baghdad
iraq
site of so many conflicts in recent
years
dictators
foreign invasion
civil
war scars of history run deep on this
landscape
with a population of some 8 million
people it's the 4th largest in the
middle east
yet this isn't the first great city to
dominate the southern mesopotamian
plains
not by a long shot
heading out into the scorched deserts to
the south-east of the city
it doesn't take long until great earth
and mounds line up on the horizon
for this is a land of tells
vast man-made hills built up from the
refuse of thousands of years of
occupation
still standing guard over the country
they once ruled
now desolate
remote
halfway between baghdad and the persian
gulf
just to the south west of the town of
nazarea stands one of the greatest of
all those mounds
once
long ago the wide banks of the euphrates
passed by here
though little evidence of that can be
seen now
the great life-giving river having
forsaken the place more than two
thousand years before
leaving just rubble
dirt and bones
and that's how it remained for more than
2 000 years
wind and time burying the place entirely
by the mid 19th century however strange
artifacts began to show up in nearby
markets
a great revolution in archaeology was
taking place at the time
and due to the painstaking efforts of an
entirely new branch of scholarship a
seriology
the ancient script on many of the items
cuneiform was deciphered
allowing an unprecedented glimpse into
that world before
so long ago
and what the scholars read of that great
mound by nazarea
completely boggled the mind
its name
was er
and it had been mentioned
in the bible
as the very place where abraham
progenitor of three of the great world
religions
had been born
before heading forth with his wife and
children to wander the world after the
city's demise
at the time the fledgling field of
archaeology mostly concerned itself with
collecting tablets and artifacts from
ancient sites
for further investigation elsewhere
but by 1920 new more vigorous scientific
styles were favored
and for the first time a comprehensive
investigation of the city itself would
be attempted
the man to lead that mission was leonard
woolley
he'd worked under the pioneering
discoverer of minoan crete sir arthur
evans
and more recently numbered the famous
lawrence of arabia in his team
accompanying woolly went max malawan and
his soon-to-be wife agatha christie
who'd later write a book inspired by the
journey
the world
was watching
it was to be one of the most famous of
all archaeological expeditions
unearthing some of the greatest
treasures ever found in the ancient
world
matching that of toot and carmoon's tomb
almost immediately woolly confirmed the
city to be er
a major center of the sumerian culture
of the early bronze age
excavations would continue for another
14 years
revealing continuous occupation of the
site from around 5000 to 500 bc
at its height the city had been home to
approximately 65 000 people
one of the greatest the world had ever
seen
though european work in the middle east
had begun as an effort to find the
origins of the hebrew bible
it ultimately revealed so much more
revolutionizing our understanding of the
sumerian world
immensely elaborate graves of citizens
kings and queens
a culture surpassing even egypt
in its antiquity
and importance
thousands upon thousands of graves were
uncovered at er
filled with a vast array of objects
revealing links all across the known
world
one vast royal cemetery in particular
dated to around the middle of the third
millennium bc
was the most spectacular ever found
gold lapis lazuli carnelian
chlorite
bronze
silver and other semi-precious stones
flowed out along with expertly crafted
items
musical instruments and more
a world so much older than the bible was
unlocked
the apogee of the sumerians
woolly and those who followed him were
able to construct an incredible account
of ancient wealth and privilege
like queen puabi whose grave goods can
still be seen today
and er wasn't alone
just one of a glittering collection of
metropolises
in the span of barely a millennium the
sumerians had established
mankind's first real urban centers
with towering walls and religious
sanctuaries known as ziggurats
the skyscrapers of their day
building arguably the world's most
advanced civilization
in a landscape entirely devoid of
natural resources
the sumerians radically improved farming
and irrigation techniques
resulting in larger surpluses of grain
and an increase in the overall food
supply
ultimately allowing many within their
society to put down their plows and
pursue other endeavors
such as advanced mathematical and
scientific knowledge
perhaps the most famous of all sumerian
inventions though was the development of
a complex system of writing
first used for bookkeeping and then
later on to record their own history
all of these innovations helped to lay
the foundation for some of the most
powerful and wealthy city-states the
world had ever seen
whose rulers presided over small but
significant kingdoms
within just a few centuries of queen
pawabi however by the 24th century bc
this prosperity was already coming to an
end
from its very beginnings civilization
has been incredibly elitist
far from everyone benefiting from the
splendor of the first cities
in fact most people didn't at all
and by around 2400 bc
the world of ancient sumer
came to a breaking point
texts uncovered from sumerian
city-states such as lagash
indicate that there was a massive chasm
between the wealthy often hailing from
the hereditary priestly class
and the impoverished common people
most of the latter being so mired in
debt they had to sell their own children
into slavery in an effort to pay it off
though not as well documented it's
believed that similar circumstances were
prevalent in the other city-states too
sometime between the years 2350 and 2340
bc
those scholars debate the exact date
a new type of ruler became king of the
city-state of umar
lagash's great rival
the two had been fighting armed
