The earliest historical records of Anatolia stem from the south east of the region, and are from the Mesopotamian based Akkadian Empire during the reign of Sargon of Akkad in the 24th century BC.

The Akkadian Empire reached its political peak between the 24th and 22nd centuries BC, following the conquests of its founder Sargon of Akkad ( 2334 – 2279 BC ).

Reputedly it was destroyed by invading Gutians with the fall of the Akkadian Empire.

Peter B. deMenocal, has shown there was an influence of the North Atlantic Oscillation on the stream flow of the Tigris and Euphrates at this time, which led to the collapse of the Akkadian Empire ".

The Sumerian King List, describing the Akkadian Empire after the death of Shar-kali-shari, states:

This collapse of rain-fed agriculture in the Upper Country meant the loss to southern Mesopotamia of the agrarian subsidies which had kept the Akkadian Empire solvent.

One strategy adopted by both Sargon and Naram-Sin, to maintain control of the country, was to install their daughters, Enheduanna and Emmenanna respectively, as high priestess to Sin, the Akkadian version of the Sumerian moon deity, Nanna, at Ur, in the extreme south of Sumer ; to install sons as provincial ensi governors in strategic locations ; and to marry their daughters to rulers of peripheral parts of the Empire ( Urkesh and Marhashe ).

The oldest known dictionaries were Akkadian Empire cuneiform tablets with bilingual Sumerian – Akkadian wordlists, discovered in Ebla ( modern Syria ) and dated roughly 2300 BCE .< ref name = " imlqdg ">

Classical Sumer ends with the rise of the Semitic Akkadian Empire in the 24th century BC.

Along with the rest of Mesopotamia it was ruled by the Akkadian Empire from the late 24th to mid 22nd centuries BC, after which it once again became independent.

* Akkadian Empire period: c. 2334 – 2218 BC ( Sargon )

* Akkadian Empire

Some of the important historical Mesopotamian leaders were Ur-Nammu ( king of Ur ), Sargon ( who established the Akkadian Empire ), Hammurabi ( who established the Old Babylonian state ), Ashur-uballit II and Tiglath-Pileser I ( who established the Assyrian Empires ).

** Akkadian Empire (~ 2350 – 2100 BC )

Akkadian, came to be the dominant language during the Akkadian Empire and the Assyrian empires, but Sumerian was retained for administration, religious, literary, and scientific purposes.

The Akkadian Empire was the first successful empire to last beyond a generation and see the peaceful succession of kings.

Nineveh (; Akkadian: Ninwe ; ; Nīnewē ; Nineuē ; ; Naynuwa ; Nainavā ) was an ancient Assyrian city on the eastern bank of the Tigris River, and capital of the Neo-Assyrian Empire.

Slavery was known in almost every ancient civilization, and society, including Sumer, Ancient Egypt, Ancient China, the Akkadian Empire, Assyria, Ancient India, Ancient Greece, the Roman Empire, the Islamic Caliphate, the Hebrews in Palestine, and the pre-Columbian civilizations of the Americas.

1696 – 1654 BC, short chronology ) created an empire out of the territories of the former Akkadian Empire.

Babylon was merely a religious and cultural centre at this point and not an independent state, and like the rest of Mesopotamia, it was subject to the Akkadian Empire which united all the Akkadian and Sumerian speakers under one rule.

Aplu, it is suggested, comes from the Akkadian Aplu Enlil, meaning " the son of Enlil ", a title that was given to the god Nergal, who was linked to Shamash, Babylonian god of the sun.

The oldest known name for Anatolia, " Land of the Hatti " was found for the first time on Mesopotamic cuneiform tablets from the period of the Akkadian dynasty ( 2350 – 2150 BC ).

Under Sargon and his successors, Akkadian language was briefly imposed on neighboring conquered states such as Elam.

During the Akkadian period, the Akkadian language became the lingua franca of the Middle East, and was officially used for administration, although the Sumerian language remained as a spoken and literary language.

The spread of Akkadian stretched from Syria to Elam, and even the Elamite language was temporarily written in Mesopotamian cuneiform.

It has recently been suggested that the regional decline at the end of the Akkadian period ( and First Intermediary Period of the Ancient Egyptian Old Kingdom ) was associated with rapidly increasing aridity, and failing rainfall in the region of the Ancient Near East, caused by a global centennial-scale drought.

