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Was Sargon I the first king of a human civilization….the Akkadians? How much do we really know of him? Was his rule authoritarian in the modern sense? Or was he a necessity for the Akkadians to survive as a collective society? Lastly, did the Sumerians and the Neo Babylonians (especially under Hammurabi) imitate his kingship model?
I am not terribly familiar with Akkad, but if the figures are correct, Menes unified Upper and Lower Egypt somewhere near 3100 B.C. Sargon, however, ruled closer to 2300 B.C., taking him some 800 years out of winning the “First Kingdgom” prize. Of course, all this depends on one’s definition of “kingdom”.
I don’t know if Menes qualifies. I’ll have to check on it. Egyptian an Sumerian civilizations were mostly confederated villages tied to the Nile and Euphrates river networks. There is a legend of Enmekar–a ruler of Uruk–circa 2500B.C. I will cast my ballot with Sargon I since the Akkadians were a mobile empire whereas the Egyptians and Sumerians were barely sedentary cultures though literate and using wheels, sailboats, and metals. Source: John A. Garraty and Peter Gay, eds., The Columbia History of the World (New York: Harpor Row Publishers, 1972), 60-61.
I will cast my ballot with Sargon I since the Akkadians were a mobile empire…
What would mobility have to do with kindgomship? It would seem that if anything, this would detract from a people’s claim to having a kingdom.
Here’s a timeline of Egyptian dynasties (from Wikipedia):
Early Dynastic Period of Egypt (1st to 2nd Dynasties; until ca. 27th century BC)
Old Kingdom (3rd to 6th Dynasties; 27th to 22nd centuries BC)
First Intermediate Period (7th to 11th Dynasties)
Middle Kingdom of Egypt (11th to 14th Dynasties; 20th to 17th centuries BC)
Second Intermediate Period (14th to 17th Dynasties)
Hyksos (15th to 16th Dynasties)
New Kingdom of Egypt (18th to 20th Dynasties; 16th to 11th centuries BC)
Third Intermediate Period (21st to 25th Dynasties; 11th to 7th centuries BC)
Late Period of Ancient Egypt (26th to 31st Dynasties; 7th century BC to 332 BC)
Achaemenid Dynasty
Graeco-Roman Egypt (332 BC to AD 639)
Ptolemaic Dynasty
Roman EmpireThese figures put the Old Kingdom at a date prior to the emergence of Sargon. As evidence of an advanced Egyptian civilization at this time, the largest of the pyramids was built during this time (2530 B.C., Pharaoh Khufu). Even if the pyramids were built with massive amounts of slave labor, they would still require significant managerial oversight, as well as logistical expertise to some degree or another. I think that this suggests the existence of an advanced civilization.
You may have something there Phid. Alas, the dating of the Egyptian dynasties are problematic. Historians cannot even agree when Moses led the Children of Israel out of Egypt much less go back further to earlier periods. We’re still learning more and more.
An argument could be made for Nimrod as well. He orginized a large group of people to build the tower of Babel just after the flood. He was well known among his contemporaries and a leader of men. I suppose though that one would have to believe the bible as a historical source to consider Nimrod.
… hmmm. How about if we play word games here… this may bog down in definitions and conditions but here goes.Sargon (about 2334-2279 BCE) could be considered the first Emperor… as he unified first all the city-states of Sumer and then conquered the rest of Mesopotamia. He ruled all the different groups from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean.Menes' claim is to being the first Pharoah, unifying Upper and Upper Egypt (c 3100 BCE) according to tradition, establishing Memphis as the capital and starting the 1st Dynasty. According to some he's a myth and his accomplishments belong to, later kings… Aha, Scorpion, or Narmer. While we can agrue this mythological idea being the first Pharoah (also translates great house) might just mean he was the first one to get remembered.Is it a bigger deal to get the folks next door to let you be the King or conquer everybody in the Fertile Cresent?Either way… in the words of Mel Brooks (HWP1), “It's good to be the King!”Cheers,Wally
Hey, I hav just got a news that the Egyptian archaeologists hav just found out a tomb of 4 millennium years. This brand new foundation dedicates that the community of tombs in Saqqara, South Cairo is much larger than what we used to know. :D. This news is so interesting !!!
