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The Sumerians were not the only people to inhabit the Fertile Crescent of Mesopotamia. There were other groups of people who lived in permanent communities and who interacted with the Sumerians in times of peace and in war. By 2350 B.C., Semitic-speaking people united northern Mesopotamia with the Sumerian city-states and a new capital was set up at Akkad. The result was a centralized government under the authority of the king, his royal court, and the high class of priests.

The man most responsible for this development is assumed to be Sargon of Akkad. Sargon, whose name is taken to mean "the king is legitimate," carried out more than thirty battles against the Sumerian city-states and eventually, these city-states were incorporated into the Akkadian kingdom.

The foundation of the Akkadian state was economic. Sargon and his royal court served as the focal point of all economic activity. At Sumer, this task was assumed by the priests of the temple. Sargon brought vast amounts of wealth to the capital city – he also brought a huge number of royal servants and administrators, thus creating a bureaucratic organization to help rule his kingdom.

The Akkadian kingdom, like most Ancient Near Eastern kingdoms, also embraced a polytheistic religion. Their gods were anthropomorphic, that is, the gods took human form. And because the gods took human form, they also had human qualities: the gods could be foolish, intelligent, shy, humorous, jealous, angry or silly. Among themselves, the gods also had unequal status. The gods were derived from the world of nature for the simple reason that life in Mesopotamia was controlled or conditioned by the seasons. Theirs was a world of nature and in order to understand nature, the Mesopotamians gave human shape to the forces of nature. So, we encounter An, the sky god, Enlil, the god of air, Nanna, the moon god and Utu, the sun god. The Mesopotamians believed these gods were responsible for creating the universe and everything it contained, including humankind. The gods were also responsible for the smooth running of that world. The gods ruled the world of men through their earthly representatives, and in the case of the Akkadian kingdom, this meant Sargon. The status of the temple priests at Akkad decreased. Although they still exist, and continue to serve a vital role, the mediator between the gods and ordinary men and women, is now Sargon.

Men and women were created by the gods to serve the gods – to feed and clothe them, to honor and obey them. One thing absent from this religion, however, was that the gods did not specify any code of ethics or morality. Issues of good and evil were left to men and women to discover on their own. In the end, the gods gave the inhabitants of these early river civilizations an answer to the basic question – why are we here? what is our role? And the answer was equally simple – to serve the gods.

 

Ex. 1. Answer the following questions:

1) Who besides Sumerians inhabited the Fertile Crescent of Mesopotamia?

2) How was the Akkadian state founded?

3) Who was responsible for the set up of the new capital at Akkad?

4) What kind of religion dominated in the Akkadian kingdom?

5) What role did the gods play in life of the Mesopotamians?

6) Who was the mediator between the gods and ordinary Mesopotamians?

7) What was the underlying idea of the religion adopted by the Mesopotamians?

 

Ex. 2. Arrange the words below into three categories:

 

Akkadian

religion

Sargon

 

Mesopotamia, Sumerian city-states, semitic-speaking people, priests, royal servants, anthropomorphic, polytheistic, mediator, temple, administrators, bureaucratic organization, kingdom, capital city, forces of nature, good and evil, ordinary men and women.

 

Ex. 3. Give your own definitions to the following words:

 

Sargon of Akkad

mediator

to incorporate

illegitimate

capital city

permanent community

bureaucratic organization

polytheistic religion

Ex.4. Find words from the text that are defined as follows:

 

- a number of individuals living in the same locality and having common ties and interests;

- to unite or combine so as to form one body;

- one who directs or manages;

- having a human form, ascribing human form or attributes to beings or things not human;

- material possessions in all their variety, abundance of something;

- a clergyman, a person selected to perform sacred functions;

- a person, spirit or object, worshipped or adored, to whom supernatural powers are attributed;

-a permanent resident, one who inhabits.

 

 

Ex. 5. Complete the chart with the appropriate forms of the words if possible:

VERB	NOUN	ADJECTIVE
		responsible
	development
decrease
		bureaucratic
	organization
adore
		vital
	inhabitant
condition

Ex. 6. Translate from Russian into English:

 

1. Месопотамию населяли не только шумеры, но и другие группы людей.

2. После объединения Месопотамии и шумерских городов-государств возникла новая столица Аккад.

3. Шумерские города-государства вошли в состав Аккадского королевства благодаря Саргону Аккадскому.

4. При правлении Саргона столица Аккадского королевства стала процветать.

5. В Аккадском королевстве доминировала политеистическая религия: боги имели человеческий облик и были наделены чертами человеческого характера.

6. Жители Месопотамии считали, что боги сотворили Вселенную и всё, что есть на ней, в том числе и человека.

7. Боги создали людей, чтобы те их кормили и одевали, одним словом, служили им.

8. Однако политеистическая религия не предусматривала этических и моральных законов для людей, вопросы добра и зла были полностью возложены на людей.

 

Ex. 7. Divide into two groups – pro and con – to discuss the following point: “Sargon of Akkad: progress or regress for the Akkadian Kingdom?”. Prepare your arguments for and against the ruling of Sargon. Use the active vocabulary from the text.

 

 

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