1

Preface

This report is about the Akkadian Empire,

which is one of the city states of Mesopotamia
or in Iraq nowadays. In this report, it contains
information about Akkad such as Rise&Fall of
Akkad, art of Akkad, Inventions of Akkad etc.

The reader will gain knowledge of Akkad

from this report and will learn from the failure
from the past and how the daily life was or the
way how can they adapt to the environment.

Finally, this report will be one of the reliable

source for studying Mesopotamia.
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Rise & Fall

The Akkadian Empire was the first empire to rule all of
Mesopotamia. It lasted for around 200 years from 2300 BC to
2100 BC. Sargon the great was the founder of this empire. He was
a great warrior and leader. His images were erected on the shores
of Mediterranean, in token of his victories, and cities and palaces
were built at home with the spoils of the conquered lands. He
ruled the empire by himself for 56 years. When Uruk attacked
Akkad, Sargon had defeated and conquered Uruk. Then he went to
conquer all of the Sumerian city-states as well. He united
northern and southern Mesopotamia under a single ruler. The
Akkadian Empire continued to expand. They attacked and
conquered the Elamites to the east. They moved south to Oman
and they went to the west to the Mediterranean Sea and Syria as
well.

One of the great kings of Akkad was Naram-Sin. He was the

grandson of Sargon the great. He ruled the empire for over 50
years. He is known as king of the four quarters as a reference to
the entire world. At the start of his reign, he faced revolts but he
crushed them quickly and continued to expand the empire. His
reign is considered the peak of the Akkadian empire.

In 2100 BC Ur rose back into power conquering the city of

Akkad. The empire was now ruled by a Sumerian king, but was
still united. By the end of Naram-Sins son, the empire had
weakened, and there was a period of anarchy. however, the empire
was eventually collapsing from the invasion of barbarian peoples
from the Zagros Mountains known as the Gutians.
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Government
The dawn of Akkad started when Sagon the Great
conquered Sumer
There were five rulers of Akkad: Sargon, Rimush,
Manishtusu, Naram-Sin and Shar-Kali-Sharri
Sagon the Great is the most well-known king.

Sagon the Great

Despite Sagons well-known achievement, his untold origin
was worthy to be recognized
Legends tell that Sargon was abandoned in a basket of
reeds in on the River Euphrates and found by a man
collecting water.
Sargon strived and established himself to be the king of
Akkad.

Sagon ruled Akkad for 56 years.

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Sargon the Great either founded or restored the city

of Akkad and ruled from 2334-2279 BCE. He conquered
what he called "the four corners of the universe" and
maintained order in his empire through repeated
military campaigns. The stability provided by this
empire gave rise to the construction of roads, improved
irrigation, a wider sphere of influence in trade, as well
as the above mentioned developments in arts and
sciences. The Akkadian Empire created the first postal
system where clay tablets inscribed in cuneiform
Akkadian script were wrapped in outer clay envelopes
marked with the name and address of the recipient and
the seal of the sender. These letters could not be
opened except by the person they were intended for
because there was no way to open the clay envelope
save by breaking it.
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Economics

First of all, Akkads environment is not as good as Assyria

because its in the south near Sumer. Before the Akkad period,
soil is not quite good, the progressive salinization of the soils,
produced by poorly drained irrigation, had been reduce their
agriculture in the southern part of the country. During
Akkadian period, there were a lot of trouble in this place.
There seems to have a little rainfall level of less than 20mm
(1in) per year, so the result of agriculture is depend on the
irrigation in Akkad. Then the water table was very high and
replenished regularly by winter storms in the headwaters of
the Tigris and Euphrates and from snow-melt. Floods level,
had started falling and then become lower and lower.
However there was a lot of trouble in Akkad, but as you know
Akkad is rich in agriculture. The main reason is because they
started to use irrigation that come from the north, Assyria.
They used this irrigation for many things because this
irrigation had rich in the nutrition with very good soil.

As a result, Akkad become rich in agriculture and then

they start trading things. They making trade with foreign
people, trade their agriculture with the products like metal
and wood. So Akkad had a very good economy.
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Inventions

In the Mesopotamia, there are a lot of empires get to

invent a lot of things. The first invention in the Akkad is the
abacus and the abacus from Mesopotamia's time looks
pretty similar to our abacus from today. They also invent some
other cool things like wheels, not only things but also a road.
Then the abacus was introduced in China by the Silk Route
traders. The Chinese modified the abacus and used it as the
primary tool for calculation in many things such as selling
things, counting, etc.
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Writing

Akkadian was Semitic language spoken between about

2,800 BCE and 500 AD in Mesopotamia. It was named after
the city 'Akkad'. Akkadian was first appeared in Sumerian texts
dating from 2,800 BCE in the form of Akkadian names.
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The Akkadian form was adapted from Sumerian form in

about 2,350 BCE. In the same time, many Sumerian word were
also borrowed into Akkadian. Sumerian logograms were given
both Sumerian and Akkadian reading. The process of adapted
Sumerian to Akkadian language resembles to the way the
Chinese adapted to Japanese language.

