Girsu (Sumerian Ĝirsu) is a busy city of ancient Sumer, Mesopotamia, beginning c. 5300 BCE. Today, it's called Tell Telloh in Iraq. Tello is the Arabic name for the site. A bridge of baked bricks uncovered at the city is considered the oldest in the world.
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One of the earliest known cities, Girsu is inhabited in the Ubaid period c. 5300 - 4800 BCE. During this Neolithic time, advances in agriculture and animal breeding turn progress toward the urbanization of community hubs, and organization of people and resources.
Written language is not invented for another two thousand years. Sumerian is the first written language, a cuneiform style using impressions in clay with a triangular stylus. The clay is then air-dried in the sun.
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Although the culture is still tribal a more sedentary lifestyle takes hold. Animal domestication and selective breeding are in practice as far as Anatolia in the north, and down to the Zagros Mountains in what is now western Iran.
In the Early Dynastic period c. 2900 - 2335 BCE, Girsu perks up. Archaeologists find signs of increased activity at the site. In the time of King Gudea, during the Second Dynasty of Lagash c. 2330 - 2110 BCE, Girsu becomes capital of the Lagash kingdom.
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Girsu blossoms into a vital religious hub. Even after political power shifts to the city of Lagash, Girsu continues to hold a strong position as a center of worship. The temple complex at Girsu is only partially unearthed today.
During the Ur III period c. 2193 - 2004 BCE, Girsu becomes a major administrative and government center for the empire. After the fall of Ur, Girsu diminishes in significance.
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With a good location, fertile land and an urban investment, Girsu remains inhabited until c. 200 BCE. A 4th century BCE bilingual Greek/Aramaic inscription was found there.
The ancient Bridge of Girsu, now in ruins, is built over a canal in the ancient Sumerian city in the 3rd millennium BCE. The canal is up to 100 ft (30.5 m) wide in places. The bridge spanned a narrow gap of about twelve feet (3.6 m).
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Inscriptions on the bricks dedicate the structure to Ningirsu, also a god of thunder, spring rain, rainstorms, floods, the plough and ploughing.
Major burial sites include two main mounds. One is one rising 50 ft (15m) above the plain and the other 56 ft (17 ft). The site also comprises several small mounds.
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Telloh is the first Sumerian site to be extensively excavated, beginning in the Victorian era of the nineteenth century. Early finds include an alabaster statue of a woman, with copper bracelets coated in gold. A fragment of a lion carved vessel inscribed in Sumerian is also found.
In March 2020, archaeologists are delighted to discover a 5,000-year-old cultic area containing over 300 broken ceramic cups of ceremonial type, bowls, jars, animal sacrifices, and ritual processions dedicated to the god Ningirsu (Ninurta).
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One of the remains is a duck-shaped bronze figurine with eyes made from bark which is thought to be dedicated to Nanshe. She's the Sumerian goddess of the sea, marshlands, the animals inhabiting these, such as birds, freshwater frogs, turtles and fish.
She's also a goddess of divination, dream interpretation, justice. On top of that, she's patron of social welfare and some administrative duties. Social welfare does exist, in Nippur for example, with state care given to widows and orphans. Burial sites have been found for people who had been in situations of receiving care.
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An Indus Valley weight is also found in Girsu. Other Indus Valley items appear in nearby Kish, confirming early trade between Mesopotamians traveling by sea and the region which is now largely Pakistan. Indus Valley is one of the major civilizations of the ancient world.
At Girsu archaeologists identify the E-ninnu temple (Temple of the White Thunderbird), the primary sanctuary of the Sumerian warrior god Ninurta. Ninurta is an agricultural deity before he develops warrior traits, reflecting the outlook and condition of society through time.
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Archaeologists also reveal remains of the 4,500-year-old Sumerian Lord Palace of Kings. It holds more than 200 cuneiform tablets with administrative records of Girsu.
Excavations are still in progress. Archaeologists continue to be delighted.
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From the British Museum:
"Declassified 1960s Corona satellite images and modern drones are used to create digital elevation models of the temple site. This helps us to identify and then unearth extensive mudbrick walls, some ornamented with pilasters and inscribed cones, belonging to the four-thousand-year-old temple dedicated to Ningirsu.
"The temple was considered one of the most important sacred places of Mesopotamia, praised for its magnificence in many contemporary literary compositions. More than fifteen inscribed cones were found in its walls.
"The recording of the exact location of each cone reveals that they were laid in a complex pattern. We're currently analyzing the pattern to establish whether it encodes information of magical/religious significance.
"Among the unique finds was a foundation box inserted below one of the principal gates of the Eninnu sacred complex. It still contained a white stone ritual tablet belonging to the ruler Gudea.
"And excavations under the temple also led to the discovery of two superimposed monumental platforms. The oldest, made of red mudbricks and built in two steps, may be dated to the beginning of the third millennium BC.
"This is an important discovery since this proto-ziggurat, a precursor to the legendary Tower of Babel, would pre-date the earliest-known Mesopotamian stepped-terrace by a few hundred years."
Finds from the site are sent to the Iraq Museum in Baghdad.
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