Lagash: Archaeological Investigations at an early Mesopotamian City

[@chrisball3778]

The fact there are still many parts of Iraq's ancient cities yet to be excavated makes my spine tingle. Who knows what we might learn or discover in years to come?

[@artifactuallyspeaking]

Yes, it is truly incredible how much is still unknown, but also very inspiring as there is so much out there to learn!

[@christopherbilko9243]

@@artifactuallyspeaking hey dr brad hafford milo miniminuteman has just done a video on your video of his video. And you should check it out.

[@chrisball3778]

@@artifactuallyspeaking Keep on digging!

[@tenelum9865]

Found you through Miniminuteman. Your content is really awesome, man! I’ve always had a love for history and being able to learn about history from a professional is really cool. Keep it up!

[@Comrade_Uraqi]

Hello Mr I'm an Iraqi from Al Qadisiyah governorate, and I think you're well-aware of the ancient city of Nippur in said governorate, I hope you'd make a video about it to raise awareness and get more archaeologists interested in it, it's a sight still in need of lots of excavation. Thank you.

[@jacknaylor7581]

Excavations in Iraq feel so inaccessible to the public sometimes, and its not often information on excavations is released so soon. Thank you for recording this!

[@justheretowatchtheworldbur6611]

I'd be surprised of you didn't get a lot of this, but I'm here after watching miniminuteman's video. I'm planning to watch the original and many more. Your field is a fascinating one. Thank you for sharing your knowledge.

[@PvtPuplovski]

Incredible content, seeing the Lagash team use the recovered seal on new clay to read it was fun to see!

[@darkdeifan]

No way. When I was a kid I would read a comic called Nippur from Lagash. It’s great to see the work of studying it! and I didn’t know there was so much to an archaeological dig, amazing.

[@aaronyastreb8357]

Hi, got introduced to you and your channel via your reaction vid to miniminuteman. Just wanted to let you know he has done a reaction vid to your reaction vid. Thanks for all the interesting information you have posted, I'm looking forward to eventually catching up with all your content.

[@stefanielaris2173]

Eagerly watching for more updates to this Lagash expedition! Mesopotamia fascinates me so much.

[@sleeperboy221]

Miniminuteman Milo said to hit you with a subscription... love your work and wealth of knowledge. Plus you have this really calm demeanor which is nice for someone who is running high anxiety all the time.

[@jackdaniel4446]

How much has technology like drones and Google Earth become a part of day to day archaeology, and how much more have you been able to understand from a given site because of them? Do you have any goals to determine the relationship between Lagash and Girsu? Is anything known about the roads that may have joined the two? I know so little about this region and its ancient history, and I have so many more questions that are probably too basic to bother you with! This is all so very fascinating. Thank you for documenting it in this way.

[@rossjackson7352]

We have found that to do in-depth and accurate surveys; technology helps. But to advance archaeology to a point where it can "almost" be called a genuine science, we must ask Siri.

[@artifactuallyspeaking]

Glad you're interested! To begin to answer your questions: drones and satellite imagery are essential to archaeology now. Aerial photography and even kite or balloon photography has long been of assistance, but now drones are so much easier to use that we use them every day if we can. We can cover not just the site with good drone photos but also the surrounding area. This is leading to some clues to one of your other questions: possible roads connecting places. In Lagash, however, for part of its existence at least, they used boats to get around as it was so swampy. We definitely want to understand the relationship between Girsu and Lagash. These two sites, along with one to the south (Nigin) were all part of the city-state known as Lagash, so perhaps Lagash was the earliest center. Our main research questions center on Lagash's role and what activities transferred to other centers at what times.

[@LDrosophila]

thank you for the content

[@CalvinKalisto]

Milo from miniminuteman, just reacted to your reaction of his video. I honestly hope the two of you can collaborate on a future video.

[@martinavaslovik3433]

Marvelous video! Serious archaeology going on there. Lagash was a slaving city, and it's king, Eanatum would send his forces in the surrounding hills to capture their people to sell as slaves across the region growing wealthy in so doing. At one point he went to war with the neighboring city of Umma over a strip of farmland along a river and defeated them, killing over 3000 of their army, and then moved on to conquer still more territory establishing what some regard as the first true empire in history. It did not last. Lugal-Zage-Si of Umma gathered up an army and defeated him, and then utterly destroyed the city of Lagash.

[@elizabethford7263]

How did this JUST NOW come up in my feed? Im going to watch ALL THE VIDEOS. Im determined to return to archaeology when my children grow up and go off to University.

[@LadyMoonweb]

This is all very interesting. I sank into this one and was sorry it ended! I can't wait to see more.

[@anleverlfixedlmark]

Absolutely delightful content. Thanks

[@thellamalover4real]

This was a great informative video! Thanks for putting it together

[@alkasah4softs129]

keep up the great work

[@inyobill]

What an absolutely fascinating area to investigateand document.

