Sargon of Akkad (; ; died 2279 BC), also known as Sargon the Great, was the first ruler of the

Akkadian Empire The Akkadian Empire () was the first known empire, succeeding the long-lived city-states of Sumer. Centered on the city of Akkad (city), Akkad ( or ) and its surrounding region, the empire united Akkadian language, Akkadian and Sumerian languag ...

, known for his conquests of the

Sumer Sumer () is the earliest known civilization, located in the historical region of southern Mesopotamia (now south-central Iraq), emerging during the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age, early Bronze Ages between the sixth and fifth millennium BC. ...

ian

city-state A city-state is an independent sovereign city which serves as the center of political, economic, and cultural life over its contiguous territory. They have existed in many parts of the world throughout history, including cities such as Rome, ...

s in the 24th to 23rd centuries BC.The date of the reign of Sargon is highly uncertain, depending entirely on the (conflicting) regnal years given in the various copies of the Sumerian King List, specifically the uncertain duration of the Gutian dynasty. The added regnal years of the Sargonic and the Gutian dynasties have to be subtracted from the accession of Ur-Nammu of the Third Dynasty of Ur, which is variously dated to either 2047 BC ( Short Chronology) or 2112 BC ( Middle Chronology). An accession date of Sargon of 2334 BC assumes: (1) a Sargonic dynasty of 180 years (fall of Akkad 2154 BC), (2) a Gutian interregnum of 42 years and (3) the Middle Chronology accession year of Ur-Nammu (2112 BC). He is sometimes identified as the first person in

recorded history Recorded history or written history describes the historical events that have been recorded in a written form or other documented communication which are subsequently evaluated by historians using the historical method. For broader world h ...

to rule over an

empire An empire is a political unit made up of several territories, military outpost (military), outposts, and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a hegemony, dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the ...

. He was the founder of the "Sargonic" or "Old Akkadian" dynasty, which ruled for about a century after his death until the Gutian conquest of Sumer. The Sumerian King List makes him the cup-bearer to King Ur-Zababa of Kish before Sargon became a king himself. His empire, which he ruled from his archaeologically as yet unidentified capital, Akkad, is thought to have included most of

Mesopotamia Mesopotamia is a historical region of West Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the Fertile Crescent. Today, Mesopotamia is known as present-day Iraq and forms the eastern geographic boundary of ...

and parts of the Levant, Hurrian and Elamite territory. Sargon appears as a legendary figure in Neo-Assyrian literature of the 8th to 7th centuries BC. Tablets with fragments of a ''Sargon Birth Legend'' were found in the

Library of Ashurbanipal The Royal Library of Ashurbanipal, named after Ashurbanipal, the last great king of the Assyrian Empire, is a collection of more than 30,000 clay tablets and fragments containing texts of all kinds from the 7th century BCE, including texts in ...

Name

The Akkadian name is normalized as either ''Šarru-ukīn'' or ''Šarru-kēn''. The name's cuneiform spelling is variously LUGAL-''ú-kin'', ''šar-ru-gen''₆, ''šar-ru-ki-in'', ''šar-ru-um-ki-in''. In Old Babylonian tablets relating the legends of Sargon, his name is transcribed as (''Šar-ru-um-ki-in'').Cooper, Jerrold S. and Wolfgang Heimpel, "The Sumerian Sargon Legend", Journal of the American Oriental Society, vol. 103, no. 1, pp. 67–82, January–March 1983 In Late Assyrian references, the name is mostly spelled as LUGAL-GI.NA or LUGAL-GIN, i.e. identical to the name of the Neo-Assyrian king Sargon II.Eckart Frahm
"Observations on the Name and Age of Sargon II and on Some Patterns of Assyrian Royal Onomastics"
''NABU'' 2005.2, 46–50. The spelling ''Sargon'' is derived from the single mention of the name (in reference to Sargon II) in the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. '' Isaiah 20:1. The first element in the name is '' šarru'', the Akkadian (East Semitic) for "king" (cf. Hebrew ''śar'' ). The second element is derived from the verb ''kīnum'' "to confirm, establish" (related to Hebrew ''kūn'' ). A possible interpretation of the reading ''Šarru-ukīn'' is "the king has established (stability)" or "he he godhas established the king". Such a name would however be unusual; other names in ''-ukīn'' always include both a subject and an object, as in ''Šamaš-šuma-ukīn'' "

