Eannatum in the context of "Ur-Lumma"

Near Eastern archaeology is a regional branch of the wider, global discipline of archaeology. It refers generally to the excavation and study of artifacts and material culture of the Near East from antiquity to the recent past.

The phalanx (pl.: phalanxes or phalanges) was a rectangular mass military formation, usually composed entirely of heavy infantry armed with spears, pikes, sarissas, or similar polearms tightly packed together. The term is used today to describe the use of this formation in ancient Greek warfare, but ancient Greek writers used it more broadly to describe any massed infantry formation regardless of its equipment. In Greek texts, the phalanx may be deployed for battle, on the march, or even camped, thus describing the mass of infantry or cavalry that would deploy in line during battle. They marched forward as one entity.

The term itself, as used today, does not refer to a distinctive military unit or division (e.g., the Roman legion or the contemporary Western-type battalion), but to the type of formation of an army's troops. Therefore, this term does not indicate a standard combat strength or composition but includes the total number of infantry, which is deployed in a single formation known as a "phalanx".

The Stele of the Vultures is a monument from the Early Dynastic IIIb period (2600–2350 BC) in Mesopotamia celebrating a victory of the city-state of Lagash over its neighbour Umma. It shows various battle and religious scenes and is named after the vultures that can be seen in one of these scenes. The stele was originally carved out of a single slab of limestone, but only seven fragments are known to have survived up to the present day. The fragments were found at Tello (ancient Girsu) in southern Iraq in the 1880s and are now on display in the Louvre. The stele was erected as a monument to the victory of king Eannatum of Lagash over Ush, king of Umma. It is the earliest known war monument.

Lumma was a Mesopotamian god who could be portrayed as a warrior or as a farmer. It has been proposed that he was originally understood as the deified form of historical king Eannatum of Lagash, but this theory remains a matter of dispute among researchers. He could be paired with Ḫadaniš, and together they belonged to the group of deities associated with Enlil and the temple Ekur. The goddess Ninmug could be described as his mother. The worship of Lumma is best documented in Umma and Nippur. One of the kings of the former of these two cities bore the theophoric name Ur-Lumma.

The E-ninnu 𒂍𒐐 (House of 50) was the E (temple) to the warrior god Ningirsu in the Sumerian city of Girsu in southern Mesopotamia. Girsu was the religious centre of a state that was named Lagash after its most populous city, which lay 25 km (16 mi) southeast of Girsu. Rulers of Lagash who contributed to the structure of the E-ninnu included Ur-Nanshe of Lagash in the late 26th century BC, his grandson Eannatum in the following century, Urukagina in the 24th century and Gudea, ruler of Lagash in the mid 22nd century BC.

The site has yielded inscribed bricks naming Ur-Nanshe and Eannatum, but most bricks date from the restoration effected by Gudea. The Gudea cylinders, perhaps the longest surviving text written in the Sumerian language, give a semi-mythical account of the building of the temple, along with a description of the rituals and symbols associated with E-ninnu.