Akkadian Empire: A Visual History

The Akkadian Empire was created around 2334 BC when Sargon, a Semitic-speaking cupbearer who seized power in Kish, conquered the Sumerian city-states of southern Mesopotamia and campaigned to Syria, Anatolia and Elam. It is generally counted as the world's first empire. His grandson Naram-Sin extended it further, deified himself and built the great victory stele now in the Louvre. Revolts, the incursions of the Gutians from the Zagros and possibly a severe drought brought it down around 2154 BC. Akkadian became the lingua franca of the Near East for 2,000 years.

When it existed: the era ribbon

The bold bar is Akkadian Empire. The lighter bars are empires and wars from the same era and the same part of the world. Click any bar to jump to its page.

Akkadian territory

Timeline of the Akkadian Empire

1. 2,334 BC
   Sargon takes power
2. 2,300 BC
   Sumer conquered; campaigns to Syria
3. 2,279 BC
   Sargon dies
4. 2,254 BC
   Naram-Sin
5. 2,230 BC
   The Great Revolt crushed
6. 2,218 BC
   Shar-kali-sharri
7. 2,154 BC
   Akkadian Empire endsGutian period.

Sargon

Legend says Sargon was set adrift in a reed basket as a baby and found by a gardener; history says he was cupbearer to the king of Kish, overthrew Lugalzagesi of Uruk, who had united Sumer, and built a new capital at Akkad. He conquered from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean, installed Akkadian governors and his daughter Enheduanna as high priestess of Ur, and reigned about 56 years. He created the first standing army, 5,400 men who 'ate bread before him daily'.

Naram-Sin

Naram-Sin (about 2254-2218) crushed a great revolt of the Sumerian cities, campaigned to Ebla, Armanum and the Zagros, took the title 'king of the four quarters' and had his name written with the divine determinative, the first Mesopotamian king to claim godhood. His victory stele shows him ascending a mountain over the bodies of the Lullubi, wearing the horned crown of a god.

Fall

Later Sumerian tradition, the Curse of Akkad, blamed Naram-Sin's sacrilege at Nippur for the empire's ruin. His son Shar-kali-sharri fought Gutians, Elamites and Amorites; after his death 'who was king? who was not king?' asks the king list. Climate evidence suggests a severe drought around 2200 BC. The Gutians dominated the south until Ur-Nammu's Third Dynasty of Ur restored order around 2112 BC. Akkad itself was abandoned and lost.

Related empires and wars

Chosen automatically by overlap in time and geography, plus a few hand picked connections.

Empires of the same era and region

• Sumer (4,500 BC to 1,900 BC)
• Lagash (2,500 BC to 2,270 BC)
• Neo-Sumerian Empire (Ur III) (2,112 BC to 2,004 BC)
• Elamite Empire (2,700 BC to 539 BC)
• Old Assyrian period (2,025 BC to 1,364 BC)
• First Babylonian Empire (1,894 BC to 1,595 BC)

8 surprising things about the Akkadian Empire

1. Sargon's daughter Enheduanna, high priestess of Ur, is the first author in history whose name is known; her hymns survive.
2. The city of Akkad, one of the greatest of antiquity, has never been located; it probably lies under the modern Tigris near Baghdad.
3. The bronze head of an Akkadian king found at Nineveh, possibly Sargon or Naram-Sin, is one of the earliest life-size metal sculptures.
4. Sargon's birth legend, a baby in a basket on the river, predates the Moses story by over a thousand years.
5. Akkadian remained the diplomatic language of the Near East until the first millennium BC, used even by Egyptian pharaohs.
6. The Curse of Akkad, a Sumerian poem, is the earliest literary account of an empire's fall.
7. Naram-Sin was the first ruler to claim to be a living god, and later kings treated his fate as a warning.
8. The 4.2 kiloyear climate event, a global drought around 2200 BC, is often linked to the empire's collapse.

Sources

• Akkad Encyclopaedia Britannica
• Akkadian Empire Wikipedia
• Akkadian Empire World History Encyclopedia
• Marc Van De Mieroop, A History of the Ancient Near East (2004) Blackwell

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