In the previous video in our series detailing the history of Ancient Mesopotamia we discussed
the first true Sumerian city at Uruk and its influence on the wider near east. The first
city eventually lost its hegemony over the region and the resulting growth of other Sumerian
polities such as Ur and Lagash began the Early Dynastic Period of 2900 to around 2350BC.
As the third millennium BC went on, intermittent border conflicts between the many Sumerian
city-states gave way to centralisation efforts, which eventually led to King Lugalzagesi unifying
southern Mesopotamia. In this video we will move on and cover the ascension of the Akkadian
Empire and its subsequent fall.
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By 2350BC the realm of king Lugalzagesi had reached its peak; he had many vassal kings
or governors - known as Ensi - under his suzerainty. One of these vassals was Ur-Zababa, the King
of Kish, who would be a central character in the epic that was to come.
Around the same period, it is said that a high priestess placed her illegitimate son
in a basket and floated it down the Euphrates river. Eventually, the young child washed
up on the shore and was retrieved by Akki - the chief gardener to Ur-Zababa, King of
Kish. This man took the young boy as his own son and appointed him as one of the gardeners,
responsible for the clearing and cleaning of irrigation canals. He reports that, during
one day of work, the goddess Inanna came to him and granted him her favour. Meanwhile
Ur-Zababa had a dream, and because of this, appointed the young man - the future Sargon
of Akkad - his cup-bearer. One of their responsibilities was to pour
drinks for the king and therefore appointees had to be trustworthy, so as not to poison
the king. Cup-bearers also generally had great influence due to their intimate position near
the ruler. What happened next is unclear, but it is said that Ur-Zababa had a dream
of himself being drowned by Inanna in a river of blood, while Sargon gained favour with
her. Consequently, he first attempted to have Sargon killed by his chief smith, fearing
his increasing favour from Inanna. He then sent the young man to Lugalzagesi so that
he might kill Sargon. The next portion of the inscription is missing, but Sargon is
King of Kish when it next becomes legible, presumably having deposed Ur-Zababa. The legitimacy
of this origin story is questionable, but his humble beginnings in the tale were likely
an attempt to ingratiate himself with the common people of Sumer and Akkad, in contrast
to the wealthy elite who had ruled the cities previously.
From this new base of power in Kish, Sargon - otherwise known as Sharru-Kin, ‘The Legitimate
King’ - began to forge the first true Empire that the world had yet seen. His first conquests
were to the south, where he won 34 battles, conquering the Sumerian cities of Ur, Lagash,
Umma and others - supposedly defeating 50 Ensi (lesser rulers) on the way.
He finally marched upon the city that Lugalzagesi had taken as his capital - the ancient first
city of Uruk, and vanquished it in battle, capturing Lugalzagesi as he did so. After
pressing further south and reaching the modern Persian Gulf, then known as the ‘Lower Sea’,
he performed the symbolic act of washing his weapons in that body of water, an act symbolising
the conquest of the furthest point south in Sumeria. The victorious Sargon then marched
north once again and led Lugalzagesi to the gates of Enlil’s temple in Nippur, where
he was probably executed. At this point the upstart king performed an
action which once again highlights the role of the gods in ancient Mesopotamia. In return
for the dedication of celebratory monuments in the city of Nippur, Enlil and the religiously
significant Nippur granted their blessing to the new Sargonic Dynasty, continuing the
traditions of the Early Dynastic Period. The burgeoning Akkadian Empire now controlled
Sumer and Akkad, from the Lower Sea to the area just north of the narrowest point between
the Tigris and Euphrates. The new nation bordered Elam to the east, with its capital at Susa,
and Mari to the northwest - further up the Euphrates.
To the north and west of this new Akkadian Empire, the realms of Ebla and Mari had been
involved in intermittent conflicts with one another for decades. These powerful and established
states blocked Akkadian expansion northward for the moment, and instead their attention
turned to the east and to trade. After returning back to his new capital at
Akkad, Sargon prepared another expedition in around 2,330BC. During this campaign he
subjugated and incorporated the Elam capital of Susa briefly into his realm, though its
Awan Dynasty continued to be a threat, moving to the more distant city of Anshan, from which
it menaced lower Mesopotamia and the Persian Gulf region.
The Empire now directly controlled areas from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean, and
the flourishing trade it attracted included plentiful goods from faraway lands. Ships
from ‘Dilmun’, modern day Bahrain, brought copper, tin, ivory and timber, all of which
were lacked in southern Mesopotamia. From ‘Magan’, modern day Oman, came copper
and Diorite - an igneous rock used for sculpture. Most exotic were the traders of Meluhha, who
brought pearls, carnelian [carn’eelian] and silver, as well as animals such as elephants,
monkeys and buffalo. Many Mesopotamian kings for centuries after would use goods from exotic
trade to show their power, likely influenced by Sargon.
In order to legitimise his reign further, the upstart Sargon used religion in a wise
and prominent way. He consistently reiterated that, rather than gaining the Empire himself,
the gods had instead given him the Empire. Moreover he installed his daughter, Enheduanna,
to the position of high priestess at the Temple of Nanna in Ur. She authored several beautiful
hymns to the gods, packed with emotion and imagery.
