Sargon, king of Akkad, was a newcomer in the political scene of Mesopotamia. Later accounts would narrate the legends surrounding his obscure and unusual birth, his career as cupbearer of Ur-Zababa, king of Kish, and his rise to power as ruler of the newly founded city of Akkad. Even in his own inscriptions, the complete silence on his predecessors was compensated with statements regarding his personal achievements. The rise of a newcomer from the north facilitated the emergence of a new ideology of kingship, changing the image of the king from that of a cultic and administrative official to that of a war hero. Considerable changes also appeared in the realm of political and military interventions (with an empire that actually managed to reach the Lower and the Upper Sea), and in the rise of Semitic elements alongside Sumerian ones. However, these innovations did not appear all of a sudden. The Akkadian idea of a ‘universal empire’ included elements that had already appeared in the Proto-Imperial period. Even the commercial networks of the period followed the routes established during the proto-urban and Early Dynastic phases.
Only a few of the royal inscriptions of Sargon and his successors have survived in their original version. More often than not, we possess Old Babylonian copies (from Nippur and Ur) written as a palaeographic and historiographical exercise. These texts reproduced the inscriptions left in the Ekur, the sanctuary of Enlil at Nippur. These were inscribed on votive monuments that still survived half a millennium after the fall of the dynasty of Akkad and were left there for another 500 years. Through these sources, it becomes possible to reconstruct the formation of this empire and to examine the degree of reliability or exaggeration of later legendary accounts of this dynasty.
When Sargon dedicated his first monuments in the Ekur, he did not describe the story of his rise to power. He was already ‘king of Kish’, a city that he considered his capital, and did not yet use the title of ‘king of Akkad’. Sargon’s great expedition in the south, reaching as far as the Persian Gulf, constitutes the first phase of the empire’s expansion. During that campaign, he defeated Lugalzaggesi, king of Uruk and the other ensi ruling the cities of Sumer (Ur, E-ninmar and Umma). In his inscriptions, Sargon claimed that he had won thirty-four battles, subdued fifty ensi and washed his bloodied weapons, which now had to be repaired, in the Lower Sea. At the end of this initial phase (Figure 8.1), he already proclaimed that his rule extended from the Lower to the Upper Sea. However, the king admitted that the Akkadians only held control (that is, the ensi office) in the area around the Lower Sea, while Elam and Mari remained independent. Kish, which was restored and became the centre of the empire, and Nippur, which received the dedication of celebratory monuments (in exchange for its support of this new dynasty), were the only two cities to receive privileged treatment.
Figure 8.1 The size of the Akkadian empire under Sargon in the first phase (above), and the second phase (below).
The second phase of the empire’s formation was more focused on the re-organisation of commercial routes reaching outside Mesopotamia, rather than on military campaigns. Beyond the Euphrates delta, in the Lower Sea, Dilmun (Bahrain), Magan (Oman) and Meluhha (Indus Valley) were sending their ships and their products to the river port of Akkad. Further north along the Euphrates, Sargon had to stop at Tuttul. Only the god Dagan would grant him access to resources from Mari, Yarmuta, Ebla and the Upper Euphrates region, including the ‘cedar wood’ and the ‘mountains of silver’ (the names conveniently given to the Amanus and Taurus regions). Sargon was therefore quite honest, stating that he controlled the area from Tuttul to the Persian Gulf, while his commercial network stretched from the Mediterranean to Magan and Meluhha.
The third phase of the empire’s formation laid the groundwork for his successors. Sargon fought Elam and Barahshi, but they still managed to remain independent. The Akkadian expansion inevitably had to collide with Elam and its Awan dynasty. The latter ruled over an aggregation of smaller settlements spread across the Iranian plateau. In terms of size, demography and productivity, Elam was a worthy rival of the Akkadian empire. For now, despite Sargon’s victorious expedition against Elam, the two powers continued to confront each other, threatening each other with military interventions in Lower Mesopotamia, as well as commercial ones around the Persian Gulf.
Shortly after, Sargon’s son and successor Rimush had to curb the rebellion of several Sumerian cities (Figure 8.2). The first revolts started at Ur, Lagash, Umma and Kazallu (in the north). Rimush also had to deal with a second wave of revolts, possibly initiated and supported by Elam. Once Rimush managed to regain control in Sumer, he directly attacked the alliance Elam-Barahshi-Zahara, winning a battle fought between Susa and Awan. Despite the fact that the Elamites had not been defeated for good, Rimush proclaimed that Enlil had given him ‘all the land’ (that is, the Mesopotamian alluvial plain) and ‘all the mountains’ (that is, the periphery), from the Lower Sea to the Upper Sea.