conflicts for centuries
with lagash generally being the victor
perhaps out of spite or the desire for
revenge
this new ruler brutally attacked lagash
and is said to have massacred many of
its people as well as destroying its
great temples
he then went on to conquer and annex
other city-states
ultimately claiming to have forged an
empire stretching from the persian gulf
all the way to the mediterranean sea
most scholars though don't take lugel
zagazi at his word
he really may only have controlled the
city-states of sumer
which in itself would have been a
remarkable achievement
had he done this he would have created
the first true world empire in history
but unfortunately for him
that honor would go to another
not a sumerian
but one whose origins lay further to the
north
a land also remembered in the bible
akkad
though his birth name is not known
he would later call himself shahrukh kin
meaning legitimate king
we know him by a different name
sargon the first great king of the
akkadian empire
generally regarded as history's first
within just a few hundred years the
sumerians would be forgotten
eclipsed by another power
revered by every state to arise in the
region for 2 000 years to come
this is the history of that empire
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now back to the ancient world
every so often in history
an extremely capable and charismatic
leader arises
and for better or worse disrupts the
world in which they live entirely
altering it forever more
whether cyrus the great of persia in the
sixth century bc
alexander of the greeks
or julius caesar three centuries later
the long span of antiquity has had its
fair share of such figures
and more than a thousand years before
in the 24th century bc
the very first arose
sargon of akkad would go on to become
the most powerful ruler that had ever
lived up until that time
in fact nearly all of the future kings
of ancient mesopotamia and even beyond
would try to imitate his style of rule
adopt his empire's efficient
administrative system
and claim to be his worthy successor
sargon was considered by those who came
after to have been the model ruler and
the epitome of all that a man could and
should be
like charlemagne and king arthur in
centuries to come he was the archetypal
king who lived long and well
yet despite all of his great
achievements and fame
very little is concretely known about
his early life
myth
history and legend entwine
given the immense chasm of time since he
lived
the texts and inscriptions that
archaeologists have uncovered about him
are generally more legend than fact
the vast majority
being babylonian copies of originals
thought to have existed closer to
sargon's own day
sometimes called the first histories
compiled during the age of hammurabi
writer of the first law code during the
old babylonian period
these clay tablets are copies of
original royal inscriptions supposedly
found on monuments from 500 years before
though a tiny handful of original
monuments survived too
seized and taken to elam by a victorious
king during the 12th century bc
where french archaeologists found them
one of the more complete copies from
hammurabi's day
believed by many to have been
commissioned by sargon himself
outlines the future king's humble
beginnings
he claims to be the son of a priestess
his father he says
is unknown
unable to care for him his mother put
him into a covered reed basket sending
it down river
where it was later discovered by a water
drawer named aki
who raised the child as his own
it's a story that has parallels to the
early biography of moses as told in the
hebrew bible
adding to the flood myth and the garden
of eden concepts which also have their
roots with the sumerians
though not telling the story of his
birth
another document known as the sumerian
king list
first compiled several centuries after
sargon's death
stresses his humble roots
by claiming him to be the son of a
gardener
eventually still early on in his career
we're told that sargon became the
cup-bearer of a man named er zababa
ruler of the city-state of kish
an important northern sumerian city
standing upriver from all the great
strongholds of the south and existing at
a time of intense riverine management
at times in its history kish seems to
have been able to control the flow of
water to a certain extent
holding the lower cities to ransom
of course presumably unlike his leader
urza baba
sargon was an acadian
speakers of an eastern semitic language
who occupied the regions just north of
sumer known as akkad
as far as the akkadians themselves
however not much is known about them
before sargon's reign
most scholars believe they lived side by
side with the sumerians in many cities
being greatly influenced by their
culture and religion
today sumerian remains a culture and
language with unknown roots
though it had fully developed by the 4th
millennium bc
at vast centers like uruk and eredu
the very place according to sumerian
mythology where man was first chiseled
out of the mud by the gods
the origins of the acadians though are
to be found with the so-called second
phase of urbanization occurring in the
mid third millennium bc in syria and
northern mesopotamia
at massive cities like ebla
and sometimes nomadic cultures like the
canaanites and the amorites
living on the outer limits of the
sumerian world
by sargon's day though the acadians seem
to have shared the same gods as sumer
living more or less the same way of life
yet given his linguistic roots
sargon or at least his ancestors were
outside us
whether he came from the mountains or
the desert is unclear
but it is he who is given credit for the
foundation of a new city
not far from kish
he called it
a guarde
agarde's existence has never been in
doubt
showing up in contemporary records
throughout the third millennium bc and
onwards
however that great city
has never been found
we know roughly where it was
near susa at the southern edge of sumair
and the mesopotamian lowland
a region with a lack of agricultural
