Akshak ( Sumerian: , akšak) was a city of ancient Sumer, situated on the northern boundary of Akkad, sometimes identified with Babylonian Upi (Greek

Opis Opis (Akkadian ''Upî'' or ''Upija''; grc, Ὦπις) was an ancient Babylonian city near the Tigris, not far from modern Baghdad. Akkadian and Greek texts indicate that it was located on the east side of the Tigris, near the Diyala River. T ...

History

Akshak first appears in records of ca. 2500 BC. In the Sumerian text ''Dumuzid's dream'',

Dumuzid Dumuzid or Tammuz ( sux, , ''Dumuzid''; akk, Duʾūzu, Dûzu; he, תַּמּוּז, Tammûz),; ar, تمّوز ' known to the Sumerians as Dumuzid the Shepherd ( sux, , ''Dumuzid sipad''), is an ancient Mesopotamian god associated with shep ...

king of

Uruk Uruk, also known as Warka or Warkah, was an ancient city of Sumer (and later of Babylonia) situated east of the present bed of the Euphrates River on the dried-up ancient channel of the Euphrates east of modern Samawah, Al-Muthannā, Iraq.Harm ...

is said to have been toppled from his opulence by a hungry mob composed of men from the major cities of Sumer, including Akshak. Another king of Uruk, Enshakushanna, is recorded as having plundered Akshak. Following this, Akshak was at war with

Lagash Lagash (cuneiform: LAGAŠKI; Sumerian: ''Lagaš''), was an ancient city state located northwest of the junction of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers and east of Uruk, about east of the modern town of Ash Shatrah, Iraq. Lagash (modern Al-Hiba) w ...

, and was captured by

Eannatum Eannatum ( sux, ) was a Sumerian '' Ensi'' (ruler or king) of Lagash circa 2500–2400 BCE. He established one of the first verifiable empires in history: he subdued Elam and destroyed the city of Susa as well as several other Iranian cities, ...

, who claims in one inscription to have smitten its king, Zuzu. The Sumerian king list mentions Unzi, Undalulu, Urur, Puzur-Nirah, Ishu-Il and Shu-Sin as kings of Akshak. Puzur-Nirah is also mentioned in the ''Weidner Chronicle'' as reigning in Akshak when a female tavern-keeper, Kug-bau of

Kish Kish may refer to: Geography * Gishi, Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijan, a village also called Kish * Kiş, Shaki, Azerbaijan, a village and municipality also spelled Kish * Kish Island, an Iranian island and a city in the Persian Gulf * Kish, Iran, ...

, was appointed overlordship over Sumer. Akshak was also mentioned in tablets found at

Ebla Ebla ( Sumerian: ''eb₂-la'', ar, إبلا, modern: , Tell Mardikh) was one of the earliest kingdoms in Syria. Its remains constitute a tell located about southwest of Aleppo near the village of Mardikh. Ebla was an important center t ...

. In ca. 2350 BC, Akshak fell into the hands of

Lugalzagesi Lugal-Zage-Si ( ; frequently spelled ''Lugalzaggesi'', sometimes ''Lugalzagesi'' or "Lugal-Zaggisi") of Umma (reigned c. 2358 - 2334 BCE middle chronology) was the last Sumerian king before the conquest of Sumer by Sargon of Akkad and the rise o ...

Umma Umma ( sux, ; in modern Dhi Qar Province in Iraq, formerly also called Gishban) was an ancient city in Sumer. There is some scholarly debate about the Sumerian and Akkadian names for this site. Traditionally, Umma was identified with Tell J ...

. The Akkadian king

Shar-Kali-Sharri Shar-Kali-Sharri (, '' DShar-ka-li-Sharri''; reigned c. 2217–2193 BC middle chronology, c. 2153–2129 BC short chronology) was a king of the Akkadian Empire. Rule Succeeding his father Naram-Sin in c. 2217 BC, he came to the throne in an age ...

reports defeating the Elamites in a battle at Akshak. The city was also mentioned in a Old Babylonian period tablet found at

Sippar-Amnanum Sippar-Amnanum (modern Tell ed-Der in Baghdad Governorate, Iraq) was an ancient Near Eastern '' tell'' (hill city) about 70 kilometers north of Babylon. History Sippar-Amnanum was the sister city (or suburb in some eyes) of Sippar. Though occ ...

Location

Its exact location is uncertain. Classical writers located it where the

Tigris The Tigris () is the easternmost of the two great rivers that define Mesopotamia, the other being the Euphrates. The river flows south from the mountains of the Armenian Highlands through the Syrian and Arabian Deserts, and empties into the ...

and

Euphrates The Euphrates () is the longest and one of the most historically important rivers of Western Asia. Together with the Tigris, it is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia ( ''the land between the rivers''). Originating in Turkey, the Eup ...

rivers are closest together and it was mentioned along with

in early records. Archaeologists in the 1900s placed Akshak at the site of Tel Omar (or Tel Umar) where a pair of sites straddles the Tigris, but that turned out to be Seleucia (possibly earlier Upi/Opis) when it was excavated by LeRoy Waterman of the American Schools of Oriental Research,.Initially it was thought that two inscriptions bearing the name of Akshak were found there but after examination that proved not the case.Barnett, R. D. “Xenophon and the Wall of Media.” The Journal of Hellenic Studies, vol. 83, 1963, pp. 1–26 Michael C. Astour placed it on the Tigris, on what is now the southern outskirts of

Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon. I ...

History

Location

See also

References

Further reading