Shamash Shamash (Akkadian language, Akkadian: ''šamaš''), also known as Utu (Sumerian language, Sumerian: dutu "Sun") was the List of Mesopotamian deities, ancient Mesopotamian Solar deity, sun god. He was believed to see everything that happened in t ...

has established an heir". There is some debate over whether the name was an adopted regnal name or a birth name. The reading ''Šarru-kēn'' has been interpreted adjectivally, as "the king is established; legitimate", expanded as a phrase ''šarrum ki(e)num''. The terms "Pre-Sargonic" and "Post-Sargonic" were used in Assyriology based on the chronologies of Nabonidus before the historical existence of Sargon of Akkad was confirmed. The form ''Šarru-ukīn'' was known from the Assyrian Sargon Legend discovered in 1867 in

at Nineveh. A contemporary reference to Sargon thought to have been found on the cylinder seal of Ibni-sharru, a high-ranking official serving under Sargon. Joachim Menant published a description of this seal in 1877, reading the king's name as ''Shegani-shar-lukh'', and did not yet identify it with "Sargon the Elder" (who was identified with the Old Assyrian king Sargon I). In 1883, the British Museum acquired the "mace-head of Shar-Gani-sharri", a votive gift deposited at the temple of Shamash in

Sippar Sippar (Sumerian language, Sumerian: , Zimbir) (also Sippir or Sippara) was an ancient Near Eastern Sumerian and later Babylonian city on the east bank of the Euphrates river. Its ''Tell (archaeology), tell'' is located at the site of modern Tell ...

. This "Shar-Gani" was identified with the Sargon of Agade of Assyrian legend. The identification of "Shar-Gani-sharri" with Sargon was recognised as mistaken in the 1910s. Shar-Gani-sharri ( Shar-Kali-Sharri) is, in fact, Sargon's great-grandson, the successor of Naram-Sin. It is not entirely clear whether the Neo-Assyrian king Sargon II was directly named for Sargon of Akkad, as there is some uncertainty whether his name should be rendered ''Šarru-ukīn'' or as ''Šarru-kēn(u)''.

Chronology

Primary sources pertaining to Sargon are sparse; the main near-contemporary reference is that in the various versions of the '' Sumerian King List''. Here, Sargon is mentioned as the son of a gardener, former cup-bearer of Ur-Zababa of Kish. He usurped the kingship from Lugal-zage-si of

Uruk Uruk, the archeological site known today as Warka, was an ancient city in the Near East, located east of the current bed of the Euphrates River, on an ancient, now-dried channel of the river in Muthanna Governorate, Iraq. The site lies 93 kilo ...

and took it to his own city of Akkad. The later (early 2nd millennium BC) Weidner chronicle has Sargon ruling directly after Ur-Zababa and does not mention Lugal-zage-si. Various copies of the king list give the duration of his reign as either 40 or 54–56 years. Only a few contemporary inscriptions relating to Sargon exist, though there are a number of Old Babylonian period texts that purport to be copies of earlier inscriptions of Sargon. In absolute years, his reign would correspond to c. 2334–2279 BC in the middle chronology. His successors until the Gutian conquest of Sumer are also known as the "Sargonic Dynasty" and their rule as the "Sargonic Period" of Mesopotamian history. Foster (1982) argued that the reading of 55 years as the duration of Sargon's reign was, in fact, a corruption of an original interpretation of 37 years. An older version of the king list gives Sargon's reign as lasting for 40 years. Thorkild Jacobsen marked the clause about Sargon's father being a gardener as a lacuna, indicating his uncertainty about its meaning. The claim that Sargon was the original founder of Akkad has been called into question with the discovery of an inscription mentioning the place and dated to the first year of Enshakushanna, who almost certainly preceded him. The ''Weidner Chronicle'' ( ABC 19:51) states that it was Sargon who "built Babylon in front of Akkad". The '' Chronicle of Early Kings'' (ABC 20:18–19) likewise states that late in his reign, Sargon "dug up the soil of the pit of Babylon, and made a counterpart of Babylon next to Agade". Van de Mieroop suggested that those two chronicles may refer to the much later Assyrian king, Sargon II of the

Neo-Assyrian Empire The Neo-Assyrian Empire was the fourth and penultimate stage of ancient Assyrian history. Beginning with the accession of Adad-nirari II in 911 BC, the Neo-Assyrian Empire grew to dominate the ancient Near East and parts of South Caucasus, Nort ...