Her occupying this position would have had several benefits. Ur was one of the wealthiest
Sumerian cities, with much of this wealth likely being tied up in the temple’s holdings,
now under the control of the Emperor’s daughter. This would have also been effective at preventing
rebellions in the proud old city, due to the desire of the residents not to upset their
god by harming their high priestess. To assert control in a more secular manner,
Sargon either introduced native Akkadian governors into conquered cities or maintained the local
native rulers in order to ensure their loyalty and their contribution of taxes, which were
either siphoned away to the capital, or funded the local bureaucracy. In around 2280 BC,
after 56 years of rule, Sargon perished and his son Rimush took the throne in Akkad.
In the ancient world, the period between the death of one ruler and the consolidation of
power by their successor was a good time for rebellion, and this was true even in the very
first Empire. Upon the death of Sargon the Great, the cities of Sumeria, including Ur,
Lagash, Umma and Kazallu rebelled under mutinous Ensi. Rimush put the revolts down, but then
another wave of rebellion broke out a few years later. This later series of uprisings
were probably initiated and supported by Elam as revenge for the repeated Akkadian invasions
and victories over them. After Rimush successfully gained control of
Sumer once again, he attacked Elam and its allies, winning a decisive battle between
Susa and Awan. After nine years of rule from 2279 to 2270 BC, Rimush passed away, and was
succeeded by his brother Manishtusu. Instead of attacking inland, this new warrior king
led an expedition beyond the lower sea along the coast of the Persian Gulf, attacking the
Elamite cities of Anshan and Shirihum. He successfully gained access to the rich silver
mines and diorite quarries in the region beyond Susa on the Iranian plateau, bringing much
of the plunder back to Akkad. After fifteen years of rule, Manishtusu died and was succeeded
as Emperor by his son - Naram-Sin. Unlike his father and uncle, the grandson
of Sargon the Great was a great and powerful ruler in his own right, bringing the First
Empire to its territorial height. This warrior-king, like his two predecessors, had to brutally
put down rebellions against his unpopular dynasty’s rule before he could begin to
govern effectively. This done, he marched into the region of Elam
and consolidated Akkadian control of the region up to the Barahshi border. Susa’s Awan Dynasty
was subjugated by treaty to Naram-Sin at this point but they disappeared from the sources
soon after, replaced by the Emperor’s own officials. It is possible that the King deemed
it simpler to just eliminate the native dynasty in order to maintain control of this established
realm. Naram-Sin next embarked on a naval expedition
against the lands of Magan - modern Oman. He did not set out to conquer the land, but
returned with significant war loot and the glory of his victory. Also noted is the task
of securing the valuable trade routes to this region, in which he was successful.
With affairs to his south and east relatively stable, and although rebellions would continuously
occur in the Sumerian cities, Naram-Sin marshalled his forces and thrust north and west up the
Euphrates. After conquering the kingdoms of Ebla, Mari and Armanum in modern day Syria,
the Akkadian Empire now controlled lands from the Lower Sea to the Upper Sea, whilst also
subduing many nomadic steppe tribes on the Imperial periphery to his will.
At this time, the Emperor’s daughter Taram-Agade [a’ga’day] was married to a ruler in the
Syrian region, likely for diplomatic purposes. After these glorious victories and the attainment
of his empire’s pinnacle of power, Naram-Sin claimed divinity for himself. This is shown
in one of the oldest remaining monuments of the period, now located in the Louvre in Paris
- the Victory Stele [stee’lee] of Naram-Sin. In this representation, the eponymous emperor
stands broad compared to the rest of the soldiers also portrayed, and wears a horned helmet,
which were usually reserved for deities. From this stele, it is clear that the victory is
primarily due to the fact that the Emperor is a god himself. Despite these achievements,
the Akkadian Empire would begin to suffer a series of problems and would soon collapse
under its own weight after Naram-Sin’s death in 2218 BC.
The last true ruler of the first Empire in history was Naram-Sin’s son - Shar-Kali-Sharri.
Problems which had originated in his father’s reign quickly mounted and eventually shattered
the empire, which had begun only a century earlier, culminating in the overrunning of
Sumer and Akkad by the Gutians to the east. The poem known as the Curse of Akkad, written
centuries after the events had occured, attempted to provide a religious explanation for the
Empire’s fall. It stated that Naram-Sin had angered the chief god Enlil by plundering
his temple at the sacred city of Nippur. In punishment for this, Enlil had repaid the
destruction of his ‘Ekur’, or mountain temple, by destroying the Akkadian capital
city and sending Gutians from the Zagros mountains to invade. Many of these events did indeed
occur, but this explanation is not nearly enough to explain the fall of the first empire
the world had yet seen. Instead, many scholars argue that a drought
of apocalyptic scale was responsible for the fall of Akkad and many other civilisations
of the time - such as the enigmatic Indus Valley Civilisation and the New Kingdom of
Egypt. The core of the theory states that outside of the region of Sumer and Akkad,
many of the Imperial subjects relied on regular rainfall for their agricultural production,
rather than irrigation. A severe decline in production led refugees south into the Akkadian
core in hopes of greener pastures, which put massive strains on a system which was already
creaking under the weight of constant rebellion and increasing Gutian raids.
Moreover, it is possible that the increase in Gutian attacks was a result of displacement
from their homeland as a result of the drought. By around 2150 BC, the Gutians swept down
from the mountains in force, defeated the army of the Akkadian rump state and established
a dynasty of their own. Whether the decline and fall of the Akkadian
Empire was due to gods, invasion or drought, it is clear that the existence of this empire
was a landmark moment in history. It provided a benchmark and a blueprint for all empires
to follow and was the first time that an empire, the most popular form of government in the
history of the world, had risen.
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