Page "Akkadian Empire" Paragraph 67

The empire was bound together by roads, along which there was a regular postal service.

Clay seals that took the place of stamps bear the names of Sargon and his son.

A cadastral survey seems also to have been instituted, and one of the documents relating to it states that a certain Uru-Malik, whose name appears to indicate his Canaanite origin, was governor of the land of the Amorites, or Amurru as the semi-nomadic people of Syria and Canaan were called in Akkadian.

It is probable that the first collection of astronomical observations and terrestrial omens was made for a library established by Sargon.

The earliest " year names ", whereby each year of a king's reign was named after a significant event performed by that king, date from the reign of Sargon the Great.

Lists of these " year names " henceforth became a calendrical system used in most independent Mesopotamian city-states.

In Assyria, however, years came to be named for the annual presiding limmu official appointed by the king, rather than for an event.