, rather than to Sargon of Akkad.

Year names

While various copies of the Sumerian king list and later Babylonian chronicles credit Sargon with a reign length ranging from 34 to 56 years, dated documents have been found for only four different year-names of his actual reign. The names of these four years describe his campaigns against Elam, Mari, Simurrum, and Uru'a/Arawa (in western Elam).

Historiography

Numerous other inscriptions related to Sargon are known.

Nippur inscription

Prisoners on the victory stele of an Akkadian king circa 2300 BCE Louvre Museum Sb 3

Among the most important sources for Sargon's reign is a tablet, in two fragments, of the Old Babylonian period recovered at Nippur in the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

expedition in the 1890s. The tablet is a copy of the inscriptions on the pedestal of a statue erected by Sargon in the temple of Enlil. Fragment one (CBS 13972) was edited by Arno Poebel and fragment two (Ni 3200) by Leon Legrain.

Conquest of Sumer

In the inscription, Sargon styles himself "Sargon, king of Akkad, overseer (''mashkim'') of Inanna, king of Kish, anointed (''guda'') of Anu, king of the land esopotamia governor (''ensi'') of Enlil". It celebrates the conquest of

and the defeat of Lugalzagesi, whom Sargon brought "in a collar to the gate of Enlil":Mario Liverani, "The Ancient Near East: History", Routledge (2013)
p. 143
/ref> Sargon then conquered Ur and E-Ninmar and "laid waste" the territory from

Lagash Lagash (; cuneiform: LAGAŠKI; Sumerian language, Sumerian: ''Lagaš'') was an ancient city-state located northwest of the junction of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers and east of Uruk, about east of the modern town of Al-Shatrah, Iraq. Lagash ( ...

to the sea, and from there went on to conquer and destroy Umma:

Conquest of Upper Mesopotamia, as far as the Mediterranean Sea

Submitting himself to the (Levantine god) Dagan, Sargon conquered territories of

Upper Mesopotamia Upper Mesopotamia constitutes the Upland and lowland, uplands and great outwash plain of northwestern Iraq, northeastern Syria and southeastern Turkey, in the northern Middle East. Since the early Muslim conquests of the mid-7th century, the regio ...

and the Levant, including Mari, Yarmuti ( Jarmuth?) and Ibla "up to the Cedar Forest (the Amanus) and up to the Silver Mountain ( Aladagh?)", ruling from the "upper sea" (Mediterranean) to the "lower sea" (Persian Gulf).

Conquests of Elam and Marhashi

Sargon also claims in his inscriptions that he is "Sargon, king of the world, conqueror of Elam and Parahshum", the two major polities to the east of Sumer. He also names various rulers of the east whom he vanquished, such as " Luh-uh-ish-an, son of Hishibrasini, king of Elam, king of Elam" or "Sidga'u, general of Parahshum", who later also appears in an inscription by Rimush. Sargon triumphed over 34 cities in total. Ships from Meluhha,

Magan Magan may refer to: Places * Magan (civilization) * Magan, Russia * Magan Airport * Magán, Spain *Magan, alternative name of Mahin, a village in Iran * Aman Magan, a village in Iran People * Magan (name) Film and television *'' Azhagiya Tamil ...

and Dilmun, rode at anchor in his capital of Akkad. He entertained a court or standing army of 5,400 men who "ate bread daily before him".

