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“It seems to me no exaggeration to claim that this must rank among the great masterpieces of antiquity…” declared Max Mallowan. This life-size head, cast from bronze, it is technically perfect. When we compare this face with its Sumerian predecessors, we sense immediately that there is something different about it. The face is lean with high cheek bones. This is the face of a hardened warrior and not of a soft prince. The next thing we notice is that the head represents, in the words of Mallowan, “a triumph of hairdressing,” an astonishingly complex coiffure! The braided hair, the four-staged plaited beard, the closely trimmed mustache, the locks of hair behind the ear, the fillets of hair on the forehead, the bun! Is this for real! Is it even possible? Scholars debate…
You might also have noticed that the head has suffered some serious abuse. The eye is gouged out, the nose is flattened, and the ears are cut off. This looks like intentional mutilation. Who would do something like that? Maybe a soldier from Elam, Uruk, Ur, Umma, Assyria, Mari… the list is long. All of these cities were subdued by Sargon of Akkad, whose likeness is probably represented by this bronze bust.
The King
Sargon is the prototypical conquering king, the first great empire builder. Stories would be told for millennia afterward about how he extended his rule from Elam in the east to Cyprus in the west and washed his weapons in the sea. Some have suggested that Sargon should be identified with Nimrod in the Bible. This makes some sense. We know Sargon consolidated his hold on the south first, before extending his power north which is exactly how Genesis describes the expansion of Nimrod’s kingdom. The bronze bust pictured above was actually found in Nineveh, one of the cities that is said to have been built by Nimrod.
Akkad
Sargon’s capitol was Akkad, a city whose exact location is unknown. Although Sargon assumed the dress and manners of the Sumerians, he was ethnically Semitic and spoke Akkadian, a language that would eventually supplant Sumerian to become the lingua franca of the ancient near east for more than a millennia. In one of his inscriptions, Sargon claims to have conquered “all the way to the cedar forests and the silver mountains.” In other words, Sargon conquered as far as modern day Lebanon and Turkey. But later stories recall how Sargon’s empire collapsed as quickly as it grew, ending in famine and constant revolt. “Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown!” (Shakespeare, King Henry IV)
Birth Legend
Who was Sargon? How did he rise to such power? According to a late legend, Sargon was born to a priestess who bore him in secret. She placed the child in a reed basket sealed with pitch and set him afloat down the river. The infant Sargon was rescued by Akki, a drawer of water, who raised the child. Sargon grew up tending an orchard where the goddess Ishtar found him and “loved him.” The story may be an attempt to justify Sargon’s usurpation of the throne. If Sargon was indeed born to a priestess and loved by Ishtar then he certainly had every right to the throne! (Foster 2005, IV.18) Incidentally, that bronze bust was found within the temple precincts of Ishtar in Nineveh.
There are some obvious parallels between this story and that of Moses told in the Bible. Like Sargon, Moses was carried along by a river (the Nile) in a basket sealed with pitch and was rescued by a young woman (the pharaoh’s daughter). Many scholars suggest that the Biblical story is derived from the birth legend of Sargon, or from an earlier myth, but as the Assyriologist William Hallo points out, “a third possibility is too often overlooked – namely that the tale of Sargon is modeled on that of Moses!” (Hallo 2010, 229) Hallo points out that the birth legend of Sargon is very late (7th century BC) and could have been borrowed from the Israelites whom the Assyrians had conquered already by the second half of the 8th century BC.
Questions
Compare Sargon’s head to Eannatum’s head on the Stele of Vultures. What is similar and what is different about them?
References
Foster, B. R. (2005). Before the muses : an anthology of Akkadian literature. Bethesda, Md., CDL Press.
Hallo, W. W. (2010). The world’s oldest literature : studies in Sumerian belles-lettres. Leiden ; Boston, Brill.
Mallowan, M. E. L. (1936). “The Bronze Head of the Akkadian Period from Nineveh.” Iraq 3(1): 104-110.
