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Urukagina
Urukagina was king of the city-states of Lagash and Girsu in Mesopotamia, and the last ruler of the 1st Dynasty of Lagash. Lagash and Girsu were located in the southeast corner of modern Iraq, operating as city-states organized around a king and priesthood. Urukagina assumed the title of king, claiming to have been divinely appointed, upon the downfall of his corrupt predecessor, Lugalanda. While Lugalanda is describ
PeopleUrukagina
Urukagina stands as the first recorded reformer who tried to roll back the abuses of power, proclaiming protections for widows, orphans, and the poor against predatory elites. In asserting that rulers exist to curb injustice rather than profit from it, he introduced a foundational idea of liberty: government as a restraint on power, not merely its instrument. In Urukagina’s code preserved on a stone tablet is the first written reference to the concept of liberty, amagi, found next to the inscription of Urukagina on the east wall of the Goodrich Seminar Room.