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The Stele of Vultures
Artifact: Stone stele
Provenience: Girsu, modern Tello
Period: ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340)
Current location: Louvre Museum, Paris
Text genre, language: Royal inscription; Sumerian
CDLI page
Description: The object consists now of fragments of the large lime-stone stela, originally about 180 cm tall. The stela got its name from a depiction of vultures preying on dead enemies as part of a depiction of a battle. The badly damaged stela has been interpreted as having had a ‘historical’ side, depicting the king of Lagash, Eannatum, battling his city’s archenemy, Umma, and a ‘mythological’ side depicting the chief god of Lagash, Ningirsu, intervening on behalf of his city. The stela is inscribed with a very long, but fragmentary text, describing both the battles between Lagash and Umma, and various other events.
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