potential
but excellent access to the disparate
peoples all around
regions and cultures sargon and his
descendants would integrate into their
own
expanding the horizons of mesopotamia
significantly
without any archaeology to go on though
sargon's city remains obscure
it may be that he really did create the
city himself
he allegedly ruled for a ridiculously
long time after all
though some scholars now suggest his
cult of personality to have become so
strong that it could have caught some of
the deeds of his successors in its orbit
as we know it did those of his
predecessors
for those sargons is often seen as a new
dynasty a break with the old
really he may have inherited concepts
that came before
a continuation of the development of
kingship
for this was the age of the lugals
local head men and warlords ruling
through personal charisma and power
rather than divine rule
had it not been for the actions of one
of those sumerian kings
sargon might never have amounted to
anything at all
for just as he began his career at kish
the king of uma lugal zagazi moved his
capital to the great city of uruk
taking ur along the way
ultimately expanding his rule over the
whole of southern mesopotamia
sargon is often credited with many
firsts in history
the first standing army the first land
empire
but really lugel cigarsi may have been
first
according to archaeological evidence and
the archives of the various city-states
it was he who first ruled from the lower
sea to the upper
holding sway over 50 governors
and bringing an end to independent
samaria
and one of those cities he annexed
was kish
given this burgeoning growth of
militaristic sumerian kingship by his
day
it's no surprise really that sargon had
a go
he just had to cut off the head of the
snake to make his play for power
a snake with many enemies
though the details are murky we're told
that soon after lugal zagazi seized kish
sargon with a band of faithful followers
directly marched on uruk
sargon the king of akhad the bailiff of
ishtar the king of the universe the
anointed one of ahn the king of the land
to the governor of enlil
he vanquished uruk in battle and smoked
50 governors in the city by the mace of
the god ilaba
and he destroyed its fortress and
captured lugul zagasi the king of uruk
in battle
he led him to the gate of enlil in a
next stock
taking lugal zagazi to the gate of enlil
the holy city of nippor was a powerful
symbolic gesture
the old king's power was clearly broken
and sargon favored by the gods
the old king's ultimate fate
we're not told
unlike his early days sargon's reign as
king as well as the actions of his new
government are relatively well
documented
much more so than most at the time
and though the records make it seem as
if sargon had an easy time conquering so
many territories
holding on to them especially the proud
cities of sumer proved to be a challenge
most of the city-states he claims to
have controlled eventually rose up in
rebellion against him
though he and his men the beginnings of
a professional army personally loyal to
him
were able to put down every revolt using
a combination of fear
brute force and at times
diplomacy
within a number of decades sargon was
able to establish himself as the
undisputed ruler of both sumer and akad
as well as reorganizing and reforming
many aspects of the societies he ruled
sargon king of akkad vanquished ur in
battle
and smoked the city and destroyed its
fortress
he smote its territory and lagash as far
as the sea
he vanquished uma in battle and
destroyed its fortress
by around
2334 bc
with the completion of sargon's conquest
the era that scholars call the early
dynastic period of sumer comes to an end
the akkadian period begins
so famed was sargon that in the two
millennia to come babylonian kings used
the title king of akkad all the way down
to the persian period
the akkadian king becoming the very
embodiment of empire and kingship
what it meant to be a ruler
lugel zagazi
was forgotten
when european archaeologists first began
excavating in mesopotamia in the early
19th century
seeking to understand the origins of
their own civilization
next to nothing was known of the ancient
history of that land
besides the biblical
stories it's mud brick cities having
died millennia before
one by one as the years went by
the great mounds began to be
investigated
the cities of the bible unearthed
foremost amongst these early discoveries
was the assyrian capital at nineveh
made famous by the earlier cereologist
austin henry layard
work went on for decades
brick by brick uncovering a vast
metropolis of the iron age
and great amounts of information on the
assyrian era of the first millennium bc
yet underneath that city lay far older
foundations
in 1931 the latest in a long line of
astonishing discoveries was made
for fifteen hundred years before the
assyrians
the place had originally been built by
acadian workmen
it was in the acadian layers of the city
that a number of artifacts were
discovered
chief amongst them a great bronze head
thought to be part of an impressive
statue of an acadian king
though defaced at some point in history
today the head is rightly considered one
of the great masterpieces of ancient art
providing a rare glimpse into the art
style of the akkadian world
generally thought to represent either
sargon or his grandson naram sin
in reality almost nothing is known about
the head
though it is reminiscent of similar
heads from gudea in the years following
acadian rule
this was an age when realistic
representations of humans almost
entirely unknown
making the head entirely unprecedented
this bronze artifact
precisely and expertly crafted
wasn't just a statement of the king's
power
but a perpetual embodiment of his very
being
more than a representation
for those who looked upon it this statue
would channel the very presence of the
king himself
working as a substitute in his absence
the fact that the head was possibly
still on display and defaced many
centuries later during the sack of
