This presentation introduces the pre-doctoral research project “Inter-Urban Relations and the Articulation of the Mesopotamian Alluvial Plain during the Early Dynastic Period”, outlining its methodology and preliminary outcomes. Through a comprehensive study of Early Dynastic III period (2600–2350 a.C.) cylinder seals and impressions from key sites — Warka (Uruk), Tell al-Muqqayar (Ur), Telloh (Girsu), Tell Fara (Suruppak) and Umm al-Aqarib (either Gišša or Early Dynastic Umma) — this research explores how identities and inter-urban interactions shaped social organisation and territorial articulation across Southern Mesopotamia.

The central hypothesis is that each city-state’s identity is reflected in its glyptic production. Due to their peculiar typology, seals and impressions are relevant for studying identity and inter-community relationships. Designed for practical use, their symbolic complexity increased progressively to encompass multiple levels of communication. Beyond administrative purposes, they functioned as prestige items, enabling individuals, social groups and institutions to develop strategies of self-representation in their interactions with other communities. Glyptic art adapted to each communicative context, both in content — through the re-elaboration of iconographic conventions without altering the underlying semantics — and in the crafting of its supports, whose materials and forms adjust to the preferences of each community. Analysed alongside epigraphic data, they allow the construction of network models and cognitive maps that reveal how communities perceived and organised their social and symbolic surroundings within broader cultural, religious, and symbolic frameworks.

Preliminary results indentify significant nodes of centrality, particularly within the state of Lagash, whose networks extend towards the Zagros and maritime trade routes while maintaining complex cooperative and competitive ties with neighbouring cities such as Umma and Suruppak. A triangle of culturally aligned urban centres (Suruppak, Adab, and Patibira) shares symbolic motifs and stylistic tendencies, suggesting ideological or religious affiliations. Despite its material richness and iconography, Ur appears as a peripheral node. Funerary contexts in the Royal Cemetery reveal hybrid imagery reflecting cultural intersections along the Euphrates basin. As a major harbour and redistributive hub, Ur maintained selective exchanges likely guided by ideological or religious affinities, possibly reinforced through communal feasts attested in the glyptic record. Overall, this research highlights the complexity of Early Dynastic inter-urban relationships and the potential of glyptic analysis to reveal social interaction and identity negotiation.

To conclude, attention will be drawn to the KIŠIB project fellowship, which supports this presentation, and to the NTSG project in Spain, dedicated to publishing the Géjou Collection tablets at the British Museum.

The long-term Academy project “KIŠIB - Digital Corpus of Ancient West Asian Seals and Sealings” is part of the Academies’ Programme, a research funding programme co-financed by the German federal government and individual federal states.