Meet the Family: The Akkadians

As I mentioned in my last post, there are quite a few civilizations who suddenly collapsed due to all manner of reasons. In the next few posts I'll be looking at the Akkadian Empire – just one of the members of the Collapsed Civilization Club. I'll be looking into the different various ideas behind the collapse.

The Akkadian Empire was a sophisticated civilization that inhabited Mesopotamia. Mesopotamia being the flat, alluvial land that lies between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, which today is Syria and Iraq. This area is also known as the ‘fertile crescent’ due to its high alluvium levels and fertile soil.

The Akkadian Empire. Source: Glogster

The Akkadian Empire established itself as the first United Empire (Cullen et al., 2000). This society flourished between 2300 – 2200 BC, with a thriving agricultural industry with irrigation networks, a political system and stable trade routes. However the Akkadian empire suddenly collapsed 2200 years BC. Why? Well there are a number of reasons, from sudden aridification to poor leadership and invasion by peripheral tribes.

Traditional explanations for the Akkadian collapse revolve around social and economic failures (Yoffee and Cowgill, 1988). The ruler of the Akkadian Empire, King Saragon, had recently died and so the empire was going through a transition period. As Yoffee and Cowgill explain, it is quite common for small rebellions and revolts to occur following the death of a leader in old civilizations. However at the time of this political transition, 'barbarians' called the Gutians invaded the Akkadian Empire. These invaders were not adequately controlled by the Akkadian government, who were distracted by military conquests elsewhere, and so caused a great deal of social disturbance. To add to this political failure, the descendants of King Saragon placed too great a focus on military expeditions outside of Mesopotamia. Whilst being successful in defeating enemies outside of Mesopotamia, this meant that internal social issues, such as the Gutian invasion and subsequent food shortages, were not managed effectively. These political and social flaws were commonly used as an explanation for the collapse. However, it is unlikely that these factors alone could cause the collapse of such a sophisticated civilization.

Saragon, King of Akkad. Source: Wikipedia

It is therefore important to consider a very influential factor - climate. Kerr (1998) and Cullen et al., (2000) both illustrate the importance of climate in the collapse of the Akkadians and both use similar lake core analysis techniques to come to the conclusion that abrupt aridification of Mesopotamia was a hugely influential factor in the abrupt decline of the Akkadians. By taking sediment cores from the Gulf of Oman and Lake Van (at the Tigris-Euphrates headwaters), a clear drying event occurs suddenly at the same time as the beginning of collapse in 2200BC. These cores were dated  accurately by using tephra-chronology. This drought is considered the worst in the past 10,000 years according to Kerr (1998) and lasted roughly 300 years. But surely, as a civilization living in a semi-arid region, the Akkadians must have been able to survive drought events? How could a civilization who had established coping mechanisms fir droughts, such as grain storage units and water regulation technologies, be toppled by drought alone?

It appears that the collapse of the Akkadians was in response to both climatic shifts and societal upheaval. The northern populations enjoyed great productivity and agricultural success during periods of high precipitation. However the northern regions, such as Tell-Leilan, did not have any irrigation networks. As a result, when this severe drought hit Mesopotamia, the northern populations could not cope. The South however had an efficient irrigation system in place, using water from the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. A mass migration to the South occurred which intensified the already significant pressures on the Akkadian civilization.

The Akkadian Empire faced several important events that, when combined, were too much for the political and social systems in place. The severe drought event, described as reaching intensities comparable to the Younger Dryas by Cullen et al., (2000) came at a time when the Akkadian Empire was already facing perturbations. The political transition following the death of a king, coupled with a carefully timed invasion, catastrophic drought (Cullen et al., 2000) and varied social responses proved too much for the Akkadians and would probably be too much for many civilizations.

I think it is important to point out that Kerr (1998) is critical of the argument that climate change is enough to topple a civilization. However, since this article was published, more and more evidence has emerged to support the climate-change argument, due to more sophisticated technology and advancements in paleolimnological understandings. It is now widely accepted that climate change, in particular drought events, is a main contributing factor to the collapse of civilizations.

Till next time!