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Naram-Sin of Akkad

This article is about the Akkadian king. For otherhistorical gures of the name, see Naram-Suen.

Naram-Sin (also transcribed Narām-Sîn , Naram-Suen , Sin or Suen being the Akkadians’ moon god equiv-alent to the Sumerian Nanna ), reigned ca. 2254–2218BCE, middle chronology, was the third successor andgrandson of King Sargon of Akkad. Under Naram-Sinthe Akkadian Empire reached its zenith. He was the rstMesopotamian king known to have claimed divinity forhimself, and one of the rst (following the earlier Lugal-Anne-Mundu) to be called “King of the Four Quarters”.

1 Biography

Naram-Sin was born as a son of Manishtushu. He wasthus a nephew of King Rimush and grandson of SargonandTashlultum. Naram-Sin’s aunt was theHigh PriestessEn-hedu-ana.

1.1 Reign

Naram-Sin traded with Meluhha (almost certainly corre-sponding to the Indus Valley civilization), and controlleda large portion of land along the Persian Gulf. He ex-panded his empire by defeating the King of Magan at thesouthern end of the Persian Gulf, and conquering the hilltribes to the north in the Taurus Mountains. His famous“Victory Stele” depicts his triumph over Satuni, chief ofLullubi in the Zagros Mountains. The king list gives thelength of his reign as 56 years, and at least 20 of his year-names are known, referring to military actions againstvarious places such as Uruk and Subartu. One unknownyear was recorded as “the Year when Naram-Sin was vic-torious against Simurrum in Kirasheniwe, and took pris-oner Baba the governor of Simurrum, and Dubul the ensi of Arame”.[1] Other year names refer to his constructionwork on temples in Akkad, Nippur, and Zabala. He alsobuilt administrative centers at Nagar and Nineveh.One Mesopotamian myth has it that the goddess Inannaabandoned the former capital of Akkad followingNaram-Sin’s plunder of the Ekur (temple of the godEnlil) in Nippur. In his anger, Enlil brought the Gutiansdown from the hills east of the Tigris, to bring plague,

famine and death throughout Mesopotamia. To preventthis destruction, eight of the gods decreed that the city ofAkkad should be destroyed to spare the remaining cities.

While this story may be mythological, it does suggest thatGutian raids were already beginning during this period.Soon after thedeathof Naram-Sin, the Akkadian Empirecame under increasing pressure from Gutian incursions.By around 2124 BC, all Akkad was in the hands of theGutians. TheGutians remained there for 125years beforebeingreplaced bytheUrIII stateas thedominantpoliticalpower.[2][3]

1.2 Victory stele

Smaller fragment of Naram-Sin Victory Stele

Naram-Sin’s famed victory stele depicts him as a god-king (symbolized byhishorned helmet)climbinga moun-tain above his soldiers, and his enemies, the defeatedLullubi. Although the stele was broken off at the topwhen it was stolen and carried off by the Elamite forcesof Shutruk-Nakhunte, it still strikingly reveals the pride,glory, and divinity of Naram-Sin. The stele seems tobreak from tradition by using successive diagonal tiers tocommunicate the story to viewers, however the more tra-ditional horizontal frames are visible on smaller brokenpieces. It is six feet and seven inches tall, and made frompinksandstone.[4] The stele was found atSusa, and is nowin the Louvre Museum.[5] A similar bas-relief depictingNaram-Sinwas found a fewmiles north-east ofDiarbekr,at Pir Hüseyin.

1.3 Rock Relief of Naram-Sin

The rock relief lies on the cliff side of Darband-i-Gawr

(which means the pass of the pagan). This pass is partof the south-eastern side of the Qara Dagh (also writtenKara Dag) mountain range. Qara Dagh is a Turkish term

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2 3 REFERENCES

which means the “black mountain.” It is a double rangeof cretaceous limestone, reaching a height of more than1,700 meters above sea level.

