Adda Cylinder Seal (Akkadian Empire 2300 BC). Credit: Nic McPhee

Five gods represented: winged Inanna/Ishtar and water spouting Ea/Enki date to 4000 BC.

The Akkadian Empire (c. 2334 – 2154 BC) briefly dominated the Sumerian Civilization (c. 4500 – c. 1900 BC) during the century before and the first half of the 4.2kya climatic event which also brought down Egypt’s Old Kingdom (c. 2686 BC–c. 2181 BC) and China’s Liangzhu Culture (3400 BC–2250 BC).

Wiki also suggests the 4.2kya drought drove population of the Indus Valley Civilization (c. 3300 – c. 1300 BC) southeast in pursuit of preferred habitat and thus opened the Indus midsection to the Indo-Europeans arrival. This would fit the change from the more northerly Harappan Civilization (c. 2600 – 1900 BC) after which the IVC gravitated south.

The map in the Wiki for the 4.2kya event shows its effects on the rest of the world. Wiki calls the aridification in the affected regions as one of the worst climatic events of the Holocene.  The Gutian Dynasty of Sumer (c. 2135—2055 BC) finished off Akkad during its collapse. The Sumerian  culture’s last gasp: the Third Dynasty of Ur (c. 2112 BC – c. 2004 BC) displaced the Guti during the last half of the 4.2kya event.

The following articles, read in the same order, led me to construct the above context for the fall of Akkad:

1. Explaining the Fall of the Great Akkadian Empire.
2. Enheduanna: A High Priestess of the Moon and the First Known Author in the World
3. The Greatest Discovery Never Made – Ancient Civilizations Thrived With NO Ruling Elite¹
4. First Kingdoms: The Forgotten Mesopotamian Kingdom of Ebla
5. Ancient Remains of Important Bronze Age City of the Akkadian Empire Found in Iraq
6. The Rise and Fall of Sumer and Akkad
7. The Sound of the Akkadian Language: Cyrus the Great Cylinder
8. The Curse of Agade: Naram-Sin’s Battle with the Gods
9. The cursing of Agade: translation—Old Babylonian version (text)
10. The Curse of Akkad (a reading)

I hope you enjoyed this and found new insights. I certainly did.

Thanks for visiting,

R. E. J. Burke

¹Seriously erroneous proposition. Check out “Ubaid” in Search Bar. Identification of Elites occurs in early 4th millennium B.C.