Second Workshop PRIN 2017: Fluid Crescent. Water and life in the societies of the Ancient Near Est. Rome May 19th 2022, Museo del vicino Oriente, Egitto e Mediterraneo. Sapienza Università di Roma – Palazzo del rettorato. P.le Aldo Moro 5, Roma

Tell Zurghul, the ancient Sumerian Nigin in the ancient State of Lagash, is currently excavated by a joint Italian archaeological expedition of Sapienza University of Rome and University of Perugia since 2014. The paper presents the results of the most recent excavation campaigns carried out in 2016 and 2017 covering three areas (A, B, and D) in the central region of the site and a survey carried out along the western edge of the city (Area C). Recent agreements with the Department of Geology of both Perugia and Rome aimed at the study of the hydro-geological morphology of the site with special focus on the investigation of the areas once covered by water, i.e. the presence of marshes and canals, as the same Gudea of Lagash mentions in his inscriptions. Furthermore, the study also encompasses the analysis of the ancient shape of the city across time, from the Ubaid to the late third/beginning of the second Millennium BC.

The paper is based on the results of the third excavation campaign carried out in 2017, covering areas A and B in the central region of the site. In particular, it preliminarily presents the architectural features and findings from current excavations: Area B, on the top of Mound B, and Area A, at the southern base of Mound A. The excavations of the Italian Archaeological Expedition showed that the site was first settled during the Ubaid Period; evidence from the Late Uruk, Jemdet Nasr, and Early Dynastic I periods has also been discovered in the Lower City, while on the top of Mound A, evidence of remains of the la phase of occupation of the city dated to the Neo-Sumerian Period (Gudea’skingdom) is registered.