Later literary composition on Sargon

Sargon Epos

A group of four Babylonian texts, summarized as "Sargon Epos" or ''Res Gestae Sargonis'', shows Sargon as a military commander asking the advice of many subordinates before going on campaigns. The narrative of ''Sargon, the Conquering Hero,'' is set at Sargon's court, in a situation of crisis. Sargon addresses his warriors, praising the virtue of heroism, and a lecture by a courtier on the glory achieved by a champion of the army, a narrative relating a campaign of Sargon's into the far land of ''Uta-raspashtim'', including an account of a "darkening of the Sun" and the conquest of the land of ''Simurrum'', and a concluding oration by Sargon listing his conquests. The narrative of '' King of Battle'' relates Sargon's campaign against the Anatolian city of Purushanda in order to protect his merchants. Versions of this narrative in both Hittite and Akkadian have been found. The Hittite version is extant in six fragments, the Akkadian version is known from several manuscripts found at Amarna, Assur, and Nineveh.
Joan Goodnick Westenholz, "Legends of the Kings of Akkade: The Texts", Eisenbrauns, 1997 The narrative is anachronistic, portraying Sargon in a 19th-century milieu. The same text mentions that Sargon crossed the Sea of the West (

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern Eur ...

) and ended up in Kuppara, which some authors have interpreted as the Akkadian word for Keftiu, an ancient locale usually associated with

Crete Crete ( ; , Modern Greek, Modern: , Ancient Greek, Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the List of islands by area, 88th largest island in the world and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, fifth la ...

Cyprus Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the List of isl ...

. Famine and war threatened Sargon's empire during the latter years of his reign. The ''Chronicle of Early Kings'' reports that revolts broke out throughout the area under the last years of his overlordship: A. Leo Oppenheim translates the last sentence as "From the East to the West he .e. Mardukalienated (them) from him and inflicted upon (him as punishment) that he could not rest (in his grave)."

''Chronicle of Early Kings''

Shortly after securing Sumer, Sargon embarked on a series of campaigns to subjugate the entire

Fertile Crescent The Fertile Crescent () is a crescent-shaped region in the Middle East, spanning modern-day Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, and Syria, together with northern Kuwait, south-eastern Turkey, and western Iran. Some authors also include ...

. According to the '' Chronicle of Early Kings'', a later Babylonian historiographical text: In the east, Sargon defeated four leaders of Elam, led by the king of Awan. Their cities were sacked; the governors, viceroys, and kings of Susa, Waraḫše, and neighboring districts became vassals of Akkad.

Origin legends

Sargon became the subject of legendary narratives describing his rise to power from humble origins and his conquest of Mesopotamia in later Assyrian and Babylonian literature. Apart from these secondary, and partly legendary, accounts, there are many inscriptions due to Sargon himself, although the majority of these are known only from much later copies. The

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is a national art museum in Paris, France, and one of the most famous museums in the world. It is located on the Rive Droite, Right Bank of the Seine in the city's 1st arrondissement of Paris, 1st arron ...

has fragments of two Sargonic victory steles recovered from Susa (where they were presumably transported from Mesopotamia in the 12th century BC).

Sumerian legend

The Sumerian-language ''Sargon legend'' contains a legendary account of Sargon's rise to power. It is an older version of the previously known Assyrian legend, discovered in 1974 in Nippur and first edited in 1983. Subsequent scholarship questioned if the two fragments were actually a join, or were even from two different texts. The initial translation has also been questioned. The extant versions are incomplete, but the surviving two fragments name Sargon's father as La'ibum. After a lacuna, the text skips to Ur-Zababa, king of Kish, who awakens after a dream, the contents of which are not revealed on the surviving portion of the tablet. For unknown reasons, Ur-Zababa appoints Sargon as his cup-bearer. Soon after this, Ur-Zababa invites Sargon to his chambers to discuss a dream of Sargon's, involving the favor of the goddess Inanna and the drowning of Ur-Zababa by the goddess in a river of blood. Deeply frightened, Ur-Zababa orders Sargon murdered by the hands of Beliš-tikal, the chief smith, but Inanna prevents it, demanding that Sargon stop at the gates because of his being "polluted with blood". When Sargon returns to Ur-Zababa, the king becomes frightened again and decides to send Sargon to king Lugal-zage-si of

with a message on a clay tablet asking him to slay Sargon. The legend breaks off at this point; presumably, the missing sections described how Sargon becomes king. 2015-12 Birth Sargon of Akkad Louvre-AO 7673

2015-12 Birth Sargon of Akkad Louvre-AO 7673

The part of the interpretation of the king's dream has parallels to the biblical story of Joseph, the part about the letter with the carrier's death sentence has similarities to the Greek story of Bellerophon and the biblical story of Uriah.