A large
corpus of
Akkadian
has been
excavated
such as
Akkadian
text, text
fragments
numbering.
They include mythology, legal and scientific texts,
correspondence, and so on. During 2nd millennium BC
Akkadian language developed into 2 variants. It was Assyrian
and Babylonian, in Assyria and babylon.

Akkadian became the lingua franca of the ancient Near

East, but started to be replaced by Aramaic by the 8th century
BC. After that it continued to be used mainly by scholars and
priests and the last known example of written Akkadian dates
from the 1st century AD.
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Arts

This image of an unidentified Akkadian

ruler (some say it is Sargon, but no one
knows) is one of the most beautiful and
terrifying images in all of Ancient Near
Eastern art. The life-sized bronze head
shows in sharp geometric clarity, locks of
hair, curled lips and a wrinkled brow.
Perhaps more awesome than the
powerful and somber face of this ruler is
the violent attack that mutilated it in
antiquity.

Gilgamesh is the semi-mythic King of Uruk orThe Epic of

Gilgamesh (written c.2150-1400 BCE) the great Sumerian/
Babylonian poetic work which pre-dates Homers writing by
1500 years and, therefore, stands as the oldest piece of
epicwestern literature. Gilgameshs father was the Priest-King
Lugalbanda (whois featuredin twopoems concerning his
magical abilitieswhich pre-date Gilgamesh)and his mother
the goddess Ninsun (the Holy Mother and Great Queen) and,
accordingly, Gilgamesh was a demi-god who was said to have
lived an exceptionally long life (The Sumerian King List
records his reign as 126 years) and to be possessed of super-
human strength.
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Religion

The religion of Akkad is li1le described, usually falling

into the general category of Sumerian religion.
Frequently the term Sumero-Akkadian religion is used, in
which the two systems are dealt with as one larger
system.
The Akkadian had changed li1le aspects of their dei@es,
such as the names of the gods.
For instance, the triad of Sumerian, An, Enlil and Enki
were adapted into Akkadian religion
Changing of names into Akkadian, An became Anu; Enlil
became Bel; and Enki became Ea. This triad is the major
gods of the Sumero-Akkadian Gods.
Besides from the triad gods,Shamash, the god of the
Sun, appeared to emerge to be the most important god.
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Slavery

Slavery began a long time ago but no one is sure when it

began. It is a very important part of many early societies. Both
genders, women and men were captured in wars, this is how
they increased the slave population. When an empire got
captured all their people became slaves. If there were too
many prisoners, they would be slaughtered. Slaves were
expensive to buy. They were thought of property or a tool or
even an animal. Rulers of Mesopotamia made slaves of
civilians and defeated soldiers, or as well sold them for profit.
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Slaves made a lot of bud bricks and made all the

buildings that made the empire stronger. Anything the empire
needed from canals to bridges and roads, slaves would do it.
Owners did not care if they worked the salves too hard or
sometimes even led to death. If free women or men married a
slave, the slave would be free. Any children they made were
totally free.
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Questions
Sumeria

Many historians see Mesopotamia as the birthplace of

civilization. The history of Mesopotamia began thousands of
years ago with the Sumerians.

Sargon of Akkad was able to unite the city-states of Sumer

and create the worlds first empire. What eventually happened
to his empire?

Ans: The empire collapsed and was invaded, eventually, taken

over by the Babylonians. After 180 years, the empire grew
weaker and collapsed in 2154 BC. Even if there was an heir
shown up to have restored some centralized authority but he
was unable to prevent the empire. It collapsed because of the
invasion of barbarian peoples from the Zagros Mountains
known as the Gutians.
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After the fall of Sargon, the city-states remained independent

for a period of time. Eventually they were united again under
the Babylonians. The Babylonians were ruled by a monarch
similar to the Sumerians. Describe the duties that were part of
the kings responsibilities as leader.

Ans: Kings responsibilities are writing the laws and taking

care of his people, expanding the empire to make it bigger
and stronger, as well as doing trades with other cities to bring
wealth to the empire.

Essential Question: Why do civilizations rise and fall?