nineveh in the 7th century bc
suggests that his power lived on for
more than a thousand years after his
death
notably the figure is very different
from the usual depictions of sumerian
rulers
generally bald with smiling benevolent
features
this statue has elaborate hair
whether it was a wig or a new acadian
hairstyle is unclear
but it wasn't just fashion that changed
under sargon
he attempted in sumer
was revolutionary
for over a millennium the ruling
establishment had long consisted of
priesthood and nobility
working hand in hand to control nearly
every aspect of sumerian society
especially in the cities
often with single hereditary families
controlling all aspects of temple life
in their respective strongholds
when sargon arrived however he broke the
power of the priesthood and the noble
families
replacing them with hand-picked acadian
governess
fiercely loyal to him and him alone
the acadians who now controlled these
estates were able to keep the vast
majority of the crops and revenue for
themselves
a sizable share of the new empire's
wealth
such a system also helped to ensure
their loyalty to the new regime
obliging them to serve it because it now
gave them a huge stake in the state's
success
they'd bought in to the new system
this transfer of such productive lands
also greatly diminished if not outright
destroyed the power and influence of the
former religious and ruling
establishment because up until then such
property had been their main source of
income
while in most cases the acadian
government compensated the previous
owners the estates were still forcibly
taken
if there was resistance to the offer
then it's safe to say there would have
been serious consequences for those
refusing to make the sale
in addition to the temple estates
those loyal to sargon were also put
directly in charge of managing the main
temples and religious endowments that
were found in most large cities
in one instance sargon put his daughter
who later went by the name en eduana in
charge of the great temple complex of
the moon god nana in the city of ur
thus allowing her to directly oversee
that institution's wealthy endowment and
associating the new kingship
with divine support
consolidating his hold on sumer
sargon looked beyond his borders
claiming to have conquered lands
stretching from the western areas of
elam in what's today's southwestern iran
to the shores of the eastern
mediterranean
bringing immensely wealthy trade routes
under his direct control
and providing access to others yet
further away
these were diverse far-flung lands
inhabited by people speaking many
different languages
and worshiping different gods
for the first time brought under the
sway of a single government
though most of the places sargon
attacked outside of sumer can't tell
their own stories
one place can
discovered in the 1960s by italian
archaeologists
the city of ebla had one of the largest
cuneiform archives ever found
and a destruction level in the
archaeological record to match acadian
claims
sargon may even show up briefly in the
ebola records just before the sack of
the city
as the king of kish
or father of the king of kish
he having put his son to rule there
perhaps
once one of the great cities of the
early bronze age
instrumental in the urbanization of
syria during the third millennium bc
ebla now became an acadian provincial
city
with its millennia old cities
religious institutions
and complex irrigation networks
samaria had arguably been the center of
civilization for centuries
and now sargon shifted this center
northwards to acad
by establishing his new capital on the
euphrates
it was here that he built elaborate
palaces for himself and his family
as well as temples dedicated to his
patron deities
most notably the goddess ishtar
and with this new loyal city as his base
of operations
sargon began the great undertaking of
governing his new empire
one of the ways he did this a mainstay
for all empires to follow through the
long span of history
was through ingenious political
propaganda
boasting for the first time in history
of the exact numbers his forces had
killed on campaign
swearing to the accuracy of what he
reported
an unheard-of tactic for the time
part of a new cult of personality
developed to keep his people in
submission by ruling through fear and
awe
one of sargon's first acts was to make
acadian the official language for all
administrative purposes
part of the reason for this may have
been to find a common language that
could unify the disparate parts of the
empire where in addition to acadian and
sumerian elamite hurrian and a number of
western semitic languages and dialects
were also spoken
sumerian was not abandoned though
with scribes still studying it and using
it widely in scribal schools
but as time went on and the government
promoted greater use of acadian as well
as resettling large numbers of
acadian-speaking people in sumair
it was gradually replaced as the common
tongue
surviving for thousands of years more
when sumerian
died out
as well as the political center of the
empire agar day became its main
commercial hub
boats carrying goods from dilman and
magan
today modern bahrain and oman
respectively docked at its ports
caravans stocking a variety of tradable
goods flowed in from anatolia
elam
arabia
and the levant
traders setting up shop for the future
and it wasn't just acadians that
benefited from this system
surviving records from the sumerian
cities suggest it significantly expanded
horizons than those they'd had access to
before
no longer middlemen but having direct
links to the other side of the world
by around 2500 bc
this burgeoning global trade system was
already booming
largely frequented by independent
traders who'd rarely if ever make the
entire journey from east to west
themselves
rather passing on goods from one region
to the next
it seems that like the romans did much
later the acadians got the whole trade
system or much of it under their direct
control
succeeding where all mesopotamians after
