The World's Progress, Vol. 01 (of 10): With Illustrative texts from Masterpieces of Egyptian, Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Modern European and American LiteratureDelphian Society
History
The World's Progress, Vol. 01 (of 10): With Illustrative texts from Masterpieces of Egyptian, Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Modern European and American Literature
Delphian Society
Civilization -- History; World history
"Akki, the irrigator, ... brought me to land.
"Akki, the irrigator, reared me as his own son.
"Akki, the irrigator, appointed me his gardener.
"While I was gardener, Ishtar looked on me with love.
* * * * *
"Four years I ruled the kingdom."[2]
Sargon I. and his son, Naram Sin, had great capacity for organization.
They were prolific builders, and bricks have been found bearing their
names and titles. The material for their temples they brought some
distance--the famous cedars of Lebanon forming the beams. Sargon was
called "Lord of Nippur, Shirpurla, Kish, Babylon and Uruk." Naram Sin
extended his sway to the Mediterranean on the west, east into Elam, and
south into Arabia and the isles of the Persian Gulf. He took for the
first time the title: "King of the Four World-Regions." His vast kingdom
thus built up disappeared, however, as quickly as it came into being,
and after some changes, Ur became the capital center. Three thousand
eight hundred B.C. has been accepted as the date of Sargon's reign and
this is the first definite date in Babylonian history.
The kings of the Ur dynasty erected several temples, and because Ur was
easy of access, they imported many of their building materials. Dolerite
was brought from Arabia, cedar from Syria, gold and precious stones from
the east. This town was sacred to Sin, the moon-god, and several hymns
praising this deity have been found.
Isin, Erech, and other cities strove now for leadership, and internal
dissensions offered opportunity for the Elamites on the east, now
advancing on a wave of prosperity, to invade the land. It is known that
they advanced as far as Erech, and carried off a statue of the goddess
Nana. They set up their own king, whose line continued on the throne for
some time. One of these invading kings called himself: "exalter of Ur,
king of Larsa, king of Sumer and Accad." Under Elamite administration,
temples were built and the religious and commercial centers continued to
grow.
Of this whole period Maspero has said: "We have here the dust of history
rather than history itself; here an isolated individual makes his
appearance in the record of his name, to vanish when we attempt to lay
hold of him; there the stem of a dynasty which breaks abruptly off,
pompous preambles, devout formulas, dedications of objects of buildings,
here or there the account of some battle, or the indication of some
foreign country with which relations of friendship or commerce were
maintained--these are the scanty materials of which to construct a
narrative."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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