Prehistoric India to 1000 B.C. c10.47

c10.47

Ancient Mesopotamia was divided into a kingdom of Sumer in the south and of Akkad in the north. The next important point in its early history is the rise of the Kingdom of Akkad under Sargon, and his conquest of Sumer, thus forming an Akkadian dominion over all Mesopotamia. This event probably occurred shortly before 2300 B.C., and the period of a century or so under Sargon and his successors is usually known as the Akkadian Period, sometimes as the Sargonid. And afterwards came break-up and insecurity - ‘who was king, who was not king?’ asks a contemporary writer despairingly, as the unified autocratic rule of Sargon gave way to immediate civil wars and the rise and fall of city-states. By shortly before 2100 B.C. the so-called Third Dynasty of Ur was established with wide authority, and there followed the divided rule of the city-states of Isin and Larsa. Beyond this date (round about 2000 B.C.) we need not follow the fortunes of Mesopotamia under the rulers of Babylon and Assyria: we have little concern in India with the great civilizations before the time of Cyrus, and after the end of the Sumerian empire we are concerned more with barbarians than with the city-dwellers.