Water environments in Ur III Ĝirsu/Lagaš: from natural setting to economic resource

Abstract

The integration of local resources and products into the state-run flow of income was a crucial point within the economic agenda of Ur III policy. Besides the emphasis on agricultural production at large and on local irrigation systems, this also included the exploitation of other water environments, such as marshes, wetlands, and riverine areas, which were peculiar to some of the southern provinces, particularly Ĝirsu/Lagas. The management of these ecological niches involved either their transformation into pastures and arable land or the direct exploitation of the food supply available there: fish and fowl. Often neglected, these latter were as present in the Sumerian cultural landscape as in the contemporary economic output of the province. This paper aims to show, through the analysis of the textual record, how this economic manoeuvring dealt with the local landscape of the province of Ĝirsu/Lagas. Specifically, it will address two issues: the influence of “waterscapes” on the administrative geography of the region, which were the locations where these activities took place, and how the people in charge of them were integrated within the socio-economic network of Ur III society.