AKSHAK
![](Umma2350.png)
Approximate
location of Akshak (in brown). Akkad before expansion appears in
green. The territory of Sumer under its last king Lugal-Zage-Si
appears in red. Circa 2350 BC
Akshak
(Sumerian: akšak) was a city of ancient Sumer, situated on
the northern boundary of Akkad, sometimes identified with Babylonian
Upi (Greek Opis). Its exact location is uncertain. Classical writers
located it where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers are closest together
and it was mentioned along with Kish in early records. Archaeologists
in the 1900s placed Akshak at the site of Tel Omar (or Tel Umar)
where a pair of sites straddles the Tigris, but that turned out
to be Seleucia (possibly earlier Upi/Opis) when it was excavated
by LeRoy Waterman of the American Schools of Oriental Research,
though a fragment with the name Akshak was found there. Michael
C. Astour placed it on the Tigris, on what is now the southern outskirts
of Baghdad.
History
:
Akshak first appears in records of ca. 2500 BC. In the Sumerian
text Dumuzid's dream, Dumuzid king of Uruk is said to have been
toppled from his opulence by a hungry mob composed of men from the
major cities of Sumer, including Akshak. Another king of Uruk, Enshakushanna,
is recorded as having plundered Akshak. Following this, Akshak was
at war with Lagash, and was captured by Eannatum, who claims in
one inscription to have smitten its king, Zuzu. The Sumerian king
list mentions Unzi, Undalulu, Urur, Puzur-Nirah, Ishu-Il and Shu-Sin
as kings of Akshak. Puzur-Nirah is also mentioned in the Weidner
Chronicle as reigning in Akshak when a female tavern-keeper, Kug-bau
of Kish, was appointed overlordship over Sumer. Akshak was also
mentioned in tablets found at Ebla. In ca. 2350 BC, Akshak fell
into the hands of Lugalzagesi of Umma. The Akkadian king Shar-Kali-Sharri
reports defeating the Elamites in a battle at Akshak.
Source
:
https://en.wikipedia.org/
wiki/Akshak