The First Empires
Published on Nov 28, 2015
A short Presentation about the The Akkadian Empire.
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The First Empires
Photo by Stuck in Customs
WHICH WAS THE WORLD'S FIRST EMPIRE?
As far as we know, the world's first empire was formed about 2250 B.C., by Sargon the Great, in Mesopotamia. His empire included the Sumerian cities of the Tigris-Euphrates Delta. After taking control of these, Sargon went into Syria to the Taurus Mountains near Cyprus. Sargon is, less plausibly, said to have gone into Egypt, India, and Ethiopia. The capital of Sargon's empire was at Agade (Akkad), a city whose precise location is not known for certain, but which gave its name to the empire, Akkadian.
Photo by seyed mostafa zamani
The Akkadian empire spanned 800 miles and prospered for a century. Anthropologist Carla Sinopoli, who provides a useful definition of empire, lists the Akkadian Empire as among those lasting two centuries.
During the 3rd millennium BC, there developed a very intimate cultural symbiosis between the Sumerians and the Semitic Akkadians, which included widespread bilingualism. Akkadian gradually replaced Sumerian as a spoken language somewhere around the turn of the 3rd and the 2nd millennium BC (the exact dating being a matter of debate).
The Akkadian Empire reached its political peak between the 24th and 22nd centuries BC, following the conquests by its founder Sargon of Akkad (2334–2279 BC). Under Sargon and his successors, Akkadian language was briefly imposed on neighboring conquered states such as Elam. Akkad is sometimes regarded as the first empire in history, though there are earlier Sumerian claimants.
After the fall of the Akkadian Empire, the Akkadian people of Mesopotamia eventually coalesced into two major Akkadian speaking nations: Assyria in the north, and, a few centuries later, Babylonia in the south.
Origins
Speakers of the Akkadian language seem to have already been present in Mesopotamia at the dawn of the historical period, and soon achieved pre-eminence with the first Dynasty of Kish and numerous localities to the north of Sumer, where rulers with Akkadian names had already established themselves by the 3rd millennium BC. The king Sargon has often been cited as the first ruler of a combined empire of Akkad and Sumer, although more recently discovered data suggests there had been Sumerian expansions under previous kings, including Lugal-Anne-Mundu of Adab, Eannatum of Lagash, and Lugal-Zage-Si.
Sargon of Akkad (Sharru-kin = "legitimate king", possibly a title he took on gaining power) defeated and captured Lugal-Zage-Si in the Battle of Uruk and conquered his empire. The earliest records in the Akkadian language date to the time of Sargon. Sargon was claimed to be the son of La'ibum or Itti-Bel, a humble gardener, and possibly a hierodule, or priestess to Ishtar or Inanna.
Collapse of the Akkadian Empire
The Empire of Akkad collapsed in 2154 BC, within 180 years of its founding, ushering in a Dark Age period of regional decline that lasted until the rise of the Third Dynasty of Ur in 2112 BC. By the end of the reign of Naram-Sin's son, Shar-kali-sharri (2217–2193 BC), the empire had weakened. There was a period of anarchy between 2192 BC and 2168 BC. Shu-Durul (2168–2154 BC) appears to have restored some centralized authority, however he was unable to prevent the empire eventually collapsing outright from the invasion of barbarian peoples from the Zagros Mountains known as the Gutians.
Little is known about the Gutian period, or how long it endured. Cuneiform sources suggest that the Gutians' administration showed little concern for maintaining agriculture, written records, or public safety; they reputedly released all farm animals to roam about Mesopotamia freely, and soon brought about famine and rocketing grain prices. The decline coincided with severe drought, possibly connected with climatic changes reaching all across the area from Egypt to Greece. The Sumerian king Ur-Nammu (2112–2095 BC) cleared the Gutians from Mesopotamia during his reign.
tHE fIRST eMPIRES
BY MOHAMED YUSUF
