Empire of Akkad
The Empire of Akkad ( Akkadian : Māt Akkadim; Sumerian : kur A.GA.DÈ ki ; Hebrew : אַכַּד Akkad ) is a state with the capital Akkad in Mesopotamia , which lived there for around 150 years, in the 24th and 23rd centuries BC . Chr., Existed. It is considered to be the first land state in human history that was really organized as such . With the establishment of this state, a Semitic language was also used for the first time , namely Akkadian , which is named after him, official language of a state, which in the following centuries increasingly replaced Sumerian as the spoken language. The establishment of the empire of Akkad is inextricably linked with the dynasty founder Sargon von Akkad , under whom and under whose grandson Naram-Sîn the empire also reached its political climax. Under the following rulers, the empire increasingly lost power, before it lost itself at the end of the 23rd century in a more or less pronounced dark age , at the end of which there was the empire of the 3rd Dynasty of Ur , another highly centralized state, the was ruled for the last time by a Sumerian dynasty.
history
Sargon of Akkad
Sargon of Akkad (2356 to 2300 BC) was the founder of the Empire of Akkad. Little is known for certain about his life; However, there are some legendary reports that are strongly reminiscent of the story of Moses in the Bible and, in this respect, may have primarily pursued legitimizing purposes. In any case, he usurped the throne of the Upper Mesopotamian city-state Kiš in the middle of the 24th century and deposed the local king Ur-Zababa . As part of several wars, he then subjugated Upper Mesopotamia, then the land of Sumer in the south and the eastern areas of Elam and Simurrum . He achieved the most important victory over a coalition of around 50 Sumerian city-states, where he succeeded in arresting Lugalzagesi von Uruk , who for his part also sought to establish a territorial state, and brought him naked to the temple of Enlil in Nippur . Presumably he also led successful campaigns against Mari in the west and Ebla near the Mediterranean. Sargon introduced a uniform system of units of measurement throughout the empire and founded Akkad, a new royal seat, but it has not yet been identified - it is believed that it must have been near what is now Baghdad . He then diverted the long-distance trade coming from Dilmun to this city . In addition to Sargon, his daughter Enhedu'ana is particularly well attested to from this epoch , who was appointed by her father as high priestess of the Sîn in Ur and who seemed to have exercised this office during the reign of Naram-Sîn. Several important literary works of the third millennium BC go on them. BC back.
Maništušu and Rimuš
Sargon was followed by his sons Maništušu and Rimuš , who are less well documented overall. With his obelisk, Maništušu left behind an important document for ancient oriental law , which certified extensive land purchases. These lands were probably used to pay the military. However, the 15-year reign of Maništušu and the subsequent one of Rimuš saw several uprisings among the population in particular. Nevertheless, both were able to carry out several campaigns in the outskirts of the empire.
Naram-Sîn
Naram-Sîn was the son of Maništušu and the most important ruler of the Old Akkadian Empire. He ruled for over 50 years, during which he first conquered the area around today's Mosul , then advanced towards Cilicia and finally subjugated the Amurrites at Jabal Bishri . Campaigns towards Oman are also taking place . After a few years there was a major uprising led by the cities of Kiš and Uruk, both of which he defeated in 9 battles. He pursued the Uruka leader of the coalition as far as northern Syria, where he was finally able to confront him. As a result of this victory, Naram-Sîn was deified .
Sar-kali-Sarri
Sar-kali-šarri took over an empire from his father Naram-Sîn, which already had civil and military problems in many places. However, he succeeded in consolidating his rule, which he used for construction work on the Ekur in Nippur . He entrusted the supervision of this construction work to his military governor Puzur-Aštar . He obtained the wood needed to build this temple and another temple in Babylon during an expedition to the Amanos Dağları . He also advanced to the Tigris source, possibly the Tigris tunnel . Nevertheless, the empire under Sar-kali-šarri became increasingly unstable, as its inscriptions and year names suggest. He too had to fight a great rebellion that forced him to go on an expedition to the Evil Bišri. At Akšak he subjugated a coalition of the Elamites . In a year name he claims to have won a victory over the Guteans , which ultimately led to the collapse of the Akkad Empire. The loss of power was particularly evident in the south of Sumer, where independent dynasties were established in Lagaš , Ur and other places.
Sar-kali-šarri probably fell victim to a palace revolution, as did his two predecessors. The Sumerian King List According anarchy reigned after his death almost in Mesopotamia. Nevertheless, he still had successors, but these are barely comprehensible in the sources.
Capital Akkad
The archaeological remains of Akkad have not yet been located. However, the city name "Agade" appears in Sumerian texts, including the Sumerian King List ; the later Assyrian-Babylonian form Akkadu (m) was probably derived from the Sumerian name. The exact etymology and meaning of the city name are also unknown. More than a millennium later, King Nabonid mentions in his annals that the cult of Ištar was later replaced by that of Anunītum , whose sanctuary was in Sippar - therefore a spatial proximity of Akkad to Sippar was assumed. Nevertheless, despite intensive searches, the city was not found. According to one theory, Akkad was located opposite Sippar on the left bank of the Euphrates and was possibly even the oldest part of Sippar. Others, however, assume that the ruins of Akkad can be found under modern Baghdad . Allegedly, Akkad was destroyed as part of a Gutä incursion at the end of the Akkad Empire.
The oldest known mention of the city of Akkad is an inscription by King Enuk-duanna from the second dynasty of Uruk , in which he claims to have repulsed Akkad - an indication of the existence of the city long before Sargon of Akkad , which the Sumerian list of kings the Attributes the founding of Akkad. In addition, Akkad is mentioned once in the Hebrew Bible. There it says in Gen 10.10 EU : "The core area of his empire was Babel, Erech, Akkad and Kalne in the land of Shinar". The Septuagint refers to the city here with the name "Archad".
literature
- Gebhard J. Selz : Sumerians and Akkadians. 2nd Edition. CHBeck knowledge . Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-406-50874-5 .
- JS Cooper: The Curse of Agade. Baltimore 1983.
- Ignace J. Gelb , B. Kienast: The old Akkadian royal inscriptions of the third millennium BC Chr. Stuttgart 1990, ISBN 3-515-04248-2 .
- J. Goodnick Westenholz: Legends of the Kings of Akkade. Winona Lake, 1997.
- Mario Liverani (Ed.): Akkad, the first World-Empire. Padua 1993.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Frederick C. Mish (Ed.): Akkad. In: Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary. 9th edition. Merriam-Webster, Springfield 1985. ISBN 0-87779-508-8 .
- ^ Mario Liverani: Akkad: The First World Empire: structure, ideology, traditions. Sargon, Padova 1993. (History of the ancient Near East: Studies; 5)
- ^ C. Woods: Bilingualism, Scribal Learning, and the Death of Sumerian. In: Seth L. Sanders (Ed.): Margins of writing: origins of cultures. (Oriental Institute seminars; 2) Chicago University Press, Chicago 2006, pp. 91-120. ISBN 1-885923-39-2 , online version (PDF file; 6.17 MB)
- ↑ I. Rawl. 69, col. ii. 48 and iii. 28.
- ^ Christophe Wall-Romana: An Areal Location of Agade. Journal of Near Eastern Studies 40/3, 1990, pp. 205-245.
- ^ Marc van de Mieroop: Cuneiform texts and the writing of history , 75