Birth legend

A Neo-Assyrian text from the 7th century BC purporting to be Sargon's autobiography asserts that the great king was the illegitimate son of a priestess. Only the beginning of the text (the first two columns) is known, from the fragments of three manuscripts. The first fragments were discovered as early as 1850. Sargon's birth and his early childhood are described thus: Similarities between the Sargon Birth Legend and other infant birth exposures in ancient literature, including Moses, Karna, and Oedipus, were noted by psychoanalyst Otto Rank in his 1909 book ''

The Myth of the Birth of the Hero ''The Myth of the Birth of the Hero'' () is a book by Austrians, Austrian psychoanalyst Otto Rank in which the author puts forth a psychoanalytical interpretation of mythological heroes, specifically with regard to legends about their births. The ...

''. The legend was also studied in detail by Brian Lewis, and compared with many different examples of the infant birth exposure motif found in Eurasian folktales. He discusses a possible archetype form, giving particular attention to the Sargon legend and the account of the birth of Moses. Joseph Campbell has also made such comparisons. Sargon is also one of the many suggestions for the identity or inspiration for the biblical

Nimrod Nimrod is a Hebrew Bible, biblical figure mentioned in the Book of Genesis and Books of Chronicles, the Books of Chronicles. The son of Cush (Bible), Cush and therefore the great-grandson of Noah, Nimrod was described as a king in the land of Sh ...

. Ewing William (1910) suggested Sargon based on his unification of the Babylonians and the Neo-Assyrian birth legend. Yigal Levin (2002) suggested that Nimrod was a recollection of Sargon and his grandson Naram-Sin, with the name "Nimrod" derived from the latter.

Family

The name of Sargon's main wife, Queen Tashlultum, and those of a number of his children are known to us. His daughter Enheduanna was a high priestess of the moon God in Ur who composed ritual hymns. Many of her works, including her ''Exaltation of Inanna'', were in use for centuries thereafter. Sargon was succeeded by his son Rimush; after Rimush's death another son, Manishtushu, became king. Manishtushu would be succeeded by his own son, Naram-Sin. Two other sons, Shu-Enlil (Ibarum) and Ilaba'is-takal (Abaish-Takal), are known. Sargon of Akkad is sometimes identified as the first person in

to rule over an

(in the sense of the central government of a multi-ethnic territory), although earlier Sumerian rulers such as Lugal-zage-si might have a similar claim. His rule also heralds the history of Semitic empires in the Ancient Near East, which, following the Neo-Sumerian interruption (21st/20th centuries BC), lasted for close to fifteen centuries until the Achaemenid conquest following the 539 BC Battle of Opis. Sargon was regarded as a model by Mesopotamian kings for some two millennia after his death. The Assyrian and Babylonian kings who based their empires in Mesopotamia saw themselves as the heirs of Sargon's empire. Sargon may indeed have introduced the notion of "empire" as understood in the later Assyrian period; the Neo-Assyrian ''Sargon Text'', written in the first person, has Sargon challenging later rulers to "govern the black-headed people" (i.e. the indigenous population of Mesopotamia) as he did. An important source for "Sargonic heroes" in oral tradition in the later Bronze Age is a Middle Hittite (15th century BC) record of a Hurro-Hittite song, which calls upon Sargon and his immediate successors as "deified kings" (^d''šarrena''). Sargon shared his name with two later Mesopotamian kings. Sargon I was a king of the Old Assyrian period presumably named after Sargon of Akkad. Sargon II was a Neo-Assyrian king named after Sargon of Akkad; it is this king whose name was rendered ''Sargon'' () in the Hebrew Bible ( Isaiah 20:1). Neo-Babylonian king

Nabonidus Nabonidus (Babylonian cuneiform: ''Nabû-naʾid'', meaning "May Nabu be exalted" or "Nabu is praised") was the last king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, ruling from 556 BC to the fall of Babylon to the Achaemenian Empire under Cyrus the Great in 53 ...

showed great interest in the history of the Sargonid dynasty and even conducted excavations of Sargon's palaces and those of his successors.Oates, John. ''Babylon''. London: Thames and Hudson, 1979, p. 162.

