Larsa

Larsa (also Larag or Larak, modern Tell as-Senkereh, Iraq, possibly the Biblical Ellasar), was an important city of ancient Sumer. It lies some 25 km southeast of the ruin mounds of Uruk (biblical Erech), near the east bank of the Shatt-en-Nil canal (modern day southern Iraq).

Larsa is mentioned in Sumerian inscriptions as early as the time of Ur-GurFact|date=February 2008, 2700 or 2800 BCFact|date=February 2008, who built or restored the ziggurat of E-babbara, the temple of Utu, the sun god.

History

According to the Sumerian king list, Larsa was one of the five cities to "exercise kingship" in pre-dynastic times (before ca. 2900 BC).

The city again became a political force during the so-called Isin-Larsa period. After the Third Dynasty of Ur collapsed ca. 1940 BC, Ishbi-Erra, an official of Ibbi-Sin, the last king of the Ur III Dynasty, relocated to Isin and set up a government which purported to be the successor to the Ur III dynasty. From there Ishbi-Erra recaptured Ur as well as the cities of Uruk and Lagash, which Larsa was subject to. Subsequent Isin rulers appointed governors to rule over Lagash; one such governor was an Amorite named Gungunum. He eventually broke with Isin and established an independent dynasty in Larsa. To legitimize his rule and deliver a blow to Isin, Gungunum captured the city of Ur. As the main center of trade with the Persian gulf, Isin lost an enormously important portal to a profitable trade route, not to mention a city with much cultic significance. Beyond these few details, the precise reason for Gungunum's break with Isin are largely unknown. One group of scholars theorizes that Isin's internal problems were to blame; it does seem that Isin's rulers allowed the once burgeoning irrigation and agricultural systems to wane. It is possible this was due to sheer neglect, but there is evidence that acquiring access to water in this arid region posed quite a problem for most of southern Mesopotamia in this period.

Gungunum's two successors, Abisare (ca. 1841 - 1830 BC) and Sumu-el (ca. 1830 - 1801 BC), both took steps to cut Isin completely off from access to canals. After this period, Isin quickly lost political and economical force.

Larsa grew powerful, but it never accumulated a huge tract of land. At its peak under king Rim-Sin I (ca. 1758 - 1699 BC), Larsa controlled only about 10-15 other city-states, nowhere near the territory controlled by other dynasties in Mesopotamian history. Nevertheless, huge building projects and agricultural undertakings can be validated by archaeological evidence.

Archaeology

William Loftus conducted excavations at this site in 1854. [ [http://www.archive.org/download/travelsresearche00loft/travelsresearche00loft.pdf] WIlliam Loftus, Travels and researches in Chaldæa and Susiana; with an account of excavations at Warka, the Erech of Nimrod, and Shúsh, Shushan the Palace of Esther, in 1849-52, J. Nisbet and Co., 1857] He describes the ruins as consisting of a low, circular platform, about convert|4.5|mi|km in circumference, rising gradually from the level of the plain to a central mound convert|70|ft|m|abbr=on. high. This represents the ancient ziggurat of the temple of E-babbara, which was in part explored by Loftus. From the inscriptions found there it appears that, besides the kings already mentioned, Hammurabi, Burna-buriash and Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon restored or rebuilt the temple to Shamash. The excavations at Senkereh were peculiarly successful in the discovery of inscribed remains, consisting of clay tablets, chiefly contracts, but including also an important mathematical tablet and a number of tablets of a description almost peculiar to Senkereh, exhibiting in bas-relief scenes of everyday life. Loftus found also the remains of an ancient Babylonian cemetery. From the ruins it would appear that Senkereh ceased to be inhabited at or soon after the Persian conquest.

Kings of Larsa

:(short chronology)

Notes

References

*1911

ee also

*Cities of the ancient Near East
*short chronology timeline