Southern Iraq during Akkadian period seems to have been approaching its modern rainfall level of less than per year, with the result that agriculture was totally dependent upon irrigation.

The spread of the Akkadian state as far as the " silver mountain " ( possibly the Taurus Mountains ), the " cedars " of Lebanon, and the copper deposits of Magan, was largely motivated by the goal of securing control over these imports.

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.

Assyria or Athura ( Aramaic for Assyria ) was a Semitic Akkadian kingdom, extant as a nation state from the late 25th or early – 24th century BC to 608 BC centred on the Upper Tigris river, in northern Mesopotamia ( present day northern Iraq ), that came to rule regional empires a number of times through history.

It was named for its original capital, the ancient city of Assur ( Akkadian: ; Aramaic: ; Hebrew: ; Arabic: ).

In the Neo-Assyrian period the Aramaic language became increasingly common, more so than Akkadian — this was thought to be largely due to the mass deportations undertaken by Assyrian kings, in which large Aramaic-speaking populations, conquered by the Assyrians, were relocated to Assyria and interbred with the Assyrians.

According to the Akkadian transcription in the Amarna letters, Anubis ' name was vocalized in Egyptian as Anapa.

Lachmo was the Akkadian god of fertility.

Chaldea or Chaldaea (), from Greek, Chaldaia ; Akkadian ; Hebrew כשדים, Kaśdim ; Aramaic: ܟܐܠܕܘ, Kaldo ) was a marshy land located in south eastern Mesopotamia which came to rule Babylon briefly.

The language used by the Chaldeans was the Babylonian dialect of Akkadian, the same Semitic language, save for slight peculiarities in sound and in characters, as Assyrian Akkadian.

In July, 2010, archaeologists reported that a fragmentary Akkadian cuneiform tablet was discovered at Tel Hazor, Israel, containing a ca.

The Etruscans coming from northern Anatolia also worshipped Apollo, and it may be that he was originally identical with Mesopotamian Aplu, an Akkadian title meaning " son ", originally given to the plague God Nergal, son of Enlil.

After the fall of the Akkadian empire in the mid 21st century BC, the Assyrians who were the northern branch of the Akkadian people, colonised parts of the region between the 21st and mid 18th centuries BC and claimed the resources, notably silver.

After four centuries of urban life, this abrupt climatic change evidently caused abandonment of Tell Leilan, regional desertion, and collapse of the Akkadian empire based in southern Mesopotamia.

The Ur empire continued through the reigns of three more kings with Semitic Akkadian names, Amar-Sin, Shu-Sin, and Ibbi-Sin.

After the collapse of the Akkadian empire, the south Mesopotamian region was ruled by Gutians for a few decades before the rise of the Sumerian third dynasty of Ur which encompassed the whole of Mesopotamia, including Babylon.

* Sargon of Akkad, founder of the Akkadian Empire and the earliest empire builder in recorded history

2300 BC was incorporated into the Mesopotamian based Akkadian empire of Sargon the Great and Naram-Sin of Akkad ( Biblical Accad ).

In circa 2300 BCE the Akkadian king Sargon the Great conquered all of Mesopotamia, uniting the Akkadian and Sumerians in the world's first empire, though this Akkadian empire collapsed after two centuries.

Following a brief Sumerian revival the empire broke up into two Akkadian states, Assyria in the north, and some time later Babylon in the south ( although Babylon was founded by invading Amorites, and was rarely ruled by native dynasties throughout its history ).

The artistic style at Ebla may have influenced the quality work of the Akkadian empire.

) united the city-states in the south and founded the Akkadian dynasty, the world's first empire.

Mathayus ( Johnson ), the last true Akkadian mercenary, along with his half-brother, Jesup, and friend, Rama, is hired by King Pheron ( Rees ) to kill a sorcerer, whose prophetic powers allow the vicious Egyptian Emperor Memnon ( Brand ) to rule his empire with an iron fist.

Manishtushu claimed to have subjugated Anshan, but as the Akkadian empire weakened under his successors, the native governor of Susa, Kutik-Inshushinak, a scion of the Awan dynasty, proclaimed his independence from Akkad and captured Anshan ( some scholars have speculated that the name Awan is an alternate form of Anshan ).