them failed directly controlling elam ii
and acadian traders went much further
at the mysterious ruins of konar sandal
in eastern iran
once a city of 20 or 30 000 people
part of the still largely unknown jiroft
culture recently uncovered there
a clay seal from akkad has been
discovered
complete with cuneiform and two facing
figures typical of sargon and his
successors
it seems acadian travelers came here to
barter with the trader lords of girofft
standing side by side with their
contemporaries from the indus valley
civilization
in bartering for the chlorite vessels
expertly crafted by the region's workmen
and because of these direct links with
iran the gulf egypt
and even into the eurasian steppe some
of the earliest evidence of horses being
found in the middle east around this
time
akkad prospered
cedarwood flowing down from lebanon
diorite from dill moon
grain from sumer
tin from the mountains of elam
lapis lazuli chlorite and tin from far
off afghanistan and the indus valley
civilization
trade ships from malua mahashi and dil
moon coming into port
due to sargon's conquests the world was
growing larger
alongside trade though agarde became
fabulously wealthy from the taxes that
were collected from the empire's various
provinces
it must have been a truly spectacular
place in its day
and surely
one day it will be found
the sumerian king list claims that
sargon ruled for 56 years
an incredible length of time in which
such a charismatic leader would have
without a doubt left an indelible mark
on the society that he ruled over
however when sargon died in 2279 bc
apparently of natural causes
several parts of the empire especially
in the sumerian heartland
broke out in rebellion once more
of all the artifacts of the bronze age
world
the monuments
the statues
the inscriptions that come down to us
today
few would compare to a single piece of
metal casting supposedly ordered by the
second monarch to rule over the akkadian
empire
though it didn't survive to our time if
it had due to the sheer audacity and
opulence of its construction it surely
would have been the envy of all the
world
for sargon's son and successor rimoush
according to inscriptions referring to
him
not only began to account himself
amongst the gods
in a foreshadowing of the full
deification of his nephew a generation
later
but ordered a statue of himself to be
made
of pure tin
one of the rarest materials in the world
immensely expensive largely imported
into mesopotamia from half a world away
and found only in tiny quantities in a
handful of locations
the piece would be akin to a statue of
pure diamond today
clearly attempting to forge divine
legitimacy for the new ruling dynasty as
well as protecting their image of
immense wealth and power
it may well be that like his father
before him rimoush was forging his own
cult of personality
and as we shall see
he needed it
upon sargon's death almost immediately
the massive state he'd forged erupted
into war and chaos
it's not known why sargon's first son
manish tushu was passed over for the
position of king
but given the tendency of later
mesopotamian rulers to do the same it
may be that rimoush possessed certain
qualities of kingship that were desired
over his brother
such as decisiveness and a certain level
of ruthlessness that would be vital if
the empire were to survive its founder's
death
it may also be the due to a total lack
of primogeniture or succession policy
simply the strongest ruled
and rimoush seized power from his elder
brother
for rimoush as with every acadian ruler
it would be a baptism of fire
with most of the major sumerian cities
rising up to fight him
including er
lagash adab and uma
clearly inheriting the strong standing
army from his father
the king's retribution was swift
by his own account remoush tore down the
walls of the rebellious cities
brutally killing several thousand
sumerian troops
while selling thousands of the survivors
into slavery
but he went further too
expelling yet more thousands of
non-combatants of fighting age in the
defeated cities
subjecting them to cruel punishments
mass deportations and hard labor
documents uncovered from the city of uma
seem to confirm this as they tell of
citizens working and dying
in what can only be described as labor
camps
once the rebellions had been crushed
rimoush stripped many of these cities of
whatever remaining lands they had
and like sargon distributed them to his
supporters
in one of the largest land transactions
ever recorded in ancient history in one
fell swoop the new king seized and
reorganized approximately 134
000 hectares of farmland from the cities
of lagash and uma
lands they bitterly fought over for
centuries
before redistributing them to the new
acadian land holding class
that his father sargon had created just
a few decades before
an entire landed class of cronies
promoted by the new regime
acadians and sumerians too
new men all too happy to go against the
old order and tradition
in order to further themselves and their
families
this culture of nepotism was extremely
significant
because it meant that the elite and
temple priesthoods of these city-states
after perhaps thousands of years lost
all claims to their ancestral lands
it was just another example of how many
of the centuries-old institutions of
sumer were being dismantled as a result
of the new acadian order
the priests had been instated by the
gods
and now they were being demoted
yet revolts continued to rage throughout
rimoushi's reign in many parts of akkad
as well as the south
one of these was in the city of kazulu
on the euphrates river
which had years before also revolted
against sargon
only to have many of its citizens
butchered
contemporary chronicles tell the city
fared no better under rimoush
whose men brutally stamped out any
resistance
acadian texts claim that 12 000 rebel
soldiers were killed
with another 5 000 sold into slavery
kazulu's walls were demolished
similar accounts have also been given
for campaigns in elam
a similarly ancient region of city
builders