In popular culture

Battle between the Sumerians and Semites

The fanciful adventure film '' The Scorpion King: Rise of a Warrior'' (2008) imagines Sargon of Akkad as a murderous army commander wielding black magic. He is the film's main villain, portrayed by

Randy Couture Randall Duane Couture (; born June 22, 1963) is an American mixed martial arts commentator, actor, former United States Army sergeant, former professional mixed martial artist, and former Collegiate wrestling, collegiate and Greco-Roman wrestlin ...

. The twentieth episode of the second season of '' Star Trek: The Original Series'', " Return to Tomorrow", features an ancient, telepathic alien named Sargon who once ruled a mighty empire. American Rock Group

They Might Be Giants They Might Be Giants, often abbreviated as TMBG, is an American alternative rock and Children's music, children's band formed in 1982 by John Flansburgh and John Linnell. During TMBG's early years, Flansburgh and Linnell frequently performed as ...

refer to Sargon of Akkad in the track "The Mesopotamians" on their 2007 album The Else, along with Hammurabi, Ashurbanipal and Gilgamesh. Carl Benjamin, British right-wing YouTuber and political commentator, goes by the online pseudonym "Sargon of Akkad" on his YouTube channel. The ''Return of Rome'' expansion pack for the video game '' Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition'' features a campaign called "Sargon of Akkad", which depicts his conquest of Sumer and the rise of the Akkadian Empire.

Notes

References

*Albright, W. F., "A Babylonian Geographical Treatise on Sargon of Akkad's Empire", Journal of the American Oriental Society, pp. 193–245, 1925 *Bachvarova, Mary R., "Sargon the Great: from history to myth", in From Hittite to Homer: The Anatolian Background of Ancient Greek Epic, pp. 166–198, Cambridge University Press, 2016 * Beaulieu, Paul-Alain, et al., "A Companion to the Ancient near East", Blackwell, 2005 *Botsforth, George W., "The Reign of Sargon", "A Source-Book of Ancient History", New York: Macmillan, 1912 *Foster, Benjamin R., "The Age of Agade. Inventing Empire in Ancient Mesopotamia", Routledge, 2016 *Glassner, Jean-Jacques, "Mesopotamian Chronicles", Society of Biblical Literature, 2004 *Grayson, Albert Kirk, "Assyrian and Babylonian Chronicles", J. J. Augustin, 1975; Eisenbrauns, 2000

horkild Jacobsen, Jacobsen, Thorkild, "The Sumerian King List", Assyriological Studies, AS 11, Chicago: Oriental Institute, 1939

eonard William King, King, L. W., "Chronicles Concerning Early Babylonian Kings", II, London, pp. 87–96, 1907 * Kramer, S. Noah, "The Sumerians: Their History, Culture and Character", Chicago, 1963 *Kramer, S. Noah, "History Begins at Sumer: Thirty-Nine "Firsts" in Recorded History", Univ. of Pennsylvania Press, 1981 *Lewis, Brian, "The Sargon Legend: A Study of the Akkadian Text and the Tale of the Hero Who Was Exposed at Birth", American Schools of Oriental Research Dissertation Series, no. 4, Cambridge, MA: American Schools of Oriental Research, 1984 *Luckenbill, D. D., "On the Opening Lines of the Legend of Sargon", The American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures, pp. 145–46, 1917 *Postgate, Nicholas. "Early Mesopotamia: Society and Economy at the Dawn of History", Routledge, 1994 *Roux, G., "Ancient Iraq", London, 1980 *Sallaberger, Walter, "Mesopotamien. Akkade-Zeit und Ur III-Zeit", Annäherungen 3. OBO 160/3. Freiburg, Schweiz/Göttingen, 1999 *Schomp, Virginia, "Ancient Mesopotamia", Franklin Watts, 2005 * Van de Mieroop, Marc, "A History of the Ancient Near East: ca. 3000–323 BC", Blackwell, 2006 {{DEFAULTSORT:Sargon of Akkad 24th-century BC kings of Akkad 23rd-century BC kings of Akkad Founding monarchs in Asia 24th-century BC births 23rd-century BC deaths Nimrod Kings of the Universe Cup-bearers