AGADE
/ AKKAD
City
State of Agade / Akkad :
Situated
to the immediate north of Sumer, the Akkadians were of Semitic
origin. The people of Mari a little to the north were probably
of the same stock. Their language is first attested in about 2800
BC, and it survived alongside Sumerian until about 1800 BC, when
the latter died out from everyday use.
Under
the rule of Sargon I, the city state of Agade (which was the Sumerian
name for the city in the region of Akkad, known in the Bible as
Accad) rose for a brief time to be a powerful empire, becoming
one of the first to unify the entire south-central Mesopotamian
region. The city was probably located on the west bank of the
Euphrates in central Mesopotamia, between Sippar and Kish.
Its ruins have yet to be found. Although the Sumerian king list
claims that Sargon built Agade, it is mentioned in the reigns
of more than one of his predecessors, such as En-cakanca-ana of
Uruk and Lugalzaggesi
of Uruk, so Sargon was probably just responsible for re-building
and expanding it.
According
to the king list, a total of twelve kings ruled for 197 years,
once (in one dynasty) in Agade (List 1), or eleven kings ruled
for 181 years, or nine kings ruled for 161 / 177 years (List 2).
This is the fifteenth set of entries on the list comprising kings
82-92. Here, List 1 is primarily used, backed up by List 2 (see
Sumer for details). Note that older dating systems place Sargon
at circa 3000 BC, but this appears to be an increasingly inaccurate
estimate.
(Additional
information by Ras Feqade.)
c.2440
BC :
En-cakanca-ana of Uruk conquers Agade, claiming hegemony over
all of Sumer.
fl
c.2350 BC :
Alusarsid
/ Urumus : Existence and location uncertain.
Alusarsid
is an early king of Agade who 'subdued Elam and Barahs (Barahsi?)'.
This is contemporary with the reign of Lugalzaggesi of Umma.
An element of more recent scholarly thinking equates him with
Rimush, the successor of Sargon of the Akkadian empire, below,
suggesting that his name has been misread until now. Alusarsid
has also been placed in 'Kis' or Kish as ruler there, showing
a great deal of ambiguity for this ruler's location and very existence.
Akkadian
Empire :
Sargon
created an Akkadian empire which truly unified Sumer and Akkad
administratively for the first time ever. However, there were
problems, not least because each of the former independent city
states inside the empire resented the imposition of outside control,
and revolts were common.
(Additional
information by Ras Feqade.)
c.2334
- 2279 BC :
Sargon
I the Great : Ruled for 56/55/54
years. Born c.2370.
![](Sumer_Akkad_SargonI_01_full.jpg)
Sargon
the Great, the warrior king of apparently humble origins, unified
Sumer for the first time in recorded history through a series
of campaigns and the defeat of the current holder of Sumer's equivalent
of a high kingship
He
defeats and captures Lugalzaggesi of Uruk and Umma, claiming the
empire and the kingship for his own. Expanding his territory he
defeats Lagash
and Kazallu, invades Syria
and the Levant four times, campaigns against the Gutians,
the Hatti, and
Marhashi, and
creates a realm that stretches from Anatolia and the Mediterranean,
covering the Amorites
(Martu) west of the Euphrates, up to Apum
in northern Mesopotamia, and over to Elam
in the east and Oman in the south. It is possibly he who is responsible
for the destruction of Mari.
He also controls Mesopotamia to the north of Akkad, where the early
Assyrian civilisation is achieving a level of sophistication of
its own, and is enamoured of foreign goods, including those traded
from the Indus Valley.
c.2278
- 2270 BC :
Rimush
/ Rimuc : Son.
Ruled for 9/7/15 years.
Rimush
re-conquers a rebellious Elam and Marhashi (in modern central Iran),
and fights hard to retain the empire, although he is apparently
assassinated. An element of more recent scholarly thinking regards
Rimush as being the same as Alusarsid, the minor ruler of early,
pre-Sargon Agade, although he is still placed after Sargon in the
reignal list.
c.2269
- 2255 BC :
Manishtushu
/ Man-icticcu :
Older
(or younger) brother. Ruled for 15/7 years.
