HEAD OF A BRONZE STATUE
OF KING SARAGON OF AKKAD

In 2400 BC the Sumerian King of Uruk, Lurgalzaggisi, had united the Middle East into one great empire from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean. He ruled it for 25 years. Then a junior officer, a Semite, Sargon of Akkad, revolted. He captured Lurgalzaggisi and exhibited him in a cage at the gate of the temple of Enlil at Nippur. Sargon and his descendants ran the united empire, thereafter called the empire of Sumer and Akkad (2370-2285 BC). Sargon and his grandson Naram-Sin, one of the greatest oriental rulers, were both called king of the four regions, which the Cambridge Ancient History properly allows to be a claim for the universal dominion over the whole earth. The detailed evidence suggests that Sargon and his descendants were in fact continuing a tradition of contact and trade with the America’s and the Far East.

From The Art of Ancient Mesopotamia by Anton Moortgat

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