1427 AM · ≈ 2334 BCE · world history
Sargon of Akkad and the First Empire
Sargon unites the cities of Mesopotamia into the first empire in history.
Before Sargon, Mesopotamia was a patchwork of rival city-states. He subdues them one by one and builds the first empire, with appointed governors, a standing army and Akkadian as the language of administration from the Gulf to the Mediterranean. The empire lasts a century and a half; the idea outlives it.
Sources
Documents of the period
- cuneiform chronicles and king lists — Sargon’s inscriptions and the legends about him in later chronicles
Scholarship
- archaeology of Mesopotamia — Akkadian as the language of administration from the Gulf to the Mediterranean
Basis: documents and evidence.