Manishtushu
renovates the Temple of Ishtar, and fights a sea battle against
thirty-two kings who gather against him. Like his brother, he also
seems to die through assassination.
c.2254
- 2218 BC :
Naram-Sin
/ Naram-Suen :
Son.
Ruled for 56 years. Claimed god-like status.
Facing
revolts from the start of his reign, Naram-Sin conquers Ebla in
Syria, defeats a coalition led by Kish, another coalition led by
Uruk (which when combined includes all the major cities of Mesopotamia),
and also attacks Nippur and the Hatti. He places his son, Sharkalisharri,
in control of Nippur and conquers the Lullabi in the north.
With
Agade growing steadily weaker, Elam and Marhashi declare their independence
(although they are re-conquered for a time). It is possible that
Uruk is a key player in the revolts. In a more peaceful moment,
Naram-Sin is able to marry his daughter, Tar'am-Agade, to the king
of Urkesh which is perhaps located on the very edge of Akkadian-controlled
territory in the north.
c.2217
- 2193 BC :
Sharkalisharri
/ Car-kali-carri :
Son.
Ruled for 25/24/29 years. m dau of ruler of Marhashi.
c.2210
BC :
Marhashi
overruns Elam for a time, and unites eastern efforts in fighting
against the Akkadian Empire. A battle is fought near Akshak,
at the confluence of the Diyala and Tigris rivers between the two
states. One of the Marhashi ruler's daughters is married to Sharkalisharri
of Agade or his son, perhaps as a consequence of the battle, and
as a sign of renewed ties of peace.
c.2193
BC :
The
Gutians sweep through southern Mesopotamia and overthrow both Elam
and the Akkadian empire, either during Naram-Sin's reign or that
of his son, ending Sumerian/Akkadian domination of the region. The
Akkadians survive but their power is minimal, their decline helped
along by a series of very brief, non-dynastic rulers. Both Sumer
and Egypt endure a short (climate-induced) dark age at this time,
and very little is known about Agade itself until around 2100 BC.
The
king list now states: 'Who was king? Who was not king? Igigi the
king; Nanum, the king; Imi the king; Elulu, the king - the four
of them were kings but reigned only three years' see below). Civil
war apparently grips the city of Agade. In the north the Hurrians
arise as a notably separate group which begins to dominate the upper
Tigris Valley and the upper Euphrates.
Akkadian
State (Agade) :
A
rump Akkadian state survived the Gutian invasion and managed to
limp on for a further half a century. The Gutians presented themselves
as the true inheritors of the Akkadian Empire. In the now freed
former Akkadian territories of Syria and Canaan, the Khirbet Kerakware
culture emerged.
c.2192
- ? BC :
Igigi
: Ruled for ? years.
Nanium
/ Imi
: Ruled for ? years.
Imi
/ Nanûm
: Ruled for ? years.
Elul-dan
/ Elulu / Ilulu
: Ruled
for ? years.
c.2190
BC :
Dudu,
probably the son of Sharkalisharri, takes control of Agade and restores
a semblance of stability.
![](Sumer_Akkad_Tablet01_full.jpg)
Cuneiform
tablets rarely survive intact, so this Akkadian example which
translates a hymn to the goddess Ishtar from Sumerian is especially
valuable
c.2189
- 2169 BC :
Dudu
: Ruled for 21 years.
c.2168
- 2154 BC :
Shu-Turul
/ Shudurul / Cu-Durul
: Son. Ruled for 15/18
years.
c.2154
BC :
The
Akkadian kingdom collapses and the city is reputedly destroyed,
thoroughly, by the occupying Gutians. The king list says it is destroyed
by Urnigin of Uruk and the kingship carried off there, but this
may instead be a reference to Uruk regaining the advantage in terms
of power. The final Akkadians could be contemporaries of the kings
of Uruk, and both are smashed by the Gutian hordes who are themselves
expelled from Sumer in circa 2120 BC by a later king of Uruk.
c.1897
BC :
Akkad
re-emerges as an Amorite city state within the Babylonian empire,
forming the capital of its northern division.
Source
:
https://www.historyfiles.co.uk/
KingListsMiddEast/
MesopotamiaAkkad.htm
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