|
Contents
Agade
Agade was an ancient city of northern Mesopotamia.
The city is believed to be the same as the city of Akkad;
however that name is also
often used for an entire region of northern Mesopotamia, which was
settled by people speaking the Akkadian language. The exact
location of the city is unknown.
Agade was the capital of the king Sargon of Akkad,
who ruled the regions of Akkad and Sumer.
After the regions of Akkad and Sumer combined into Babylonia,
Agade remained a leading city for a long period.
The city Akkad is mentioned in the
Old Testament (Gen. x. 10) only once. It has been suggested that
Akkad is a name from the Hebrew language.
Greek language varients are aroad or achad.
In the Old Testament it is described as
one of the four chief cities, Akkad, Babel, Erech and Calneh[?],
which constituted the nucleus of the kingdom of Nimrod in
the land of Shinar or Babylonia.
The name Agade is probably from the Sumerian language, appearing
in texts such as the Sumerian king list. The later
Assyrian-Babylonian Semitic form Akkadu ("of or belonging to Akkad")
is probably derived from Agade.
It is possible that the name Agade may mean "crown (aga) of fire
(de)"[1] in allusion to Istar[?], "the brilliant goddess," the
tutelar deity of the morning and evening star and the goddess of war
and love, whose cult was observed in very early times in Agade. This
is suggested by the writings of Nabonidus, whose record [2] mentions
that the Istar worship of Agade was later superseded by that of the
goddess Anunit[?], another personification of the Istar idea, whose
shrine was at Sippar[?]. It is significant in this connexion that
there were two cities named Sippar, one under the protection of
Shamash, the sun-god, and one under this Anunit, a fact which
points strongly to the probable proximity of Sippar and Agade. One
theory held (as of 1911) that Agade was situated opposite Sippar on
the left bank of the Euphrates, and was probably the oldest part of
the city of Sippar.
Notes
- prince, "Materials for a Sumerian Lexicon," pp. 23, 73, Journal of Biblical Literature, 1906.
- I. Rawl. 69, col. ii. 48 and iii. 28.
Sources
- based on an article from 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica
SUMMARY: The city-state of Agade has never been found. It was the capital of Sargon and is the toponym for the Akkadian Civilization .....
- The History of the Ancient Near East
http://ancientneareast.tripod.com/Akkad.html
| Elsewhere |  | |
Search engine
Web directory
|
CONTENTS:
|