ok now i was just reading the posts ofcourse some of the posts are quite old, but i was just wondering has anyone read this book byZacharia Sitchin called “the Wars of Gods an the Men?” it talks of Sargon the First, also known as “Sharru-Kin–' 'Righteous Ruler' '; I'm just wondering. i've only stumbled upon the book and have just started reading it, and am referancing it to make sure its based on fact. the book is part of a series of books of which it is the third in the series.
ok now i was just reading the posts ofcourse some of the posts are quite old, but i was just wondering has anyone read this book byZacharia Sitchin called “the Wars of Gods an the Men?” it talks of Sargon the First, also known as “Sharru-Kin–' 'Righteous Ruler' '; I'm just wondering. i've only stumbled upon the book and have just started reading it, and am referancing it to make sure its based on fact. the book is part of a series of books of which it is the third in the series.
Sitchin is not a serious academic historian to be considered here. He belongs in cryptozoology or some other faux science. He and Von Danniken are barking up a really weird tree.
I never know much of the entire history but on search,here's what i found.”Sargon I reigned as king of the old-Assyrian Kingdom from ca. 1920 BC to 1881 BC. Named after his predecessor Sargon of Akkad.”
SARGON OF AKKAD was an ancient Mesopotamian ruler who reigned approximately 2334-2279 BC, and was one of the earliest of the world's great empire builders, conquering all of southern Mesopotamia as well as parts of Syria, Anatolia, and Elam (western Iran). He established the region's first Semitic dynasty and was considered the founder of the Mesopotamian military tradition.Sargon is known almost entirely from the legends and tales that followed his reputation through 2,000 years of cuneiform Mesopotamian history, and not from documents that were written during his lifetime. The lack of contemporary record is explained by the fact that the capital city of Agade, which he built, has never been located and excavated. It was destroyed at the end of the dynasty that Sargon founded and was never again inhabited, at least under the name of Agade.According to a folktale, Sargon was a self-made man of humble origins; a gardener, having found him as a baby floating in a basket on the river, brought him up in his own calling. His father is unknown; his own name during his childhood is also unknown; his mother is said to have been a priestess in a town on the middle Euphrates. Rising, therefore, without the help of influential relations, he attained the post of cupbearer to the ruler of the city of Kish, in the north of the ancient land of Sumer. The event that brought him to supremacy was the defeat of Lugalzaggisi of Uruk (biblical Erech, in central Sumer). Lugalzaggisi had already united the city-states of Sumer by defeating each in turn and claimed to rule the lands not only of the Sumerian city-states but also those as far west as the Mediterranean. Thus, Sargon became king over all of southern Mesopotamia, the first great ruler for whom, rather than Sumerian, the Semitic tongue known as Akkadian was natural from birth, although some earlier kings with Semitic names are recorded in the Sumerian king list. Victory was ensured, however, only by numerous battles, since each city hoped to regain its independence from Lugalzaggisi without submitting to the new overlord. It may have been before these exploits, when he was gathering followers and an army, that Sargon named himself Sharru-kin (“Rightful King”) in support of an accession not achieved in an old-established city through hereditary succession. Historical records are still so meager, however, that there is a complete gap in information relating to this period.Not content with dominating this area, his wish to secure favorable trade with Agade throughout the known world, together with an energetic temperament, led Sargon to defeat cities along the middle Euphrates to northern Syria and the silver-rich mountains of southern Anatolia. He also dominated Susa, capital city of the Elamites, in the Zagros Mountains of western Iran, where the only truly contemporary record of his reign has been uncovered. Such was his fame that some merchants in an Anatolian city, probably in central Turkey, begged him to intervene in a local quarrel, and, according to the legend, Sargon, with a band of warriors…read more:http://history-world.org/sargon_the_great.htm
I am not terribly familiar with Akkad, but if the figures are correct, Menes unified Upper and Lower Egypt somewhere near 3100 B.C. Sargon, however, ruled closer to 2300 B.C., taking him some 800 years out of winning the “First Kingdgom” prize. Of course, all this depends on one's definition of “kingdom”.
Rereading this thread is interesting. I still contend that Menes (aka Narmer) was the king well before Sargon, and even if we discount him then there are plenty of other Egyptian rulers who preceded Sargon (Khufu, Khafre, Menkaure, etc.). Interestingly enough, the class lecture I gave my students today was on the Egyptian Old Kingdom. Anyway, I'm basically agreeing here with the 2005 version of myself. ;D
