Book Description

Sargon the Great was one of the world's earliest empire builders. From roughly 2334 to 2279 BCE, he ruled a civilization called the Akkadian Empire, consisting largely of ancient Mesopotamia, after conquering all of Sumer (southern Mesopotamia) as well as parts of Syria, Anatolia (Turkey), and Elam (western Iran). His empire was the first political entity to have an extensive, efficient, large-scale bureaucracy to administer his far-flung lands and their culturally diverse people. This thesis argues that Sargon the Great, first ruler of Akkad, built the ziggurats as physical monuments and re-enforcements of his legitimacy in reigning over the southern Sumerian region and certain northern cities such as Sippar. The study considers the Mesopotamian terms of legitimacy and how architecture could be used to develop that concept, how the ziggurats demonstrate high architectural uniformity which points to a single architect, and how they have clear evidence of Sargonic authorship.