had been found in earlier seasons.Rey, Sebastien, "Tello/Girsu: first results of the autumn 2019 archaeological season", Sumer Journal of Archaeology of Iraq, 66, 2020Rey, Sébastien, "The Temple of Ningirsu: The Culture of the Sacred in Mesopotamia", Eisenbrauns, 2024 In March 2020, archaeologists announced the discovery of a 5,000-year-old cultic area filled with more than 300 broken ceremonial ceramic cups, bowls, jars, animal sacrifices, and ritual processions dedicated to Ningirsu. One of the remains was a duck-shaped bronze figurine with eyes made from bark which is thought to be dedicated to Nanshe. An Indus Valley weight was also found. In February 2023, archaeologists from British Museum and Getty Museum revealed the remains of the 4,500 year-old Sumerian Lord Palace of the Kings alongside more than 200 cuneiform tablets containing administrative records of Girsu. The E-ninnu temple (Temple of the White Thunderbird), the primary sanctuary of the Sumerian warrior god Ningirsu was also identified during the excavations. In the 2024 season 200 cuneiform tablets (including school texts) and 60 clay sealings from the Akkadian Empire period were found. Sealings include one which said "Naram-Sin, the mighty, god of Akkad, king of the four quarters (of the world): Lugal-ushumgal, the scribe, governor, your servant".Ancient Mesopotamian clay tablets discovered in Iraq reveal intricate details of how empire was governed - The Art Newspaper - 20 March 2025 A number of the interpretations of the current excavators have been challenged.Claudia E. Suter, "Review - The Temple of Ningirsu: The Culture of the Sacred in Mesopotamia by S. Rey", Bulletin of the American Society of Overseas Research 394, pp. 241-243, 2025
Along with archaeology the site is also being stabilized, required after the early excavations and looting, and prepared for tourism.In the Spotlight – the Girsu Project with Sébastien Rey - IAA - 23-02-2026
In 2023, British Museum experts have suggested the possibility that a Hellenistic shrine at Girsu was founded by Alexander the Great, built atop the ruins of E-ninnu. According to the researchers, recent discoveries suggest that "this site honours Zeus and two divine sons. The sons are Heracles and Alexander."
Anzagar Referred to as Anzagar-Umma (An-za-gar3-Ummaki). An-za-gar3 translates to