Benjamin R. Foster - The Age of Agade: Inventing Empire in Ancient Mesopotamia

The Age of Agade is the first book-length study of the Akkadian period of Mesopotamian history, which saw the rise and fall of the worlds first empire during more than a century of extraordinary political, social, and cultural innovation. It draws together over 40 years of research by one of the worlds leading experts in Assyriology to offer an exhaustive survey of the Akkadian empire.

Addressing all aspects of the empire, including its statecraft and military, territory and cities, arts, religion, economy, and production, The Age of Agade considers what can be said of Akkadian political and social history, material culture, and daily life. A final chapter also explores how the empire has been presented in modern historiography, from the decipherment of cuneiform to the present, including the extensive research of Soviet historians, summarized here in English for the first time. Drawing on contemporaneous written and artifactual sources, as well as relevant materials from succeeding generations, Foster introduces the reader to the wealth of evidence available. Accessibly written by a specialist in the field, this book is an engaging examination of a critical era in the history of early Mesopotamia.

Benjamin R. Foster is Professor of Assyriology at Yale University, USA.

First published 2016
by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

2016 B. Foster

The right of Benjamin Foster to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Foster, Benjamin R. (Benjamin Read), author.

The age of Agade : inventing empire in ancient Mesopotamia /
Benjamin R. Foster.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references.

1. Akkadians. 2. IraqHistoryTo 634. I. Title.

DS72.3.F67 2015
935.01dc23
2015011530

ISBN: 978-1-138-90971-7 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-138-90975-5 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-68656-1 (ebk)

Typeset in Baskerville
by Apex CoVantage, LLC

In the course of my work on the Akkadian period, I have benefited from the research of everyone who has written on this fascinating phase of Mesopotamian history. More particularly, two invitations helped in the evolution of this study: from Mario Liverani and the University of Rome La Sapienza to participate in Akkad. Il primo impero universale: strutture, ideologia, tradizioni in 1990, and from Jean-Marie Durand and the Collge de France to present four general lectures on LAge dAgad (2010), from which portions of this book are derived. It is a great pleasure for me to thank them and to acknowledge the host institutions for their interest and support.

I am grateful to those colleagues who have shared ideas, information, and manuscripts with me for use in advance of their publication, notably Karen Polinger Foster, Abather Saadoon, Emanuelle Salgues, Ingo Schrakamp, and Aage West-enholz. Many others gave me references, answered queries, sent me their publications, or directed my attention to important issues and evidence; I hope that they will accept this book as my appreciative acknowledgment of my debt to them all. Studies that reached me after the end of 2014, except for the occasional preprint, could not be included here.

For advice and assistance with the illustrations and permission to use certain images, my particular thanks go to Sidney Babcock, Erika Bleibtreu, Giorgio Buccellati, Dominique Charpin, Sophie Cluzan, McGuire Gibson, Ulla Kasten, Lutz Martin, Augusta McMahon, Joan Oates, Julian Reade, Abather Saadoon, Jonathan Taylor, Michaela Weszeli, Irene Winter, and Richard Zettler. The maps were drawn by Alberto Urcia, using drafts by Thomas Eby.

Eckart Frahm and Daniel Potts read portions of the manuscript and saved me from various mistakes and omissions. Aage Westenholz read the whole amid other more pressing tasks and honored me with a searching and sometimes scathing criticism of what I had done. This led me to rethink many a statement and claim and allowed me to correct some blunders. I thank all three for their generosity with their time and knowledge, without intending to suggest that they are in any way responsible for the outcome.

My greatest personal and intellectual debt is to Karen Polinger Foster, who drew various of the plates, read the entire work repeatedly, and made innumerable improvements in its content, style, accuracy, logic, and organization, leaving it much better than when she started.

Benjamin R. Foster