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Drought ended Sargon's empire
The Climate Breaks
The climate shifted suddenly during the reign of Sargon's great-grandson Shar-Kali-Sharri, in what is known as the 4.2 kilometer event. Dust layers in Iraq show the annual rainfall dropped sharply, and the yearly floods that farming depended on began to fail. The drought lasted more than a century, and some believe up to 300 years. It is linked to collapses in ancient Egypt, the Indus Valley, and China's Liangzhu culture. In the drier north of Mesopotamia, the first cities and towns began to be abandoned.
Civil War
After Shar-Kali-Sharri died around 2193 BC, civil war broke over the Akkadian Empire. The Sumerian King List records the chaos in an almost sarcastic tone: who was king, who was not king? Four rulers held power for just three years between them.
The Gutians Arrive
The Gutians, nomads from the mountains, had watched the drought and the fighting over scarce farmland. They marched down and conquered. A poem written centuries later, The Curse of Akkad, describes them covering the land like locusts. The hill people's speech sounded to Sumerians like dogs barking. They raided supply lines, burned the land behind them, and burned Akkad to the ground.
They released all the livestock of the land to roam freely, and the price of grain shot up. Tall grass grew on the paths where oxen once pulled carts. Gutian rule over southern Iraq lasted more than 150 years.
How do scientists know rainfall dropped?
A team led by Heidi Cullen of Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory reported in 2000 that sediment cores from the Gulf of Oman hold a sudden layer of wind-blown dust. Its chemistry matched sources in Mesopotamia. The layer dates to about 4,200 years ago, the same time the Akkadian Empire collapsed.
What did Tell Leilan reveal about the drought?
Harvey Weiss of Yale University led excavations at Tell Leilan, a city in northeastern Syria. His team found a thick layer of wind-blown silt with no signs of human occupation above the layers of the city's final period. They concluded the site was abandoned around 2200 BC and stayed largely empty for about three centuries.
Why does The Curse of Akkad blame a god?
The poem was composed after the empire fell, and it explains the collapse as divine punishment. It says that Sargon's grandson Naram-Sin offended the god Enlil by sacking his temple at Nippur. Enlil in turn summoned the Gutians out of the mountains. The poem ends with the curse that gives it its name, that Akkad would be wiped out.
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