Recently Deciphered 4,500-Year-Old Pillar Shows First Known Record of a Border Dispute | Smart News

Finkel believes the pillar was artificially aged by a scribe to improve Lagash’s historical claim to Gu’edina. It appears the scribe also used an archaic form of cuneiform to make the pillar seem older, which made the modern interpretation effort difficult.

The fight between Umma and Lagash is one of the oldest known wars in human history and led to what may be the world’s first peace treaty and one of the oldest legal documents, the Treaty of Mesilim, signed around 2550 B.C. The treaty set up a border that was demarcated with a stele along an irrigation canal, similar to the one on view in the museum.

The peace did not last. Around 2400 B.C., the war between Enmetena and Gishakidu took place, and the boundary was reaffirmed. Eventually, Umma attacked Lagash and successfully destroyed its capital city of Girsu, not long before Sargon the Great took over all of Mesopotamia, paying no heed to even the snarkiest of boundary stones.