in addition to the thousands butchered
inscriptions on various objects detailed
the large quantities of plunder brought
back to a gaday
and the city of nippor
center of mesopotamian religion
by the end of his reign rimousha's
success in mercilessly defeating his
enemies had clearly gone to his head
beginning to think of himself less as a
man
and more like a god
soon enough though he would be proved to
be mortal after all
having ruled for only nine years rimoush
fell to assassins within his own court
allegedly using not daggers or poison
but cylinder seals
strangling him in a back room
the texts that have been uncovered so
far do not state who orchestrated the
murder
though being such a brutal ruler
he had no shortage of enemies
the most likely scenario though is that
the assassins acted under the orders of
the elder brother
manish tushu
who promptly ascended the throne
inheriting the many wars his brother had
started
around
4260 years ago
964 men sat down to a feast in the land
of akkad
great pieces of mutton and pork roasted
on spits
bread olives vegetables and of course
vast quantities of beer flowed
and yet
all was not well
49 witnesses stood by
ominously surveying the day's events
ready to step in if needed no doubt
for those 964 individuals we're giving
up their lands in return for only two
years worth of harvests
the men watching may even have been
those who were to be allocated this land
the second generation of a new elite
men looking for the king's patronage
muscling in on the old land owners of
the realm
and this scene recorded on tablets
during the reign of the third acadian
king manish tushu
was a common one
like the two kings before him this new
ruler constantly sought to expand his
own household at the expense of local
institutions
this is the story told by the vast
amounts of administrative documents
recorded on cuneiform tablets
a tale further added to by the
archaeological evidence of vast
administrative centers
at sites like tel brak and tel leyland
apparently built in part to oversee the
immense land reforms taking place
great armies of bureaucrats recording it
all
and yet in comparison to his brother's
reign manish two shoes seems to have
been much more stable
it's possible that many of the acadian
court preferred the new ruler to rimoush
because of an inclination to maintain
peace in an empire perpetually riven
apart by war
a situation perhaps added to by manish
tushu's indignation had been passed over
for rule in favour of his younger
brother
it may even be that manish tushu and his
court faction worked behind the scenes
to remove rimoush from power themselves
perhaps even instigating an unrecorded
civil war between the two men
we'll likely never know
all manish tushu says is that enlil
called him to power
rather than starting new wars by
brutally making examples of those who
rebelled
manish tushu quietly finished his
brother's conflicts
before focusing his efforts on promoting
commerce and opening up trade links with
places as far away as egypt
by this time few alive had experienced a
life outside the yoke of acadian
kingship
the archaeology suggests that the empire
really did now stretch from c to sea
an immense land empire
stretching from the borders of anatolia
to the deserts of iran
a remarkable
achievement many items survive from this
time
from excavations all over the middle
east
and yet one relic in particular is
perhaps the best example of the immense
power of these earliest emperors
the obelisk of manish tusu
at 1.4 metres tall this inscribed black
diorite stone is a legal record
telling of the distribution of four
pieces of land
large estates given to the king's
officers in the region of kish
we're told in acadian that the stone
itself was taken from magan
across the persian gulf
in what is now oman
loaded onto boats and docked on the key
at akad where the king fashioned his
statue and dedicated it to enlil
this is a material previously unknown in
mesopotamia and then just like his
brother before him
in 2255 bc
the king
was murdered
conveniently his son already out on
military campaign
waited patiently in the wings
he would be one of the greatest acadian
rulers of them
all overseeing a new unparalleled age of
sophistication in art society and
commerce
this is the age
of naram sin
by the 6th century bc
nearly 2 000 years had passed since the
heyday of the acadians
it would be another 2
500 years before leonard woolley began
his excavations at ur
elsewhere in the world this was the age
of the buddha
confucius and the burgeoning
philosophers of ancient greece
paradigm shifting new styles of thought
during this so-called axial age
and yet in mesopotamia where the great
kings had never truly lost their power
just consolidating it into the strongest
contender
a near unbroken line of culture still
stretched back to the very first cities
of the world
and at that time
babylon was the greatest of them all
some 200 000 occupants lived and died
amidst the magnificent gardens and
colonnades
center of the all-powerful
neo-babylonian empire
and it was here
in the year 550 bc
that one of the first archaeological
digs in history was carried out
in that year we're told king nabanidus
led men to sipar to uncover the
foundation deposits of the temples of
samas the sun god
anunnatu the warrior goddess
and the sanctuary that naram sin had
built to the moon god in haran
nabanidus then restored all of these
sites to their former glory
but he went further too
attempting to date the archaeological
artifacts at naram sin's sanctuary
though his estimates were off by around
1500 years
naram sin was clearly still a popular
and renowned figure in nabanidus's day
but what of that king
why him and not his father or uncle
well like sargon naram sin was portrayed
as the model warrior king
later in his career he'd presided over
the very apogee of the state
the very heights of architecture and
material goods
a time known in art history as the
classical acadian era
to differentiate it from the earlier and
later eras
