Akkad (city)

Akkad (city)
Akkad (also spelt Accad, Akkade, or Agade, Akkadian: , also URIKI in Sumerian during the Ur III period) was the capital of the Akkadian Empire, which was the dominant political force in Mesopotamia during a period of about 150 years in the last third of the 3rd millennium BC.
Its location is unknown. In the early days of research various unidentified mounds were considered as the location of Akkade. In modern times most of the attention has focused on an area roughly defined by 1) near Eshnunna, 2) near Sippar, 3) not far from Kish and Babylon, 4) near the Tigris River, and 5) not far from the Diyala River - all within roughly 30 kilometers of modern Baghdad in central Iraq. There are also location proposals as far afield as the Mosul area in northern Iraq.
The main goddess of Akkad was Ishtar-Annunitum, who was called ‘Aštar-annunîtum or "Warlike Ishtar". It has also been suggested that a different aspect, Istar-Ulmašītum, was the patron goddess of the city of Akkad. Her husband Ilaba was also revered in Akkad. Ishtar and Ilaba were later worshipped at Girsu and possibly Sippar in the Old Babylonian period.
The city is possibly mentioned in the Hebrew Bible in the Genesis 10:10 where it is written (ʾĂkăḏ), rendered in the Bible as Accad. The name appears in a list of the cities of Nimrod in Sumer (Shinar).
In the early days of Assyriology, it was suggested that the name of Agade is not of Akkadian language origin. Proposals include Sumerian language, Hurrian language or the Lullubian (though that is unattested). The non-Akkadian origin of the city's name suggests that the site may have already been occupied in pre-Sargonic times.
Sources
A year name of En-šakušuana , king of Uruk and a contemporary of Lugal-zage-si of Umma, was "Year in which En-šakušuana defeated Akkad". This would have been shortly before the rise of the Akkadian Empire and part of his northern campaign that also defeated Kish and Akshak.
A number of fragments of royal statues of Manishtushu (–2255 BC), second Akkadian ruler, all bearing portions of a "standard inscription". It mentions Agade An excerpt:
The inscription on the Bassetki Statue records that the inhabitants of Akkad built a temple for Naram-Sin after he had crushed a revolt against his rule.
It is known from textual sources that the late 19th century BC rulers of Eshnunna performed cultic activities at Akkad.
Based on texts found at Mari, the Amorite king Shamshi-Adad (1808–1776 BC), in the final years of his reign, went to the cities of "Rapiqum and Akkad" (they having been captured earlier by his son Yasmah-Adad) as part of one of his military campaigns, in this case against Eshnunna.
The prologue of the Laws of Hammurabi (circa 1750 BC) includes the phrase "the one who installs Ištar in the temple Eulmaš inside Akkade city". It also holds a list of cities in order along their watercourse ie "... Tutub, Eshnunna, Agade, Ashur, ..." which would place Akkade off the Tigris between Eshnunna and Ashur.
In a centuries later Old Babylonian text purportedly a copy of an original statue inscription Sargon of Akkad (2334–2279 BC) refers to ships being docked at the quay of Agade ie. "Sargon) moo[red] the ships of Meluhha Magan, and Tilmun] a[t the quay of] Ag[ade].".
List of slaves from the Old Babylonian city of Sippar include two female slave who, based on the standard naming scheme, are either from Akkad or were owned by someone from Akkad, ie "Taram-Agade and Taram-Akkadi". The former was also the name of a daughter of Akkadian ruler Naram-Sin several centuries beforehand.
According to a purported brick inscription copy made during the reign of the Neo-Babylonian ruler Nabonidus (556 - 539 BC) many centuries later, the Kassite ruler Kurigalzu I (circa 1375 BC) reported rebuilding the Akitu house of Ishtar at Akkade. Another Nabonidus period copy indicates Kurigalzu (unclear if first of second of that name) left an inscription at Akkade recording his fruitless search for the E.ul.mas (temple of Istar-Annunitum). Nabonidus claimed that the Assyrian ruler Esarhaddon (681–669 BC) had rebuilt the E.ul.mas temple of Istar-Annunitum at Agade.
The Elamite ruler Shutruk-Nakhunte (1184 to 1155 BC) conquered part of Mesopotamia, noting that he defeated Sippar. As part of the spoils some millennium old royal Akkadian statues were taken back to Susa including the Victory Stele of Naram-Sin and a statue of the Akkadian ruler Manishtushu. It is unknown if the statues were taken from Akkad or had been moved to Sippar.