[@hannahbrown2728]

Absolutely fantastic! The aerial images and the outline of the little impressions left by buildings always captivate me. Its so difficult to imagine just how busy itd be in that city, itd be amazing to see a speculative reconstuction done just to get something like a glimpse at what it couldve looked like in the past

[@officaldungeons]

Might I suggest getting your videos subtitled? Especially for parts when people are talking outside, I find it hard to hear, and the KZbin’s captions are only so good. Love the vids, tho!

[@interdictr3657]

More!

[@cmdrkeen5529]

Has any bead or early glass-work been discovered?

[@nealdalton1576]

Milo sent me and I'm glad he did good video!

[@FlameHawke]

Today I learned about: landscape archaeology. I'm here from Awful Archaeology and Miniminutman's channel. Awesome content. I've wondered- are these structures just the foundations or are they buried in this case?

[@artifactuallyspeaking]

Some structures are just visible on the surface, but most are buried at least somewhat and there are often even deeper structures that can only be revealed by excavation. Drone photos show alignments of walls that have eroded away and magnetometry can show walls below the surface, but not more than about a meter down. So it's a combination of things really.

[@sterling5052]

I absolutely revere your videos, thank you so much for creating these for us to enjoy, I would have never learned that I love Archaeology so much if it werent for stumbling across your videos one morning, ever since then I've been hooked. and ever since Milo did that reaction video to your reaction video of his video I've become even more interested. You lead me to find his channel and now both of you are apart of my days haha. Absolutely love the education you provide, I'm learning so much from you both, I'd love to see a collaboration between you two! that would be so incredible Maybe you two could do Reaction videos/analytical videos about movie scene Archaeology segwaying into the relative real life counterparts they might be mimicking or distorting. Idk, I'm not so good at comin up with Archaeology based video content hah, but I'd love to see what you guys would come up with! Keep up the awesome videos~

[@shadetreader]

I'm so glad these artifacts are staying in Iraq!

[@pattheplanter]

I look forward to seeing more from Lagash. By short, do you mean KZbin Shorts or 5 to 15 minute videos?

[@J_Z913]

Loved this. Is it common to have a city primarily focused on production and another of administration/religion? Or would that be a unique situation in southern Mesopotamia?

[@berttorpson2592]

Gotta get more royalty free music! I loved getting to hear the scope of landscape archeology, if you know any other youtubers who speak more about this I'd love to hear about it! I hope all is well for you and your team

[@Eyes_Open]

Interesting topic. Thanks.

[@Rednecknerd_rob9634]

@7:28, I like Hayder Saad's hat.

[@radhawe]

Interesting thanks

[@dennisrydgren]

Love it!

[@Bronze-AgeSigma]

My homie Eannatum hometown! 𒉢𒁓𒆷𒆠!

[@cmdrkeen5529]

Were streets laid down? Or were they more of a compacted surface from pedestrian activity? If they were laid, was there a specific type of material used (same/different from local environment?)

[@cmdrkeen5529]

Did the Lagash dwellers have a plan for city layout?

[@JohnVander70]

Is there an evidence of Mesopotamian people migrating to Egypt during the Chalcolithic? I saw a video that suggested that Dynasty 0 (in Egypt) had some cultural parallels with parts of Mesopotamia.

[@artifactuallyspeaking]

There are some who say that there was early contact between Mesopotamia and Egypt. I believe there is at least some minor evidence, but it's not my specialty and so I can't really come down for or against the theory. I think it is possible, but very hard to prove definitively.

[@cmdrkeen5529]

Would LIDAR be of use at sites like this?

[@Kilgorio]

Wow

[@Cat_Woods]

As inspiring and exciting as this is, I find myself also appalled and weighed down with sadness at how "political events" can destroy, damage and delay the science of archeology and our understanding of history. It feels like an uncanny euphemism for the worst in humanity. But I suppose as the digs progress, we also find that this is not new. I can't help but imagine what we would know and be as human society if every generation had prioritized the recording and preserving of history, as far as possible, over things like conquest and killing enemies.

[@inyobill]

Hmmm, apparently an actual contributor to the team, not juts a state-appointed drone taking crdeit for the work actually performed by others. I could mentio9n name(s), but given that my opinion is driven strictly by media, I am not comfortable naming names.

[@Jacstaoisitio]

Who pays all these people to do this and where does the money come from? Tuition? Does this explain why tuition is so exoensive?

[@artifactuallyspeaking]

We spend much of our time writing grant proposals to federal agencies such as the National Science Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities. We also work with other countries; for example, at Lagash we work with Italian archaeologists who write grant proposals to the European Union. So, there are typically many funding angles and only small amounts come from the universities involved.

[@kc3718]

funny how the more anglo saxon looking archaeologists embrace the middle eastern garb and the western dress by the more middle eastern folk, whilst a third sector is occupied by the ' i want to appear in the guise of a certain holywood action hero' despite also wanting to appear as a serious archaeologist.... material assemblage interpretation confusion right there !

[@jonathand6231]

𝓹𝓻𝓸𝓶𝓸𝓼𝓶 🍀