and yet he would be one of mesopotamia's
most controversial rulers too
with a scathing story later told about
him
and of course his reign began very badly
with the greatest revolt yet breaking
out against the new order
it was a conflict that could have very
easily stamped out the empire before it
really got going
describes the war as the great revolt
led by the cities of kish and uruk
then still perhaps the largest city in
the world
soon enough most if not all of the
cities of sumer along with the empire's
territories in elam and the west called
their banners
rising up on mass against their imperial
overlords
according to naram sin's inscriptions it
took at least nine battles but
ultimately all of the rebel cities were
defeated and order brought back to the
realm
in what had now become standard practice
in acadian warfare the vanquished
suffered tremendously
in kish the euphrates river was filled
with the bodies of dead soldiers who'd
defended the gates of their city
while another
2500 were slaughtered once the acadians
breached the walls
and the destruction didn't stop there
after the fighting had come to an end
as punishment naram sin tore down kish's
walls and had the city flooded
meanwhile in the sumerian heartland uruk
led a massive rebel coalition
including the cities of lagash umar adab
issin
shuripak and even the religious center
of nippor
they too
especially uruk suffered nearly the same
fate as kish
with thousands killed
their lofty already ancient city walls
being torn down
and in what seems to have been a
hallmark of acadian campaigns their
cities flooded
it may seem excessive
but naram sin
clearly an astonishingly capable
military commander wanted to make the
point that any descent within the
akkadian realm would be met with death
and destruction
finally with the state under control
naram sin could focus on not only ruling
but expanding his borders yet further
in the 36 years that naram sin ruled
he expanded the acadian empire's network
territories and tributary states to
their greatest extent
roughly from the kingdom of marhashi
believed to have been in what's today
central iran
all the way to the waters of the
mediterranean
and perhaps even the island of cyprus
one of his many victories is
commemorated on the famous victory stele
of naram sin
in which he is seen defeating
tribespeople of the zagros mountains
trampling the bodies of their fallen
warriors
it may have been naram sin who finally
destroyed early bronze age ebla
inside the empire such was his iron grip
that a level of stability does seem to
have been reached
allowing less warlike pursuits to be
furthered
naram sin for example was the first
mesopotamian ruler to boast of his
hunting prowess
a tradition that would go on for
millennia
though like all acadian rulers he failed
to integrate traditional mesopotamian
leadership with his new order naram
sin's reign was the most magnificent
period in the entire history of the
empire both militarily as well as
economically
it's from the records of his foreign
campaigns
not to mention the great monuments
erected such as his victory stele that
naram sin is mostly remembered as a
fierce warrior king
however he was also a great builder
along with other sanctuaries such as
that at haran he completely renovated
ancient mesopotamia's most famous and
sacred temple
the echo at nippor which was dedicated
to the god enlil
the building was to be the crowning
achievement of his reign
once finished it would have been an
immense sight to behold
one of the most ornate ever constructed
documents uncovered from that city
detail much of its construction
activities as well as the sheer quantity
of precious metals and the number of
workers involved in its renovation
overseen by the crown prince shakali
shari
one text records that in addition to
hundreds of workers there were at least
77 special woodworkers
86 goldsmiths
10 sculptors
54 carpenters and other groups of
specialized labourers brought there from
all over the empire
by this time very few if anyone left
alive had experienced a time before
acadian rule
thus naram sin dominated religion
perhaps seeing his predecessor's
downfall in their only being viewed as
mortals
naram sin had other ideas
seeking to claim a total monopoly over
religion he had a number of daughters
establishing them as priestesses all
over sumer
thus forging intimate links with the
various temples
naram sin though didn't just worship
other gods and goddesses
he believed himself to be a god as well
in one inscription found on a monument
in the ruins of a temple
the great king wanted the world to know
the following
naram sin the mighty king of agadha when
the four quarters of the earth attacked
him together through the love ishtar
borhym was victorious in nine battles in
a single year and captured the kings
whom they had raised up against him
because he had defended his city in
crisis the people of his city asked of
him that he be the god of their city
agarde
with ishtar in iyana with enlil in
nippur with dagan in tuttle with nihusag
in keshe with enki in eredu with sin in
ur
with shamash in sipa with nergal in
kutha
and they built his temple in agade
yet unlike sargon naram sin proved to be
especially unpopular in the generations
to come
his
self-deification along with what many
felt was his vanity would be remembered
by the authors of later epic literature
as just a few of the reasons for his
downfall
the most notable being the curse of
agarday
a largely fictional retelling of the
fall of the empire
with naram sin cast as the reason for
its demise
as we've seen the truth seems to have
been far from this
though he may have believed himself to
be divine
after 36 years on the throne of akkad
like any mortal naram sin died
not a warrior's death in battle or from
the blade of an assassin's dagger
but simply we're told
natural causes that come with old age
soon enough though
everything in the empire was to change
in 2217 bc
when the new king shakali shari came to
the throne
