Ancient Lagash, pp. 115-122, 2022/12/27
Proceedings of the Workshop held at the 10th ICAANE in Vienna, April 2016
Tell al-Hiba, ancient Lagash, was one of the largest settlements in southern Mesopotamia during the second half of the 3rd millennium BC and one of three major cities in the eponymous city-state of Lagash. The Tell al-Hiba Expedition, a joint project of the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, conducted six seasons of fieldwork at the site between 1968 and 1990. The excavations uncovered extensive remains from the 3rd and 2nd millennia BC, including two temple complexes and a craft production center. Thus far, this work has only appeared in preliminary reports. The Tell al-Hiba Publication Project, led by Holly Pittman, is currently producing the final reports on the Expedition’s discoveries. In this paper, we summarize the history of excavations at Tell al-Hiba and discuss the methodology and goals of the project.
Keywords: City-state of Lagash, Tell al-Hiba, relational databases, publication of archival materials, Tell al-Hiba Publication Project