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“It seems to me no exaggeration to claim that this must rank among the great masterpieces of antiquity…” declared Max Mallowan. This life-size head, cast from bronze, it is technically perfect. When we compare this face with its Sumerian predecessors, we sense immediately that there is something different about it. The face is lean with high cheek bones. This is the face of a hardened warrior and not of a soft prince. The next thing we notice is that the head represents, in the words of Mallowan, “a triumph of hairdressing,” an astonishingly complex coiffure! The braided hair, the four-staged plaited beard, the closely trimmed mustache, the locks of hair behind the ear, the fillets of hair on the forehead, the bun! Is this for real! Is it even possible? Scholars debate…
You might also have noticed that the head has suffered some serious abuse. The eye is gouged out, the nose is flattened, and the ears are cut off. This looks like intentional mutilation. Who would do something like that? Maybe a soldier from Elam, Uruk, Ur, Umma, Assyria, Mari… the list is long. All of these cities were subdued by Sargon of Akkad, whose likeness is probably represented by this bronze bust.
The King
Sargon is the prototypical conquering king, the first great empire builder. Stories would be told for millennia afterward about how he extended his rule from Elam in the east to Cyprus in the west and washed his weapons in the sea. Some have suggested that Sargon should be identified with Nimrod in the Bible. This makes some sense. We know Sargon consolidated his hold on the south first, before extending his power north which is exactly how Genesis describes the expansion of Nimrod’s kingdom. The bronze bust pictured above was actually found in Nineveh, one of the cities that is said to have been built by Nimrod.
Akkad
Sargon’s capitol was Akkad, a city whose exact location is unknown. Although Sargon assumed the dress and manners of the Sumerians, he was ethnically Semitic and spoke Akkadian, a language that would eventually supplant Sumerian to become the lingua franca of the ancient near east for more than a millennia. In one of his inscriptions, Sargon claims to have conquered “all the way to the cedar forests and the silver mountains.” In other words, Sargon conquered as far as modern day Lebanon and Turkey. But later stories recall how Sargon’s empire collapsed as quickly as it grew, ending in famine and constant revolt. “Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown!” (Shakespeare, King Henry IV)
Birth Legend
Who was Sargon? How did he rise to such power? According to a late legend, Sargon was born to a priestess who bore him in secret. She placed the child in a reed basket sealed with pitch and set him afloat down the river. The infant Sargon was rescued by Akki, a drawer of water, who raised the child. Sargon grew up tending an orchard where the goddess Ishtar found him and “loved him.” The story may be an attempt to justify Sargon’s usurpation of the throne. If Sargon was indeed born to a priestess and loved by Ishtar then he certainly had every right to the throne! (Foster 2005, IV.18) Incidentally, that bronze bust was found within the temple precincts of Ishtar in Nineveh.
There are some obvious parallels between this story and that of Moses told in the Bible. Like Sargon, Moses was carried along by a river (the Nile) in a basket sealed with pitch and was rescued by a young woman (the pharaoh’s daughter). Many scholars suggest that the Biblical story is derived from the birth legend of Sargon, or from an earlier myth, but as the Assyriologist William Hallo points out, “a third possibility is too often overlooked – namely that the tale of Sargon is modeled on that of Moses!” (Hallo 2010, 229) Hallo points out that the birth legend of Sargon is very late (7th century BC) and could have been borrowed from the Israelites whom the Assyrians had conquered already by the second half of the 8th century BC.
Questions
Compare Sargon’s head to Eannatum’s head on the Stele of Vultures. What is similar and what is different about them?
References
Foster, B. R. (2005). Before the muses : an anthology of Akkadian literature. Bethesda, Md., CDL Press.
Hallo, W. W. (2010). The world’s oldest literature : studies in Sumerian belles-lettres. Leiden ; Boston, Brill.
Mallowan, M. E. L. (1936). “The Bronze Head of the Akkadian Period from Nineveh.” Iraq 3(1): 104-110.