An outline, era by era

Akkadian Empire (Sargon of Akkad, ~2334 BCE)

first known empire

Bronze Age · ~3300 – ~1200 BCE

The Akkadian Empire was founded by Sargon of Akkad around 2334 BCE and is often called the first empire in history. From his new capital, Agade, Sargon conquered the Sumerian city-states of the south and pushed north and west along the Euphrates, bringing much of Mesopotamia under a single ruler for the first time. His dynasty ruled for about a century and a half, until roughly 2150 BCE. Agade itself has never been found.

The Akkadians spoke a Semitic language, Akkadian, which they wrote in Sumerian cuneiform. It became the language of royal inscriptions and administration, and later the common language of diplomacy across the Near East for well over a thousand years. Sargon's grandson Naram-Sin was the first Mesopotamian king known to have declared himself a god. After his reign the empire weakened, and by the end of the dynasty it had broken up amid revolts and raids from the Zagros mountains.

Things happened, and the rest is history

  1. Sargon's conquests, from sea to sea

    Event

    What happened

    Around 2334 BCE Sargon founds a new capital, Agade, in the north of Babylonia. He conquers the Sumerian cities one after another, and his inscriptions say he washed his weapons in the Lower Sea, the Persian Gulf. He then marches up the Euphrates. He says the god Dagan gave him Mari, Ebla and the lands as far as the Cedar Forest and the Silver Mountains, and he puts governors from Agade in charge of the conquered cities.

    The rest is history

    The result is the first state known to have held most of Mesopotamia under one king for several generations. Sargon's inscriptions boast that ships from Dilmun, Magan and Meluhha, probably the Indus Valley, moor at the quay of Agade. His governors and his use of Akkadian for official records give later kings a model of how to run an empire. For nearly two thousand years, the kings of Ur, Babylon and Assyria copied his titles and told stories about him.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryInscriptions of Sargon of Akkad. Royal inscriptions known from Old Babylonian copies of statue inscriptions at Nippur.
    2. BookFoster, Benjamin R. The Age of Agade: Inventing Empire in Ancient Mesopotamia. London: Routledge, 2016.
    3. BookLiverani, Mario, ed. Akkad, the First World Empire: Structure, Ideology, Traditions. History of the Ancient Near East Studies 5. Padua: Sargon, 1993.

  2. Rimush and Manishtushu hold the empire together

    Event

    What happened

    When Sargon dies, around 2279 BCE, the Sumerian cities rise against his son Rimush. Rimush's inscriptions say he defeated Ur, Umma, Lagash and other cities, and claim tens of thousands of enemies killed or taken captive. His brother Manishtushu, who follows him around 2270 BCE, sails across the Lower Sea against an alliance of 32 kings and brings back black stone from the mountains of Magan, probably in present-day Oman.

    The rest is history

    Between them the two brothers keep Sargon's conquests together through about twenty-five years of revolts. Their reigns also show the empire working as a state. Manishtushu's diorite obelisk, carried off to Susa as loot many centuries later, records his purchase of large estates near Kish, probably to reward his followers. Later omen texts say both brothers were murdered by their own courtiers. Around 2254 BCE Manishtushu's son Naram-Sin inherits the empire and takes it to its greatest extent.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryObelisk of Manishtushu. Diorite obelisk recording land purchases near Kish, c. 2260 BCE, found at Susa. Musée du Louvre, Paris.
    2. BookFrayne, Douglas R. Sargonic and Gutian Periods (2334-2113 BC). The Royal Inscriptions of Mesopotamia, Early Periods 2. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1993.Editions of the inscriptions of Rimush and Manishtushu.
    3. BookGelb, Ignace J., Piotr Steinkeller, and Robert M. Whiting. Earliest Land Tenure Systems in the Near East: Ancient Kudurrus. Oriental Institute Publications 104. Chicago: Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, 1991.Edition of the Manishtushu obelisk.

  3. Sargon in the reed basket

    Origin story

    The legend

    Sargon's mother, a priestess, gives birth to him in secret. She places him in a basket of reeds sealed with bitumen and sets it on the Euphrates. A water-drawer named Aqqi lifts him out of the river and raises him as his own son, and trains him as a gardener. While he is working in the garden, the goddess Ishtar falls in love with him, and he goes on to rule as king.

    The rest is history

    Sargon's real origins are unknown. His name, Sharru-kin, means 'the king is legitimate', which many scholars read as a throne name taken by a man who was not born to rule. The birth legend survives on tablets from the Neo-Assyrian period, about 1,600 years after his reign. That is around the time the Assyrian king Sargon II took his name, and the story may have been told to honour the new Sargon. A child set adrift and rescued to become a leader is a widespread motif, best known from the story of Moses in the Book of Exodus.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryThe Sargon Birth Legend. Akkadian text known from Neo-Assyrian tablets from Nineveh, 7th century BCE, and a later Neo-Babylonian fragment.
    2. BookLewis, Brian. The Sargon Legend: A Study of the Akkadian Text and the Tale of the Hero Who Was Exposed at Birth. ASOR Dissertation Series 4. Cambridge, MA: American Schools of Oriental Research, 1980.Edition of the text and comparison with other abandoned-hero stories, including Moses.
    3. BookWestenholz, Joan Goodnick. Legends of the Kings of Akkade: The Texts. Mesopotamian Civilizations 7. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1997.Editions and translations of the later legends about Sargon and Naram-Sin.

  4. Sargon, cupbearer of Ur-Zababa

    Heroic tale

    The legend

    Sargon serves as cupbearer to Ur-Zababa, king of Kish. One night he dreams that the goddess Inanna drowns Ur-Zababa in a river of blood. The frightened king tries to have him killed, and when that fails he sends Sargon to Lugal-zage-si, king of Uruk, carrying a message written on clay. The message asks Lugal-zage-si to murder the man who brings it.

