The world's first multi-ethnic empire, forged by Sargon of Akkad; unified Mesopotamia under a single ruler and introduced a template of imperial administration that successors would copy for millennia.
Collapsed c. 2154 BCE following a combination of Gutian invasions from the Zagros Mountains and a severe drought (4.2-kiloyear climate event) that caused crop failures and famine, fragmenting the empire.
The atlas holds 3 border frames for Akkadian Empire — the shape you scrub through changes in 2334 BC · 2254 BC · 2192 BC.
Places the Akkadian period in the full sweep of Mesopotamian political and cultural history.
The standard survey of the ancient Near East, situating Sargon's first multi-ethnic empire within the long arc of Mesopotamian state-building it inaugurated.
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