Tell site north of Ur in southern Mesopotamia, long thought to be the city of Lagash but more recently identified as Girsu. Girsu was possibly a religious center within the state of Lagash. It is important for the vast number of cuneiform tablets found there which depict the economic, social, and political aspects of the Early Dynastic III and Ur III periods in Sumer. There are fine statues of Gudea, governor of Lagash in the 22nd century BC. Most of the finds belong to the 3rd millennium BC, from the Early Dynastic, Akkadian and Ur III periods. It was occupied from the late 'Ubaid to Old Babylonian times and has a late 1st millennium BC palace.