    The rest is history

    The Sumerian King List also says that Sargon, 'whose father was a gardener', was cupbearer to Ur-Zababa before becoming king and building Agade. Sargon's own inscriptions, known from later copies made at Nippur, boast that he defeated Lugal-zage-si of Uruk and brought him in a neck-stock to the gate of the god Enlil. They also claim he won 34 battles and that 5,400 men ate before him every day. The poem's letter that asks its own bearer to be killed is the oldest known example of a motif that later appears in the Bible, in the story of David and Uriah, and in the Greek myth of Bellerophon.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryThe Sargon Legend. Sumerian poem, Old Babylonian copies, c. 1800 BCE. ETCSL 2.1.4, University of Oxford.
    2. PrimaryThe Sumerian King List. Old Babylonian copies, c. 1800 BCE. ETCSL 2.1.1, University of Oxford.The entry for Sargon: gardener's son, cupbearer of Ur-Zababa, builder of Agade.
    3. ArticleCooper, Jerrold S., and Wolfgang Heimpel. "The Sumerian Sargon Legend." Journal of the American Oriental Society 103, no. 1 (1983): 67-82.

  5. The cursing of Agade

    Myth

    The legend

    The god Enlil sends Naram-Sin a dream showing that Agade's good fortune will not last. The king waits seven years for a better omen, and when none comes he loses patience and tears down Enlil's great temple, the Ekur at Nippur. In revenge, Enlil brings the Gutians down from the mountains to overrun the land. Famine follows, and the gods curse Agade so that it is left in ruins forever.

    The rest is history

    There is no evidence that Naram-Sin destroyed the Ekur. Inscriptions and stamped bricks show that he and his son Shar-kali-sharri worked on rebuilding it. The empire really did come apart after Shar-kali-sharri's reign. The Sumerian King List sums up the chaos that followed with 'Then who was king? Who was the king?', and Gutian rulers held power in parts of the south for a time. Some researchers link the collapse to a severe drought around 2200 BCE, though how much it mattered is debated. The poem was written later, under the kings of Ur, to explain why the great city fell.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryThe Cursing of Agade. Sumerian poem, Ur III and Old Babylonian copies, c. 2100-1800 BCE. ETCSL 2.1.5, University of Oxford.
    2. BookCooper, Jerrold S. The Curse of Agade. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1983.Edition of the poem, with the historical evidence for Naram-Sin's work on the Ekur.
    3. ArticleWeiss, H., M.-A. Courty, W. Wetterstrom, F. Guichard, L. Senior, R. Meadow, and A. Curnow. "The Genesis and Collapse of Third Millennium North Mesopotamian Civilization." Science 261, no. 5124 (1993): 995-1004.The case for a drought around 2200 BCE, based on excavations at Tell Leilan in Syria.

  6. Naram-Sin and the hordes from the mountains

    Heroic tale

    The legend

    Strange warriors with the faces of ravens pour out of the mountains, created by the gods. Naram-Sin sends a soldier to prick one with a pin, and when it bleeds he knows they are mortal. He asks the gods for omens, but they are unfavourable. He ignores them and sends out his armies, which are wiped out year after year. In the end he submits to the gods, and leaves an inscription telling future kings to stay inside their walls rather than seek glory in battle.

    The rest is history

    This tale, known as the Cuthean Legend, was told long after Naram-Sin's death as a warning against pride. Behind it are real crises. Naram-Sin's own inscriptions describe a great revolt led by the kings of Kish and Uruk, which he claims to have crushed in nine battles in a single year. Afterwards the people of Agade asked the gods to make him their city's god. He also fought the peoples of the Zagros mountains. His Victory Stele, now in the Louvre, shows him wearing the horned crown of a god as he tramples the Lullubi.

    Sources

    1. ArticleGurney, O. R. "The Cuthaean Legend of Naram-Sin." Anatolian Studies 5 (1955): 93-113.
    2. BookWestenholz, Joan Goodnick. Legends of the Kings of Akkade: The Texts. Mesopotamian Civilizations 7. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1997.Includes the Cuthean Legend and the later legends of the Great Revolt.
    3. BookFrayne, Douglas R. Sargonic and Gutian Periods (2334-2113 BC). The Royal Inscriptions of Mesopotamia, Early Periods 2. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1993.Naram-Sin's own inscriptions, including his account of the Great Revolt.

  7. Enheduanna, the first named author

    Popular belief

    The legend

    Enheduanna, Sargon's daughter, is often called the first author in history known by name. As high priestess of the moon god at Ur, she is said to have written dozens of hymns to the gods of Sumer. When a rebel named Lugal-ane drives her from her temple, she composes a passionate poem to the goddess Inanna, and is restored.

    The rest is history

    Enheduanna was certainly real. Excavations at Ur in the 1920s found an alabaster disc that shows her at an offering and names her as Sargon's daughter and the priestess of the moon god Nanna. Sargon placing his daughter in that post helped bind the Sumerian south to the new dynasty. The hymns linked to her, including The Exaltation of Inanna, which names both Enheduanna and Lugal-ane, survive only in copies made centuries later. Scholars still debate whether she composed them herself or later scribes attributed them to her.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryThe Exaltation of Inana (Inana B). Sumerian hymn attributed to Enheduanna, Old Babylonian copies, c. 1800 BCE. ETCSL 4.07.2, University of Oxford.
    2. BookHallo, William W., and J. J. A. van Dijk. The Exaltation of Inanna. Yale Near Eastern Researches 3. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1968.
    3. BookHelle, Sophus. Enheduana: The Complete Poems of the World's First Author. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2023.Modern translation, with discussion of the authorship debate.

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