The Age of Agade is the first book-length study of the Akkadian period of Mesopotamian history, which saw the rise and fall of the world''s first empire during more than a century of extraordinary political, social, and cultural innovation. It draws together more than 40 years of research by one of the world''s leading experts in Assyriology to offer an exhaustive survey of the Akkadian empire.
Addressing all aspects of the empire, including its statecraft and military, territory and cities, arts, religion, economy, and production, The Age of Agade considers what can be said of Akkadian political and social history, material culture, and daily life. A final chapter also explores how the empire has been presented in modern historiography, from the decipherment of cuneiform to the present, including the extensive research of Soviet historians, summarized here in English for the first time. Drawing on contemporaneous written and artifactual sources, as we
