The document from which we learn details of the sack of Lagash is a strange one.[56] It closely resembles in shape and writing the tablets of household accounts from the archive of the patesis, which date from the reigns of Urukagina and his immediate predecessors;[57] but the text inscribed upon it consists of an indictment of the men of Umma, drawn up in a series of short sentences, which recapitulate the deeds of sacrilege committed by them. It is not a royal nor an official inscription, and, so far as one can judge from its position when discovered by Commandant Cros, it does not seem to have been stored in any regular archive or depository. For it was unearthed, at a depth of about two metres below the surface of the soil, to the north of the mound which covered the most ancient constructions at Tello,[58] and no other tablets were found near it. Both from its form and contents the document would appear to have been the work of some priest, or scribe, who had formerly been in Urukagina's service; and we may picture him, after the sack of the city, giving vent to his feelings by enumerating the sacred buildings which had been profaned by the men of Umma, and laying the weight of the great sin committed upon the head of the goddess whom they and their patesi served. That the composition was written shortly after the fall of Lagash may be held to explain the absence of any historical setting or introduction; the city's destruction and the profanation of her shrines have so recently taken place that the writer has no need to explain the circumstances. He plunges at once into his accusations against the men of Umma, and the very abruptness of his style and the absence of literary ornament render their delivery more striking. The repetition of phrases and the recurrent use of the same formulæ serve only to heighten the cumulative effect of the charges he brings against the destroyers of his city.