THE FOREIGN TRIANGLE IN SOUTH-EASTERN MESOPOTAMIA

The province of Lagas, whose major towns/cities Lagas, Girsu and Nina each had several smaller villages surrounding them, had a major impact on the formation of the cultures of southern Mesopotamia. This article aims to reconstruct the richness of the variety of ancient cultures that could have had a great impact in the southern region between the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers. Three concepts are utilized in order to understand the cultural scenario of south-eastern Mesopotamia, namely linguistic syncretism, religious syncretism and ethnic syncretism. This approach will hopefully begin to untangle some ideas which could be valuable for future research in this regard.