The first era of independent Sumerian city-states in southern Mesopotamia was shattered by Sargon, King of Akkad (reigned ca. 2370—2315 BC), who conquered the entire region ca. 2350 BC. This great king’s likeness may survive in a life-size (30cm high) cast copper head found out of context in a much later Neo-Assyrian temple at Nineveh in northern Iraq (Figure 3.1). With the elaborately braided hair tied in the back, the curled beard, and the placid smile, this head is elegant and serene. Only the damaged eyes and ears, perhaps intentional mutilations by the ruler’s enemies to destroy the spirit present in the statue, mar its tranquility.
The Akkadian state is generally considered the first empire in south-west Asia. The heart of Sargon’s kingdom was central Mesopotamia, in the region of Babylon and modern Baghdad. He established a new capital city, Agade (Akkad), thus breaking with traditional Sumerian seats of power. To the chagrin of archaeologists, Agade has not yet been identified, and so we have no Akkadian city to describe.
Figure 3.1 Bronze head, Akkadian period, from Nineveh. Iraq Museum, Baghdad
Sargon’s activities, however, and those of his successors are amply reported in the cuneiform tablets. Once he had conquered the Sumerian cities, Sargon turned his attention to the east, to Elam (south-west Iran), and then northwards up the Tigris and westwards up the Euphrates into central Anatolia. If the ancient accounts are to be believed, he ventured even as far as the southern edge of the Arabian peninsula and into the Mediterranean to Cyprus and Crete. Only parts of this vast area could be firmly maintained under his authority. But these campaigns must have had the effect of stimulating commercial contacts between Akkad and distant suppliers of timber, metals, and other raw materials.
Sargon was a Semite, not a Sumerian. The language he spoke, Akkadian, written in a modified cuneiform script based on the Sumerian, would remain the lingua franca of the Near East for some 2,000 years until gradually it ceded its place to Aramaic. The evidence of names of people and places in the Sumerian tablets indicates that a substantial contingent of Semites lived in ED Sumer. The further north one went within Mesopotamia, the greater their numbers. Their origins are uncertain, as is true for the Sumerians themselves. Despite different speech, these peoples shared the same cultural patterns, the same religious beliefs. For example, Enheduanna, a daughter of Sargon, became a priestess of Nanna, the moon god of Sumerian Ur. The Akkadian rulers, however, contributed a new concept of kingship to ancient Mesopotamia, the elevation of the mortal rulers to the position of ultimate authority in the state, in place of the gods.
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