Akkadian atrocities in Sumer?
Mar 11, 2011 14:32:51 GMT -5
Post by enkur on Mar 11, 2011 14:32:51 GMT -5
Does anybody knows anything in detail about the following events?
In the historic summary book "The Ancient Oriental Civilization" by Nedeltcho Nedeltchev (a Bulgarian edition) designated mainly as a handbook for students, we read about the Akkadian rule after the reign of Sargon the Great:
"After the great king's death, there came to power his son Rimush (2284 - 2275 BCE). Sumer uprose in an attempt to throw off the authority of Akkad. The uprising was suppressed with violence and cruelty still unknown in Mesopotamia - Ur, Umma, Lagash, Kazallu were devastated and ruined. The troops of the new king killed and took as captives about 19 300 men. The treatment of the prisoners from the republic-like Lagash was particularly cruel - they were all exterminated (I. M. Dyakonov). There followed new campaigns against Sumer which northern regions were semitized, and against Elam. A good deal of the Sumerian aristocracy and the free citizens in the old political centres were killed. Yet the violence provoked a corresponding reaction. According to Jean Bottero the king was assassinated by his own high ministers, probably during a coup, so there came to power his brother Manishtusu (2275 - 2260 BCE). The armies of Akkad invaded the eastern Elam and occupied it. There are no preserved evidences about persecutions of rebels from this period, and probably it witnesses about some disagreement on the part of certain authorities and of Manishtusu himself with the genocides which depopulated the disobedient Sumer. Despite of that change in the politics towards the conquered country, the struggle for freedom on the part of its people continued in the form of plots as well. The third one of the Sargonides also perished by violent death, and Sargon's grandson Naramsin became the king of Akkad (2260 - 2223 BCE). The reign of the new king also started with an uprising of Sumer led by Kish. The uprising was suppressed, and the rullers of Nippur, Umma, and Uruk were burnt alive before the statue of Enlil, the supreme god of Nippur and Sumer."
Seems that the "Cursing of Agade" had as a basis not a single sore memory of Naram-Sin's reign, and - of the Akkadian conquest in general. Any more detailed historic information about the above-said events will be of interest to me. Having grown in an area of ethnic tension, I'm skeptical of the peaceful and harmonic co-existence of different ethnic populations - were it in the past, or in the present. The compromises seems to be always at the expense of the culture with more developed civilization. It's obvious from the artefacts that however powerful and unified, the Ur III's Kingdom of Sumer and Akkad was no more what the ED Sumer was. It lasted approximately as long as was the Akkadian conquest before it, being an extension of the same Akkadian despotism this time exercised by rulers of Sumerian origin.
In the historic summary book "The Ancient Oriental Civilization" by Nedeltcho Nedeltchev (a Bulgarian edition) designated mainly as a handbook for students, we read about the Akkadian rule after the reign of Sargon the Great:
"After the great king's death, there came to power his son Rimush (2284 - 2275 BCE). Sumer uprose in an attempt to throw off the authority of Akkad. The uprising was suppressed with violence and cruelty still unknown in Mesopotamia - Ur, Umma, Lagash, Kazallu were devastated and ruined. The troops of the new king killed and took as captives about 19 300 men. The treatment of the prisoners from the republic-like Lagash was particularly cruel - they were all exterminated (I. M. Dyakonov). There followed new campaigns against Sumer which northern regions were semitized, and against Elam. A good deal of the Sumerian aristocracy and the free citizens in the old political centres were killed. Yet the violence provoked a corresponding reaction. According to Jean Bottero the king was assassinated by his own high ministers, probably during a coup, so there came to power his brother Manishtusu (2275 - 2260 BCE). The armies of Akkad invaded the eastern Elam and occupied it. There are no preserved evidences about persecutions of rebels from this period, and probably it witnesses about some disagreement on the part of certain authorities and of Manishtusu himself with the genocides which depopulated the disobedient Sumer. Despite of that change in the politics towards the conquered country, the struggle for freedom on the part of its people continued in the form of plots as well. The third one of the Sargonides also perished by violent death, and Sargon's grandson Naramsin became the king of Akkad (2260 - 2223 BCE). The reign of the new king also started with an uprising of Sumer led by Kish. The uprising was suppressed, and the rullers of Nippur, Umma, and Uruk were burnt alive before the statue of Enlil, the supreme god of Nippur and Sumer."
Seems that the "Cursing of Agade" had as a basis not a single sore memory of Naram-Sin's reign, and - of the Akkadian conquest in general. Any more detailed historic information about the above-said events will be of interest to me. Having grown in an area of ethnic tension, I'm skeptical of the peaceful and harmonic co-existence of different ethnic populations - were it in the past, or in the present. The compromises seems to be always at the expense of the culture with more developed civilization. It's obvious from the artefacts that however powerful and unified, the Ur III's Kingdom of Sumer and Akkad was no more what the ED Sumer was. It lasted approximately as long as was the Akkadian conquest before it, being an extension of the same Akkadian despotism this time exercised by rulers of Sumerian origin.
But the Sumerians were freak dwarves anyway and I love them. You make me write from Cyrilic to Latin? Sigh. Well I will do this sacrifice in the name of science 