AKKAD (Gr. versions apxat and hXab)

This article appears in Volume V01, Page 457 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

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AKKAD (Gr. versions apxat and hXab) , a Hebrew name,
mentioned only once in the Old Testament (Gen. x. to), for one of the four

chief

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

cities, Akkad, Babel, Erech and Calneh, which constituted the nucleus of the kingdom of Nimrod in the land of Shinar or Babylonia. This Biblical city, Akkad, was most probably identical with the northern Babylonian city known to us as Agade (not Agane, as formerly read), which was the principal seat of the early Babylonian king Sargon I. (.argani-garali), whose date is given by Nabonidus, the last Semitic king of
Babylonia (555537 B.c.), as 3800 B.C., which is perhaps too old by 700 or 1000 years.' The probably non-Semitic name
Agade occurs in a number of inscriptions2 and is now well attested as having been the name of an important ancient

capital

CAPITAL (i.e. capital stock or fund)
CAPITAL (Lat. caput, head)

. The later Assyro-Babylonian Semitic form Akkadu ("of or belonging to Akkad ") is, in all likelihood, a Semitic

loan

LOAN (adapted from the Scandinavian form of a word common to Teutonic languages, cf. Swed. Mn, Icel. lan, Dut. leen; the O.E. laen appears in " lend," the ultimate source is seen in the root of Gr. Xeiaecv and Lat. linquere, to leave)

form from the non-Semitic name Agade, and seems to be an additional demonstration of the identity of Agade and Akkad. The usual signs denoting Akkadu in the Semitic narrative

inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS (from Lat. inscribere, to write upon)

were read in the non-Semitic idiom uri-ki or ur-ki, " land of the city," which simply meant that Akkadu was the land of the city par excellence, i.e. of the city of Agade of Sargon I., which remained
for a long period the leading city of Babylonia.'
It is quite probable that the non-Semitic name Agade may
mean "crown (aga) of fire (de)"' in allusion to Istar, " the brilliant goddess," the tutelar deity of the morning and evening

star

STAR

and the goddess of war and love, whose cult was observed in very early times in Agade. This fact is again attested by Nabonidus, whose

record

RECORD (Lat. recordari, to recall to mind, from cor, heart or mind)

5 mentions that the Istar

worship

WORSHIP (i.e. " worth-ship," O. Eng. weor8scipe)

of Agade was later superseded by that of the goddess Anunit, another personification of the I"

star

STAR

idea, whose shrine was at Sippar. It is significant in this connexion that there were two cities named Sippar, one under the protection of Shamash, the sun-god, and one under this Anunit, a fact which points strongly to the probable proximity of Sippar and Agade. In fact, it has been thought that Agade-Akkad was situated opposite Sippar on the left bank of the Euphrates, and was probably the oldest part of the city of
Sippar.
In the Assyro-Babylonian literature the name Akkadu appears
as part of the royal title in connexion with Sumer; viz. non-Semitic: lugal Kengi (ki) Uru (ki)=.f ar mat Sumeri u Akkadi, " king of Sumer and Akkad," which appears to have meant simply " king of Babylonia." It is not likely, as many scholars have thought, that Akkad was ever used geographically as a distinctive appellation for northern Babylonia, or that the name Sumer (q.v.) denoted the southern part of the land, because kings who ruled only over Southern Babylonia used the

double

title " king of Sumer and Akkad," which was also employed by northern rulers who never established their sway farther

south

SOUTH
SOUTH, ROBERT (1634–1716)

than Nippur, notably the

great

GREAT

Assyrian conqueror Tiglathpileser III. (745727 B.C.). Professor McCurdy has very reason-ably suggested 6 that the title "king of Sumer and Akkad " indicated merely a claim to the ancient territory and city of Akkad together with certain additional territory, but not neces-
sarily all Babylonia, as was formerly believed.
A discussion of the interesting question relating to the non-
Semitic so-called Sumero-Akkadian language and race will be found in the article SUMER.
Prince, Nabonidus, p. v.
2 In the Sargon

inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS (from Lat. inscribere, to write upon)

; Bab. Exped. of the Univ. of Penn. i. pl. 1, nr. 1, line 6; pl. 2, nr. 2, line 5; pl. 3, nr. 3, line 3b; also xi. pl. 49, nr. 119 and in Nebuchadnezzar, col. ii. line 50 (Hilprecht, Freibrief Neb.); Cun. Texts from Bab. Tablets, pl. 1, nr. 91146, line 3.
Rogers, History of Babylonia and Assyria, i. pp. 365, 373-374. Prince, " Materials for a Sumerian Lexicon," pp. 23, 73, Journal of Biblical Literature, 1906.
6 I. Rawl. 69, col. ii. 48 and iii. 28.
" History, Prophecy and the Monuments, i. I I0.

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