Page "Akkadian Empire" Paragraph 57

The water table in this region was very high, and replenished regularly — by winter storms in the headwaters of the Tigris and Euphrates from October to March, and from snow-melt from March to July.

Flood levels, that had been stable from about 3, 000 to 2, 600 BC, had started falling, and by the Akkadian period were a half-meter to a meter lower than recorded previously.

Even so, the flat country and weather uncertainties made flooding much more unpredictable than in the case of the Nile ; serious deluges seem to have been a regular occurrence, requiring constant maintenance of irrigation ditches and drainage systems.

Farmers were recruited into regiments for this work from August to October — a period of food shortage — under the control of city temple authorities, thus acting as a form of unemployment relief.

Some have suggested that this was Sargon's original employment for the king of Kish, giving him experience in effectively organising large groups of men ; a tablet reads, " Sargon, the king, to whom Enlil permitted no rival — 5, 400 warriors ate bread daily before him ".