Ans: There are many reasons to the rise and fall of

civilizations. In old times, where civilization were new, the
rise of civilization occurred by the discovery of agriculture.
The fall of civilization in that time is caused by the inharmony
within the kingdom. In modern times, civilizations rises can
occur by many factors. For instance, Good natural resources
that is good for settle a new city or state, another example is
the overload of territory, so seeking new territory is needed.
The fall of civilization in modern times is exactly like in the
old times, the inharmony among people. The major treat to all
civilization is the rebellion in the kingdom.
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Geography

How did the physical features of a region influence the

development of Mesopotamia?

Ans: Because people knows about irritation. They collects water

from the north of the area. The water from the north has a lot of
nutrition and very good soil which is good for agriculture. And the
soil is good, theres a lot of nutrients which is good for agriculture
so. Now, people knows about agriculture. Then they spread to
different area cause different crops. So this is the reason of the
development in Mesopotamia.

Where is the Civilization located?

Ans: The civilization located is in the Fertile Crescent. The Fertile

Crescent is the region in the Middle East which curves, like a
quarter-moon shape, from the Persian Gulf, through southern Iraq,
Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel and northern Egypt.

How did the physical features of the region influence and lead
to the development of the civilization?

Ans: An agricultural surplus led to the emergence of the

civilization. Then the rise of cities cause the growth of
government. The new social structure, different social classes
emerge. And they did some activity like building temples,
pyramids, etc.
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How did the people of Mesopotamia use their resources to
develop and sustain the civilization/culture?

Ans: When the people of Mesopotamia were satisfied with their

resources, they started to trading things with foreign people. They
traded their resources with things like metal, wood, etc. Since they
had lot of resources, they didnt need to do the same work such as
farmer. They began to do other works such as fisher, black smith,
etc.

Cultural Universal

What influences did government have on the people of

Mesopotamia?

Ans: The government had a direct influence on several

aspects of life that include land use, laws, education, etc.
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Identify and describe the social pyramid of Mesopotamia.

Ans: - King : The kings were at the pinnacle of the social pyramid.
They derived their power from their position as the head of the
government. The word of the king was law.

- Priest : One part of the upper class. Priests were influential

because of the important of religion. As well as they
controlled the distribution of land to farmers and they ran
schools where scribes were taught.

- Scribes : They were educated class. They were able to read

and write. They were sons of the wealthy, and worked either
for temple, the palace, the government, or the army. Some
worked for merchant, or had their own business as public
writers.
- Merchants : The merchants and Artisans were traders and
crafts people. They helped develop society and civilization
by exchanging products and ideas in their territory and
beyond.

- Common People : They made up the lower class. They earned

their living from living off their land, they were farmers. The
husband was the head of the family. The women had more
rights than most ancient civilizations.

- Slaves : They were at the bottom of the social pyramid. They

did household work and chores. They had no rights. They
were owned, and if they tried to escape, they were beaten.
There were 2 types of slaves. Ones that were caught from
battles, and were given to the temple or auctioned off to the
wealthy.
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Was there social mobility?

Ans: Yes, it was easy as well. For example, children would

become a part of the higher social class of their parents if
they were two different classes.

How did religious beliefs affect the lives of the people?

Ans: Since religion can provide people with moral support,

they had something to believe in and hang on to. Specially in
Mesopotamia Era, the people believed in gods and had so
much faith in them. They believed that natural disasters were
gods doing. So, they will do anything and everything to please
their gods.

Interactions / Change over Time

How did the interaction of the people with their environment,

culture, and other civilizations bring about change over time?

Ans: The interaction of people towards their environment

such as growing crops near to the river which help the soil
became fertile, invented new weapons for hunting and
gathered food. Irrigation that supplied water to plants. The
geographical area brings settlement which later became a
city states.
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What evidence of Mesopotamia is present in the modern
world?

Ans: From Akkadian language mixed with Sumerian

language(Cuneiform), they became a formal language for
Mesopotamia. Nowadays these languages are arabic language.

How did the civilization develop, flourish, and change?

Ans: The neolithic revolution brings civilization, we started to

develop after we settled and learn to grow crops which
means we will store more food and were no longer nomadic.
This also create specialization of labour, people have jobs to
do such as farmer, cooker etc. Then the civilization started
after sumer created first written language.

What were the time periods in which the civilization

developed, flourished, and declined or changed?

Ans: Akkad had begun to appear in the 4th millennium BC.

Akkad flourished after Sargon began, it was around 2340 BC.
After more than a century the empire declined and was over
run by mountain tribs or the Gutians.
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References

- https://en.wikipedia.orgwiki/Akkadian_Empire

- http://www.ducksters.com/history/mesopotamia/
akkadian_empire.php

- http://history-world.org/akkadians.htm

- http://mesopotamianempires2012.weebly.com/social-
structure1.html