Summer and Akkad

Geographical Context

The Fertile Crescent

Ubaid Culture

• Roughly 6000 – 3500 BC.• First pottery• First settled ‘towns’• “The creators of the Ubaid… were heirs to cumulative developments

in the long history of agricultural village life in the Near East” (Hout1992, 188).

SumeriansArrived from Asia ca 3900 – 3500Unique language that resembles Turkic and Hungarian

• Brought (?) Copper tech.• Applied to irrigation• Kish or Uruk earliest city• Competing city states• Legend of the Flood• Legends of divine parentage

Sumer

Kuhrt

• Kuhrt, Amelie. 1995. The Ancient Near East.• Cultural parallelism

• Semitic words in Sumerian texts• Diversity of land ownership• Monarchy more than theocracy

• Contra Edgar et al.

City Rivalries

• Eannatum, king of Lagash• Ca. 2450 BC• Conquered the cities of Sumer• Vulture Stele commemorates victory over Enakalle of Umma

The Vulture Stele

The Vulture Stele

• Winter, Irene. 1985. After the Battle is Over: The “Stele of the Vultures” and the Beninning of Historical Narrative in the Art of the Ancient Near East. Studies in the History of Art 16, Symposium Papers IV: PictoralNarrative in Antiquity and the Middle Ages: 11 – 32.

Sargon of Akkad (Agade)

• Lugalzagesi• Ruler of Uruk• Hegemon of Sumerian empire

• Sargon• Ruler of Akkad (2296 - 2240)• Semitic• Begins a literary tradition of pasts remembered (recreated).

The Dynasty of Sargon

• Sargon (2296 -2240)• Rimush (2239 – 2230)• Manishtushu (2229 – 2214)• Naram Sin (2213 – 2176)• Sharkalisharri (2175 – 2150)• …but these dates are disputed

Ur – The Sumerian Renaissence

• Utuhegal (2119 – 2113)• Ur-Nammu (2112 – 2095)• Shulgi (2094 – 2047)• Amar –Sin (2046 – 2038)• Shu-Sin (2037 – 2027)• Ibbi-Sin (2026 – 2004)

Material Record

Cylinder Seals

Cuneiform

Bronze• Ca. 3000 BC

• Mix of copper and tin• Lagash:

• the soldiers of Eanatum (2455-2425 BC.) wear metal helmets and are arranged in columns.

By the time of Sargon of Akkad "bronze had become the weapon of conquerors" (Keegan 1993: 134).