Akkad Culture

Akkad from 2350 to 2000 BC

Sargon of Akkad conquered the area between the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers around the 2300 BC. The Akkadians had a Semitic language. Sargon was born to an Akkadian high priestess and a poor father. His mother abandoned him by putting him in a basket and letting it float away down the river. But, S

argon was rescued. He became friends with the goddess Ishtar, and was brought up in the king’s court.

When Sargon grew up, he built himself a new city at Akkad and made himself king of it. The he conquered all the land around him.

In this way he built the first empire that we know of: the Akkadian Empire. He also brought the idea that the king should be followed by his sons.

He helped to unify his empire by making his daughter Enheduanna the high priestess for life of the moon god Nanna at Ur. His daughter became very powerful.

Sargon’s sons succeeded him as king of the Akkadians when he died, first one and then the other.

When all of the sons were assassinated, Sargon’s young grandson Naram-Sin became king. He ruled for 56 years and was very successful. He was succeedes by his own son Shar-kali-Sharri, but he failed to hold the Akkadian Empire together, and around 21000 BC the empire gradually fell apart into a bunch of small kingdoms and cities as it had been under the Sumerians.

Reference: akkadians history available in web page: http://history-world.org/akkadians.htm viewed 804/11/14, 20:58)