Akkad History Origin Of The Name Notes Literature

Akkad (or Agade) was a city and its region of northern Mesopotamia, (located in present-day Iraq) between Assyria to the northwest and Sumer to the south. It reached the height of its power between the 22nd and 18th centuries BC, before the rise of Babylonia. Akkad gave its name to the Akkadian language, reflecting use of akkadû ("in the language of Akkad") in the Old Babylonian period to denote the Semitic version of a Sumerian text.

1 History

The earliest records in Akkadian date to the time of Sargon of Akkad ( 23th century BCE ). While Sargon is traditionally cited as the first ruler of a combined empire of Akkad and Sumer, more recent work suggests that a Sumerian expansion began under a previous king, Lugal-Zage-Si of Uruk. However, Sargon took this process further, conquering many of the surrounding regions to create an empire that reached as far as the Mediterranean Sea and Anatolia.

In the later Assyro-Babylonian literature the name Akkadu, together with Sumer, appears as part of the royal title, as in the non-Semitic lugal Kengi (ki) Uru (ki) or sar mat Sumeri u Akkadi, translating to "king of Sumer and Akkad," which appears to have meant simply "king of Babylonia."

The site of Akkad has not been identified, though texts from as late as the 6th century BCE mention it, and its ruined buildings.

2 Origin of the Name

The city of Akkad is mentioned once in the Old TestamentThe Old Testament or the Hebrew Scriptures constitutes the first major part of the Christian Bible, usually divided into the categories law, history, poetry (or wisdom books) and prophecy. All of those books were written before the birth of Jesus. Canon o ( GenesisThis article is about Genesis the first book of the Hebrew Bible. See Genesis (disambiguation) for other usages of the word. Genesis ( Greek: , having the meanings of "birth", "creation", "cause", "beginning", "source" and "origin"; translated from Hebrew 10:10).

And the beginning of his [ NimrodNimrod ( Hebrew ''Nimrod or Nimrodh was a king of Assyria mentioned in the Book of Genesis in the Bible. According to Hebrew traditions, he was of Mizraim by mother but came from Cush son of Ham and expanded Asshur which he inherited. His name has become's] kingdom was BabelBabel is the name of a site ("a plain in the land of Sennar") where, according to the Bible ( Genesis, 11:1-9), an unsuccessful attempt was made to erect a tower of enough height to reach Heaven the Tower of Babel. God confounded the languages of those wh, and Erech, and Accad, and CalnehCalneh fort In the Bible one of the four cities founded by Nimrod. 10:10) It is identified with the modern Niffer, a lofty mound of earth and rubbish situated in the marshes on the east, bank of the Euphrates, but 30 miles distant from its present course,, in the land of ShinarShinar is a broad designation applied to Mesopotamia that occurs eight times in the Hebrew Bible. In the Book of Genesis x. 10 the beginning of Nimrod's kingdom is said to have been "Babel, and Uruk, and Akkad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. In the fo. ( KJV)

The Greek ( LXX) spelling is Archad.

The name Agade is probably from the Sumerian language, appearing eg. in the Sumerian king list, the later Assyro-Babylonian Semitic form Akkadu ("of or belonging to Akkad") probably being derived from Agade.

It is possible that the name AGA.DE means "Crown of Fire"[1] in allusion to Ishtar, "the brilliant goddess", whose cult was observed in very early times in Agade. This is suggested by the writings of Nabonidus, whose record [2] mentions that Ishtar worship of Agade was later superceded by that of the goddess Anunit , whose shrine was at Sippar. It is significant in this connection that there were two cities named Sippar, one under the protection of Shamash, the sun-god, and one under Anunit,suggesting proximity of Sippar and Agade. One theory held was ( As of 1911) that Agade was situated opposite Sippar on the left bank of the Euphrates, and was probably the oldest part of the city of Sippar.

2.1 Notes

prince, "Materials for a Sumerian Lexicon," pp. 23, 73, Journal of Biblical Literature, 1906.
I. Rawl. 69, col. ii. 48 and iii. 28.

3 Literature

A. Leo Oppenheim , Ancient Mesopotamia: Portrait of a Dead Civilization

4 See also

5 External link

Akkad History: from The History of the Ancient Near East

This article incorporates text from the public domain 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica. 1911 Britannica

Babylonia Assyria

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