Urukagina

(more correctly, Uru’inimgina) King of Lagash in the second half of the 24th century B.C.

Urukagina implemented numerous reforms; for example, he put an end to abuses by palace officials and judges, reduced the taxes and obligations of people who served in temples, protected temple-estates from encroachments by palace officials, and reduced and regularized the payments imposed for holding rituals. In the seventh year of his reign he was defeated by Lugal-zaggesi, and some of the settlements of Lagash were destroyed.

Economic records from the time of Urukagina have been preserved in the temple of the goddess Bau. They have been translated into Russian by V. V. Struve (Khrestomatiia po istorii Drevnego Vostoka, Moscow, 1963, pp. 177–83) and by I. M. D’iakonov (“Reformy Urukaginy v Lagashe,” Vestnik drevnei istorii, 1951, no. 1).