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Ancient Foundations Unit Two BC * Cradling Civilization

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Ancient Foundations Unit Two BC * Cradling Civilization Marshall High School Mr. Cline Western Civilization I: Ancient Foundations Unit Two BC * Cradling Civilization • The Akkadian Empire • The King • The Akkadian Empire was a monarchy, meaning that it was ruled by a king who inherited his position from a fellow family remember, usually a father or a brother. • In the Akkadian language, the king was referred to as the lugal which translates as ''great man''. • At the time, the lugal was not seen simply as an earthly ruler, but was seen as divine and considered to be one of the gods. • Because of this, the lugal had temples built to honor him. • This added greatly to his prestige as he was viewed as a political and religious figure. • It was also a great innovation; prior to the Akkadian Empire, rulers were viewed as representatives of the people who dealt with the divine world. * Cradling Civilization • The Akkadian Empire • It was also considered normal if a great man or ruler ascended to the heavens as a god following his death. • However, the belief that the current ruler was a living god was a significant change. • Stele of Naram Sin • War and conquest were considered one of the lugal's primary responsibilities, an important duty to expand the empire and protect its people. • The Akkadians were renowned for their military exploits and were even able to launch some of the first coordinated military campaigns in recorded history. • These campaigns were memorialized in one of the most fascinating archaeological finds to be made in Mesopotamia, the Naram Sin Stele. * Cradling Civilization • The Akkadian Empire • Stele of Naram Sin • The Victory Stele of Naram-Sin is a stele that dates to approximately 2254- 2218 BC. It depicts the King Naram-Sin of Akkad leading the Akkadian army to victory over the mountain people, the Lullubi. It shows a narrative of the King crossing the steep slopes into enemy territory; on the left are the ordered imperial forces keeping in rank while marching over the disordered defenders that lay broken and defeated. Naram-Sin in shown as by far the most important figure; he is shown towering over his enemy and troops and all eyes gaze up toward him. The weak and chaotic opposing forces are shown being thrown from atop the mountainside, impaled by spears, fleeing and begging Naram-Sin for mercy as well as being trampled underfoot by Naram-Sin himself. This is supposed to convey their uncivilized and barbaric nature making the conquest justified. * Cradling Civilization • The Akkadian Empire • Akkadian Government • The lugal was also responsible for administering the empire as well as making and enforcing laws. • Although the lugal ruled directly in the city of Akkad, many of the other cities within the empire had more freedom and autonomy. • They were ruled by a group called the ensi who acted as local governors that reported to the lugal. • Often, these ensi were members of the lugal's own family which he had appointed to help maintain order throughout the realm. • The Ensi • The ensi had not originally been simple territorial governors. * Cradling Civilization • The Akkadian Empire • The Ensi • Their position had begun in the days prior to the empire and derived its authority by the candidate ritually wedding the goddess Inanna. • At first they were religious figures, who can be considered priestly rulers, and they outranked the lugal in most cities in the region of Sumeria. • In fact, a lugal would only have been appointed during times of great distress. • By the time of Sargon, however, the lugals had come to outrank the ensi throughout the region. * Cradling Civilization • The Akkadian Empire • The Ensi • As Akkadians expanded control and Sargon forged his empire, he would often appoint relatives to the position of ensi in absorbed cities and by doing so, the ensi were effectively demoted from rulers of a city to the position of territorial governors that ruled at the pleasure of the lugal. • Other Officials • The Akkadian Empire was surprisingly centralized for this era. Trade was strictly controlled by the government, and excess crops and other products were stored either for trade or in case of emergency. • This would have required an army of bureaucrats and palace officials to help the empire continue to run smoothly. * Cradling Civilization • The Akkadian Empire • Other Officials • These bureaucrats would have been literate and placed in charge of keeping records for the lugal, collecting and managing taxes, and transcribing correspondence between the ruler and lower officials or the rulers of other nations. • Other officials would have been responsible for maintaining the empire's road system and the