Manishtusu, Sargon’s second son, succeeded his brother Rimush and led an expedition beyond the Lower Sea, against Anshan (Fars) and Shirihum. He successfully gained access to the silver mines and the ‘mountain of black stone’ (diorite). This expedition shows the ability of these rulers to move beyond Susi-ana and the predominantly commercial interests of Akkad towards the Iranian plateau.
With Manishtusu’s successor Naram-Sin, we encounter another influential individual. Like Sargon, Naram-Sin would become a model for later ‘historiographical’ texts, although with completely different connotations than his grandfather’s. Considering the few contemporary sources that have survived, it is possible to see that with Naram-Sin the empire not only did not collapse, but experienced a new surge of expansion. If Sargon had conquered Mesopotamia, if Rimush and Manishtusu had faced Elam, Naram-Sin mainly expanded his territories to the north and north-west. He therefore managed to control an empire that actually stretched from one sea to the other. This was a feat considered to be crucial on an ideological level.
Naram-Sin also managed to consolidate his control to the east. In his inscriptions, he declared his supremacy over Elam ‘up to Barahshi’. He therefore controlled the region of Elam, and not its broader confederation. The kings of Awan continued to rule, and relations between Akkad and Awan (described in the inscriptions as subjugated by Akkad) are recorded on an Elamite treaty found at Susa. The agreement was between Naram-Sin and the king of Elam, who is recognised as a political and legal representative of Elam. However, it is true that, after these last attestations, the dynasty of Awan seems to have disappeared. Susa had an Akkadian official in power and Susiana began to be significantly influenced by Akkadian culture. Naram-Sin also guided a military expedition (probably by sea) against the distant Magan. However, he did not conquer the area, but returned with a significant booty and the glory of his victory.
The north experienced two phases under Naram-Sin, documented in various later sources. First, Naram-Sin reached the Upper Mesopotamian city of Talhat and declared that he had conquered Subartu (Upper Mesopotamia), reaching the ‘cedar wood’ (the Amanus, or at least that whole region surrounding the Mesopotamian plain). Naram-Sin also stated that he subdued the ensi of Subartu and the lords
Figure 8.2 The size of the Akkadian empire under Rimush and Manishtusu (above), and Naram-Sin (below).
Of the ‘Upper Land’. This division was not really geographic (Subartu being Assyria and ‘Upper Land’ the Khabur and Middle Euphrates region), but rather socio-political. The ensi were local city rulers, while the ‘lords’ were the tribal chiefs of the steppes beyond the urbanised areas. This control over Upper Mesopotamia is confirmed by the spread of Naram-Sin’s inscriptions. Some of them were left in Nineveh, Basetki (north of Assyria) and Diyarbakir. Moreover, one of Naram-Sin’s palaces was excavated at Tell Brak, and we know that one of his daughters married the king of Urkish (Tell Mozan).
The second phase of Naram-Sin’s expansion was his victorious campaign against Armanum and Ebla. This expedition allowed him to conquer the Amanus (the ‘cedar wood’) and the Upper Sea. The sources emphatically describe Ebla’s destruction as an unprecedented feat. Knowing the wealth ofEbla, this celebratory tone is understandable. However, the Ebla destroyed by Naram-Sin was not the Ebla of Palace G, but the one built immediately after. Summarising Naram-Sin’s conquest, he essentially managed to conquer the area from the Euphrates delta to Ullisum (maybe Ullaza, in northern Lebanon) and the Upper Sea.
After Naram-Sin, the empire managed to survive, but began to decrease in size. The date formulas of Shar-kali-sharri attest his wars against Elam, Gutium (Luristan, where one of his inscriptions was found) and the Martu (on the Bishri Mountain). The Sumerian King List places the empire’s crisis after Shar-kali-sharri’s reign, describing a chaotic phase in terms of rulers and control over the area (‘Who was king? Who was not king?’). However, the Akkadian king Shu-Turul is attested shortly after in the Upper Euphrates region, since one of his inscriptions has been found near Samsat. The empire really ended with the arrival of the Gutians. Nonetheless, thanks to its solid structure, largely based on regional control (through strongholds) rather than territorial conquests, the empire managed to maintain a considerable extension up until its final collapse.
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