the acadian empire stood at the very
height of its size and prosperity
just 25 years later only a rump state
around acad remained
hemmed in beset by hostile enemies on
all sides
unfortunately unlike his predecessors
there are relatively few inscriptions
dating to his reign
so it's hard to get a clear picture of
the goings-on in mesopotamia at this
time
we know he fought a bitter struggle
against gutien and amorite invaders
amassing at the peripheries of the realm
and not long into his reign the south
finally managed to shake off acadian
rule
though the exact details are lost
several revolts are mentioned in the
acadian sources
but the outcome of these events given
the acadian propensity for propaganda
often remains uncertain
there were several short-lived kings
ruling in agardae after shakhali shari's
death
though their relationship to the acadian
dynasty of sargon isn't clear
the final of these rulers was shu doral
who later texts and traditions maintain
was killed when a people from the zagros
mountains the gutians breached agardai's
walls and set the city on fire
as mentioned earlier though the ruins of
agarde have yet to be found
and so this part of the story cannot yet
be confirmed with archaeology
though surely a city like agade
had to have met its end in a siege
in recent decades a new culprit for the
empire's demise is often named by a
majority of scholars
scientific data suggesting an
unprecedented drought descending on the
land between the two rivers
specifically the northern regions around
accad
an already marginal environment at the
best of times
this drought which also may have put an
end to old kingdom egypt and a variety
of other bronze age states alike
lasted for
years possibly even decades
this new lack of rain would have
resulted in increased desertification
as well as a reduction in the vital flow
of the euphrates and tigris rivers thus
reducing the amount of arable land that
could have been irrigated and farmed
soon leading to famine an overall
collapse of the regional economy
and massive unrest amongst the general
population
in such conditions it would have been
extremely difficult for any ruler to
keep such a large state together
no matter how great
such conditions would also have given
people such as the gutians an
opportunity
and perhaps need to raid acadian lance
and ultimately make it to the capital of
agarde itself
which as later texts make clear
they destroyed
before ruling themselves as the new
lords of mesopotamia for a century or
more
the story doesn't end there though
at least not in the popular sumerian and
acadian literature that would follow a
century or two later
once some semblance of order was
restored by the final sumerian dynasty
that of er which formed its own
successor empire to the acadians
there are several legends about sargon
in particular
mostly revolving around his life and
conquests that were compiled into
various mini epics and recited by poets
and bards as they traveled from city to
city
telling stories of the great figures of
the past
interestingly there were also several
works of literature dealing with the
life of naram sin
but unlike those of sargon they are more
cautionary tales than stories of valor
the most famous of these being the curse
of agarday
a work of fiction loosely based around
historical events
the curse of agarday tells of the fall
of naram sin and the glorious city of
agarde
for reasons unknown to naram sin
enlil the chief deity of the sumerian
pantheon withdraws his favour from the
city
the acadian king implores the gods to
give him a sign or an omen as to how he
can win back their favour
but it's all in vain
after seven years of frustration
in anger naram sin sends his men to
destroy the echo
enlil's holy sanctuary in the city of
nipple
as punishment for his actions enlil
sends the mountain people known as the
gutians along with famine to ravage
agarde and its people
the overall moral of the story is that
no one should question the gods
let alone act with such haste and
disrespect towards them
archaeological findings along with
several texts from naram sin's reign
tend to stand at odds with much of
what's been described in the curse of
agade
and yet the events that may have
ultimately brought about the city's
downfall namely gutien attacks and
widespread famine do seem to have some
basis in history
albeit likely having taken place towards
the end of the reign of his successor
perhaps later misconstrued by
storytellers
in reality naram sin himself was a very
pious individual who as mentioned before
ordered the renovation of the echo
and made it grander than ever before
regardless of their portrayals in later
literature both sargon and naram sin
would be remembered for centuries to
come as two of ancient mesopotamia's
most powerful rulers
their stories and achievements would
inspire many of the kings who would come
after them to establish great empires of
their own
the acadian rulers completely changed
the landscape of the near eastern world
forever
more gone were the days of petty
city-states whose citizens fought wars
over plots of farmland
and whose lives revolved around their
patron deity
as part of the acadian state these
cities became part of a much larger and
more dynamic political entity
unlike anything that had ever been seen
before
thus laying the framework for all
empires to follow
sargon and his descendants opened up a
whole new world for the people of the
ancient near east
that was not sustained by might alone
but through fostering trade and the
exchange of ideas
with most of the known civilizations at
the time
not just this but future empires of the
near east would all imitate aspects of
the acadian model
of administration and centralized
government
for at least two millennia after regard
as fall
and finally the acadians gave the region
and the surrounding areas their language
acadian which became the lingua franca
for the near east until it was replaced
by aramaic nearly 1500 years later
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