Ricerc@Sapienza

The Italian Archaeological Expedition to Nigin of Sapienza University of Rome and University of Perugia started excavations at Tell Zurghul in 2015: a survey and three excavations seasons were carried out in the period between 2016 and 2017. This volume presents the results of the archaeological explorations with the analysis of the stratigraphic and architectural contexts of Area A, B and D as well as the study of the pottery from the contexts so far investigated and the survey in Area C in the western sector of the site.
Tell Zurghul is a site of about 70 ha in the modern province of Dhi Qar in Southern Iraq: it belongs, together with Tello/Girsu and al-Hiba/Lagaš, to the ancient State of Lagaš: starting from the very beginning of the 3rd millennium BC, Tell Zurghul can in fact be identified with the ancient Sumerian city of Nigin. Cuneiform sources dating from the first and second dynasties of Lagaš testify the intensive building activities of the rulers, mainly related to the important temple dedicated to the city goddess Nanše. In fact, Nigin was an important religious centre of the ancient State of Lagaš, and Gudea states that he purposely dug a canal from Girsu to Nigin (the so-called “Canal going to Nigin”) he regularly used to
reach the city on the occasion of festivals, ceremonies and visits to the temple. The regulation of water, with the digging of canals and the management of the area of the marshes around the settlement, is an activity that involved, at several times, the rulers of
Lagaš: in this respect, it is interesting to point out that Nanše, the patron deity of Nigin, is not only Enki’s daughter, but she is specifically linked to aquatic species, birds and fish, with a clear indication of the importance of the ancient environment and landscape for the development and growth of the city.
The importance of the shape and features of the ancient environment and landscape has been at the centre of the archaeological investigations at Tell Zurghul: next to archaeological operations, the programme of research also encompassed the study of the ancient landscape, pointing to the reconstruction of the waterscape of the ancient State of Lagaš, in particularly for what concerns the proximity of the sea and, more importantly, the phenomenon of the sea ingression that occurred in the Early- and Mid-Holocene period (about 6500-6000 yr BP). The reconstruction so far made showed that Tell Zurghul was in fact in the middle of a lagoon system of brackish water, an environment that favoured the life of species, such as the bull sharks, whose vertebrae have been found in the archaeological context of Area B.
The site had already been briefly investigated, in 1887, by Robert Koldewey during his visit to southern Iraq in the region of the ancient State of Lagaš: his works concentrated on the two mounds, with two narrow and deep soundings, and in other areas of the site (along the North-Western side and in the space in between the two mounds). Unfortunately, little information of his works is known: Koldewey published only one report, but he does not properly give any useful archaeological information, his conclusions on the nature and chronology of the site are misleading and untenable.
The explorations so far conducted, for example, on the two mounds (Area B and Area D), definitely showed a different pattern and picture of the occupation and development of the site. On the one hand, excavations of the top and South-Western slope of Mound B revealed the superimposition of at least 5 architectural phases of a sacred building dating from the Ubaid 4 period, with the recovery of typical Ubaid findings such as clay cones, black painted vessels, clay sickles and both painted and unpainted censers. On the other, excavations on the Southern slope of the main Mound A, to the South of the soundings made by Koldewey, a system of artificial terracing has been identified: terraces and