One of the most important capital cities of ancient Sumer, located midway between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in southeast Iraq. The city was founded in the prehistoric Ubaid Period, c 5200-3500 BC, and was still occupied as late as the Parthian era, 247 BC-224 AD. In the Early Dynastic Period, the Stele of the Vultures was erected to celebrate the victory of King Eannatum over the neighboring state of Umma. Control of Lagash fell to Sargon of Akkad (reigned c 2334-2279 BC). Lagash revived about 150 years later, prospering under Gudea, though they were nominally subject to the Guti, a people who controlled much of Babylonia from about 2230-2130. Lagash was endowed with many temples, including the Eninnu, House of the Fifty a seat of the high god Enlil. French excavators found at least 50,000 cuneiform texts which have proved one of the major sources for knowledge of Sumer in the 3rd millennium BC. Dedicatory inscriptions on stone and on bricks also have provided the chronological development of Sumerian art. The ancient name of the mound of Telloh was actually Girsu, while Lagash originally denoted a site southeast of Girsu, later becoming the name of the whole district and also of Girsu itself. The site continued into Old Babylonian times, though after its absorption into the Ur III state, it declined in importance.