irrigation canals. • Culture • The art that was produced in the Akkadian Empire focused mostly on the rulers and the dynasty. • Not much is known about the architecture of this time period. • Realism was the theme of much of the artwork. * Cradling Civilization • The Akkadian Empire • Culture • In this style, the subject was presented just as it was. Very few frills or imagination was needed for their art. • Due to the close relationship and intermingling of Akkadians and Sumerians, bilingualism developed. • Think of California today and the Spanish and English immersion between English-speakers and Spanish-speakers. This was much the case in the Akkadian Empire. • Components of their separate languages were borrowed and used across the board, although Akkadian eventually became the dominant language in the empire. • Sumerian was still used during rituals and in scholarly communication, such as in science and in literature. * Cradling Civilization • The Akkadian Empire • Culture • People of the Akkadian Empire worshipped several gods who possessed human traits. • Each god was associated with nature in some way and controlled the changing seasons. • The main god was Sargon I, who governed the other gods. • An, the sky-god; Utu, the sun-god; Enlil, the air-god; and Nanna, the moon-god, were all worshipped. • People were even appointed to serve the gods by feeding and clothing them. • Technology and Economy • Agriculture was a huge part of the empire's thriving economy. * Cradling Civilization • The Akkadian Empire • Technology and Economy • Agriculture was a huge part of the empire's thriving economy. • Fortresses were built in Assyria, the northern region, to protect and control its wheat production. • Both this rain-fed region of the empire and the irrigated fields of the south provided food to the people and allowed the empire to amass a strong, formidable military due to the increase of a healthy, well-fed population. • Trade and military conquests allowed the Akkadians access to other needed goods. • The skilled craftsmen of the empire made works from copper and lead, such as a lead statue that Rimush had made of himself and the copper Bassetki Statue. * Cradling Civilization • The Akkadian Empire • Technology and Economy • This was not a common practice at the time, as these two metals were not regularly used in structures or statues. The talent of the Akkadian craftsmen allowed them to create things that had not been conceived or seen before. • In addition to this, the Akkadians built a road system that connected their major cities. • This allowed for easier, faster transportation of people and goods from one place to the other. • They also created a postal service complete with postage stamps in the form of seals made from clay. • An empire-wide calendar was also used by the Akkadians. The years in this calendar were named for the important events from the current ruler's reign. * Cradling Civilization • The Akkadian Empire • The Fall • 80 years later, the King of the City of Ur, Ur-Nammu, was able to recreate Sargon’s empire in what has become known as the Third Dynastic Period of Sumeria. This period saw the empire stretch from Mesopotamia to Elam. • It was during the Third Dynasty that the first ziggurats were constructed. • The same problems that confronted Sargon’s successors faced Ur- Nammu’s, and the empire crumbled again in 2004 B.C., ending the period of dominance of the Sumerians in the world. • Sometime around 2170 BC, the Gutians - barbarians from the Zagros Mountains - invaded and between this invasion and its greatly weakened government, the Akkadian Empire collapsed. * Cradling Civilization • The Akkadian Empire • The Fall • It is not certain, but many scholars believe that before the Gutians invaded, previous conflicts with the Armeni people of Ararat - a region in present-day Turkey - had already started to weaken the military forces of the Akkadian Empire. • Shar-Kali-Sharri, the Akkadian ruler at this time, spent much of his resources and time as ruler fighting off attacks outside of the kingdom as well as internal revolts. • His seeming inability to maintain order within and outside of the empire has been attributed to the Akkadian Empire's collapse. • In addition to this, some scholars speculate that the people also endured a string of bad luck before the Gutian invasion, including a bad harvest and severe climate changes that affected the weather patterns across the empire, weakening the economy. * The Sumerians • Though it ultimately fell, the people of the Akkadian Empire saw a great deal of growth and prosperity. • From the use of new technologies and innovations in farming and the arts to a different type of government with the unification of city- states, this empire set a high bar for others that would come after it. .
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