THE EMPIRE OF AKKAD AND ITS RELATION TO KISH
The name of Sargon of Agade, or Akkad, bulks largely in later Babylonian tradition, and his reign has been regarded by modern writers as marking the most important epoch in the early history of his country. The reference in the text of Nabonidus to the age of Narâm-Sin has caused the Dynasty of Akkad to be taken as the canon, or standard, by which to measure the relative age of other dynasties or of rulers whose inscriptions have from time to time been recovered upon various early Babylonian sites. Even those historians who have refused to place reliance upon the figures of Nabonidus, have not, by so doing, detracted from the significance of Sargon's position in history; and, since tradition associated his name with the founding of his empire, the terms "Pre-Sargonic" and "Post-Sargonic" have been very generally employed as descriptive of the earlier and later periods in the history of Sumer and Akkad. The finding of early inscriptions of Shar-Gani-sharri of Akkad, and of tablets dated in his reign, removed any tendency to discredit the historical value of the later traditions; and the identification of Shar-Gani-sharri with the Sargon of the Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian scribes ceased to be called in question. In fact, if any one point in early Babylonian history was to be regarded as certainly established, it was the historical character of Sargon of Agade. But a recent discovery at Susa has introduced a fresh element into the problem, and has reopened its discussion along unfamiliar lines. Before introducing the new data, that must be explained and reconciled with the old, it will be well to refer briefly to the steps by which Sargon's name was recovered and his position in history deduced.
Sargon's name was first met with in certain explanatory texts of a religious or astrological character, which had been recovered from Ashur-bani-pal's library at Nineveh. Here we find references to the name Sharru-ukîn,[1] or Sargon, king of Agade, from which it appeared that he had played an important part in Assyrian heroic mythology.[2] In the year 1867, attention was first directed to Sargon's place in history when Sir Henry Rawlinson briefly announced his discovery of the famous Legend of Sargon,[3] in which the king is represented as recounting in the first person the story of his birth and boyhood, his elevation to the throne and his subsequent empire. The text of the Legend was published in 1870,[4] and two years later it was translated by George Smith, who added a translation of the Omens of Sargon and Narâm-Sin, which he had just come across in the collections of tablets from Kuyunjik.[5] Smith followed Rawlinson in ascribing to Sargon the building of the temple E-ulmash in Agade, by restoring his name as that of Narâm-Sin's father in the broken cylinder of Nabonidus found by Taylor at Mukayyar.[6]
Up to this time no original text of Shar-Gani-sharri's reign was known. The first to be published was the beautiful cylinder-seal of Ibni-sharru, a high official in Shar-Gani-sharri's service, of which Ménant gave a description in 1877,[7] and again in 1883.[8] Ménant read the king's name as "Shegani-shar-lukh," and he did not identify him with Sargon the elder (whom he put in the nineteenth century B.C.), but suggested that he was a still earlier king of Akkad. In 1882 an account was published of the Abû Habba cylinder of Nabonidus, which records his restoration of E-babbar and contains the passage concerning the date of Narâm-Sin, "the son of Sargon."[9] In the following year the British Museum acquired the famous mace-head of Shar-Gani-sharri, which had been dedicated by him to Shamash in his great temple at Sippar; this was the first actual inscription of Shar-Gani-sharri to be found. In place of Ménant's reading "Shegani-shar-lukh," the name was read as "Shargani," the two final syllables being cut off from it and treated as a title, and, in spite of some dissentients, the identity of Shargani of Agade with Sargon the elder was assumed as certain.[10] Unlike Sargon, the historical character of Narâm-Sin presented no difficulties. His name had been read upon the vase discovered by M. Fresnel at Babylon and afterwards lost in the Tigris;[11] and, although he was there called simply "king of the four quarters," his identification with the Narâm-Sin mentioned by Nabonidus on his cylinder from Ur was unquestioned. Further proof of the correctness of the identification was seen in the occurrence of the name of Magan upon the vase, when it was discovered that the second section of his Omens recorded his conquest of that country.[12]
MACK-HEAD DEDICATED TO SHAMASH, THE SUN-GOD, BY SHAR-GANI-SHARRI, KING OF AGADE.—Brit. Mus., No. 91146; photo, by Messrs. Mansell & Co.