Tel Amstar

A large and unusually populous lamassu, Tell Asmar is the easternmost district still considered a part of 'central' Uruk. It lacks prestige, but a number of essential trades and services are practised there: Uruk's largest slaughterhouses and tanneries are on Tell Asmar, as well as the principle guilds comprising the city's (relatively small) timber and woodworking industries

It has also been a source of building stone - Lamassu stone being favoured for important masonry, and limited in availability - due both to its size and the extensive excavation work carried out in its depths.

The Mystery of Tell Asmar
This work is largely the consequence of the 'Mystery of Tell Asmar' - the identity of the lamassu itself. Heavily dilapidated, the only feature of the beast that can be agreed upon is that it has four limbs; even these are oddly-jointed, and (according to some theories, at least) so worn down that most scholars balk at calling them 'legs' (some academics having made a case that Tel Asmar's true form is that of a great bird, or four-limbed dragon of some description).

The weathering is so great that external examination is widely considered useless, and so many research teams have conducted quarrying missions into the beast in attempts to shed some light on the matter. Early finds, of a sunken tomb or temple as well as a cache of primitive 'golems' (perhaps even lesser lamassu!) encouraged this trend, but sadly there were few subsequent findings to justify the initial enthusiasm. Today the Masons do not consider this 'Mystery' a question of great importance, leading to its general neglect by the academic community.

Small-scale research continues, and enthusiasm and funding can occasionally be mustered for larger projects, but most of the tunnel network within Asmar is now used for quarrying or has already been converted into living space for the district's ever-growing population of labourers. The original temple complex has itself long been overrun by a subterranean shanty town that, while considered a slum by most Urbanites, also possesses a certain cultural cachet. A number of popular bars and theatres have been established there, and a unique genre of music originating in its burrowed streets is gaining popularity throughout Uruk.