Book

Legends of the kings of Akkade: the texts

Eisenbrauns • Winona Lake, Ind. • Published In 1997 • Pages: xiii, 410

By: Westenholz, Joan Goodnick.

AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document

In the third millennium BCE. a dynasty arose in the hitherto insignificant town of Akkade which, within a few decades, came to exercise not only hegemony over Mesopotamia but also great influence over much of the Near East.The most impressive legacy of this dynasty was the widespread and popular legend of its kings.Their deeds stirred the imagination of all the surrounding cultures, inspiring legends that were handed down not only in Akkadian but also in Sumerian and Hittite. The accomplishments of the Akadian dynasty were told and retold throughout the generations and were magnified and embellished with each retelling. This saga and its heroes soon became the subject of a tradition of folklore, then of literature, beginning directly after the events themselves. The feats and deeds of the entire dynasty were telescoped and assigned to the two most prominent of its five members Sargon, the founder of the empire, and his grandson and third successor, Naram-Sin. This document offers an annotated edition of all the known legends of the Akkadian kings, It contains transliterations and translations of the texts, as well a philological commentaries. Each text is discussed in terms of its findspot, its external appearance, its orthography, and its language and an attempt is made to describe its stylistic peculiarities (pp. 15-17).

SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF

Texts in the speaker's language

Texts translated into english

Writing

Verbal arts

Grammar

traditionCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)

Akkadian

HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document

2009

RegionThe area the document pertains to

Middle East

Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region

Middle East

Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs

Book

Evaluation

Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.

Archaeologist

Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.

4: Excellent Secondary Data

AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection

John Beierle; 2008

Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document

no date

Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to

4334-4112 BP (2332-2112 BC)

Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)

Akkadian Period, Mesopotamia; current countries Iraq, Syria, Turkey, Iran

NotesAdditional notes

Joan Goodnick Westenholz

LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number

96045516

LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings

Assyro-Babylonian literature/Legends--Iraq--Babylonia/Babylonia--Kings and rulers