The Achaemenid Empire ruler Cyrus the Great (c. 600–530 BC), after conquering Mesopotamia, wrote
Location
It has been proposed, based on a kudurru dating to the time of Kassite ruler Marduk-nadin-ahhe (1095–1078 BC), with an earlier one dated to the reign of Nebuchadnezzar I (1121–1100 BC), that Akkad had been renamed sometime in the 2nd millennium. The suggestion from the kuduru is that the name would be Dur-Sharru-Kin, which is not to be confused with the Dur-Sharukin built by the Neo-Assyrians in the 8th century BC. The location would be "on the bank of the river Nish-Gatti in the district of Milikku". The most likely site would be Dur-Rimush, lying nine kilometers north of the site of Dur-Sharukin (Tell el-Mjelaat).
The area of the Little Zab river, which originates in Iran and joins the Tigris just south of Al Zab in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, has also been suggested.
A proposed location of Agade is Ishan Mizyad (Tell Mizyad), a large (1,000 meters by 600 meters) low site northwest from Kish and northeast of Babylon. Excavations have shown that the remains at Ishan Mizyad date to the Akkadian period (about 200 Old Akkadian administrative texts found, mainly lists of workers), Ur III period, Isin-Larsa period, and Neo-Babylonian period. Until Neo-Babylonian times a canal ran from Kish to Mizyad.
On the Kassite Land grant to Marduk-apla-iddina I by Meli-Shipak II (1186–1172 BC) the recipient is given cultivated land in the communal land of the city of Agade located around the settlement of Tamakku adjacent to the Nar Sarri (Canal of the King) in Bīt-Piri’-Amurru, north of the "land of Istar-Agade" and east of Kibati canal.
Based on an Old Babylonian period itinerary from Mari which places Akkade between the cities of Sippar (Sippar and Sippar-Amnanum) and Khafajah (Tutub) on a route to Eshnunna, Akkad would be on the Tigris just downstream of the current city of Baghdad, near the crossing of the Tigris and Diyala River. Mari documents also indicate that Akkad is sited at a river crossing.
An Old Babylonian prisoner record from the time of Rīm-Anum of Uruk in the 18th century BC implies that Akkad is in the area of Eshnunna, in the Diyala Valley north-west of Sumer proper. It has also been suggested that Akkad was under the control of Eshnunna in that period. It is also known that the rulers of Eshnunna continued cult activities in the city of Akkad.
Tell Muhammad (possibly Diniktum) in the south-eastern suburbs of Baghdad near the confluence of the Diyala River with the Tigris, has been proposed as a candidate for the location of Akkad. No remains datable to the Akkadian Empire period have been found at the site. Excavations found remains dating to the Isin-Larsa, Old Babylonian, and Kassite periods.
A site, locally called El Sanam, near Qādisiyyah (Kudsia), has been suggested based on the base fragment of an Old Akkadian statue (now in the British Museum) found there. The statue is of black stone and was originally three meters high and thought to be of ruler Rimush. The upper portion of the statue was reportedly destroyed by a local imam for idolatry. The site in question has been partially eroded away by the Tigris and is located between Samarra and the confluence of the Tigiris and ʿAdhaim rivers. The fragment was first observed and described by Claudius Rich in 1821. This location had been suggested much earlier by Lane.
See also
Cities of the Ancient Near East
History of Mesopotamia
List of kings of Akkad
References
Further reading
Naohiko Kawakami, "Searching for the Location of the Ancient City of Akkade in Relation to the Ancient Course of the Tigris Using Historical Geographical and GIS Analyses", AKKADICA, vol. 143, pp. 101–135, 2022
Naohiko Kawakami, "The Location of the Ancient City of Akkade: Review of Past Theories and Identification of Issues for Formulating a Specific Methodology for Searching Akkade", AL-RĀFIDĀN: Journal of Western Asiatic Studies, vol. 45, pp. 45–68, 2023
G.J. P. McEwan, "Agade after the Gutian Destruction: The Afterlife of a Mesopotamian City", AfO Beiheft 19, pp. 8–15, 1982
Nowicki, Stefan, "Sargon of Akkade and his god: Comments on the worship of the god of the father among the ancient Semites", Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 69.1, pp. 63–82, 2016
Sallaberger, W./I. Schrakamp, "Philological data for a historical chronology of Mesopotamia in the 3rd millennium", in: W. Sallaberger/I. Schrakamp (eds.), History & philology, ARCANE 3. Turnhout, pp. 1–13, 2015
Akkadian cities
Akkadian Empire
Lost ancient cities and towns
Archaeological sites in Iraq
Former populated places in Iraq
Levant
Nimrod