Lagash in the marsh

In Iraqi near-history the lowlands near the Furat of Mayshan / Basra were marshes. These marshes had few Bronze Age ruins on account the marshy earth was of post-Bronze-Age silt - yeah, it was Sumerian Gulf, in those times. Upstream is where were we find the cities of myth: like Tell al-Hiba, whose name "Lagash" SF fans remember from Asimov's Nightfall.

The lower marshes since got drained by Saddam of unblessed memory. So it goes.

Anyway to the extent the lowlands of the Bronze Age were upstream, it stands to reason they might have been the marshes of that era. Sumeria didn't get a Saddam to drain the whole swamp - until Lugal Zagesi perhaps, but he didn't reign long.

Bruce Bower says - yeah, Sumerian-era Lagash was a canal city. Like Venice - I'd actually prefer, like Tenochtitlan with a mix of Laconia and Rome. These were four hillocks as banded together 2900-600 BC. Whether by treaty between tribes or by violence; or by a mix - we might never know. But when the Akkadians found it in the later 2000s BC, it was a city of four solid mounds upon canals.

Lagash went out of business 1600 BC. That's about the Hittite / Hani-Rabbat sack of Babylon, ouster of Hammurabi's line, and ensuing invasion of the Kassites. Honestly the place was probably not a concern by then.