Naram-Sin Rock Relief at Darband-iGawr

The relief was carved on the surface of the cliff. There-fore, the relief appears convex-concave, from abovedownward. It is about 3 meters in height. The reliefshows a victorious warrior standing on the corpses of twoenemies. The warrior wears a rolled up and rounded cap(similar to the ones which were used by the Ur III kings).The cap ts the head and covers the skull from the frontalto the occipital areas. Only the lower parts of the fore-head, external ear, and hair behind the ear appear. Theface looks to the left side (of the body) and the right eyeappears widely open; there is no eyebrow. The nose issmall but convex and its tip is pointed. The beard hairis curled and is prominently highlighted (similar to theneo-Assyrian sculptures). Below the lower jaw, the beardextends in curvy lines downwards on the chest wall to thelevel of the nipples. The warrior wears a beaded necklaceand two bracelets. The body above the waist is bare. Themuscles of the chest wall, shoulder, and upper arms hada bodybuilder contour; the impression of great power youwill notice! The right arm holds an axe (or mace) whilethe left one holds a bow. The bow is more or less trian-gular in shape (not a composite bow, though) and differs

from the bow which was depicted on the Victory Stela ofNaram-Sin at the Louvre museum in Paris. The warriorwears a knee-length kilt. The waist is narrow and there

is a multi-layered belt around the mid-abdomen; one endof the belt hangs down on the right thigh.The right leg is straight and extended, and its foot presses(not directly) on an enemy corpse. The left leg is exedat the knee and is lifted off the ground as if the warrior is

about to ascend something. The left foot also sits on anenemy corpse. The enemies were depicted much smallerin size when compared with the main warrior gure (sim-ilar to the ones seen on the Victory Stela of Naram-Sin).The enemies have ponytails and lie accid on the ground(they are dead already!). The overall depiction of the en-emy corpses is very similar to those seen on the VictoryStela of Naram-Sin.The overall scene looks like that of the Victory Stela ofNaram-Sin which shows his successful military campaignagainst the Lullubi and their king Satuni; local villagersdon’t (and didn’t) know this stela! Why have they been

calling this relief “Naram-Sin” since centuries? The Lul-lubi were tribes living at Zamua area, modern-day ZagrosMountains of the Iraq-Iran border. Some scholars thinkthat this man is Anobanini (or Anu Banini) because ofgreat similarity in the overall depiction of the attitude,clothes, bow, and posture of that king’s relief in Sar-ePole Zahab (modern-day Western Iran). Another theorysuggests that this isa Neo-Sumerian king (fromThird Dy-nasty of Ur); it is well-known that theNeo-Sumerianshadcampaigned the Lullubi land nine times. Mr. HashimHama Abdullah, Director of the Sulaymaniyah Museum,and Mr. Kamal Rashid, Director of the SulaymaniyahAntiquities Directorate, said that most likely this manrepresents a local ruler or king of what is known todayas Iraqi Kurdistan. In addition, it seems likely that the re-lief originally contained some cuneiform inscriptions butthey were erased (through weathering or deliberately).[6]

1.4 Children

The only known son of Naram-Sin was his successorShar-Kali-Sharri. Excavations at Tell Mozan (ancientUrkesh) brought to light a sealing of Tar'am-Agade,a pre-viously unknown daughter of Naram-Sin, who was possi-

bly married to an unidentied endan (ruler) of Urkesh.[7]

2 See also

• Bassetki Statue

• History of Mesopotamia

• Sumerian king list

3 References[1] Year-Names of Naram-Sin of Agade

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[2] Babylonian Life and History, by E. A. Wallis Budge

[3] Julian Reade (2000). Mesopotamia . British MuseumPress. pp. 67–68. ISBN 0-7141-2181-9. OCLC43501084.

[4] Kleiner, Fred (2005). Gardner’s Art Through The Ages .Thomson-Wadsworth. p. 41. ISBN 0-534-64095-8.

[5] Louvre ( Arts and Architecture) . Köln: Könemann. ISBN3-8331-1943-8.

[6] Amin, OSM. “Finding the hidden Naram-Sin rock reliefin Iraq”. www.ancient.eu . Ancient History Encyclopedia.Retrieved 20 March 2015.

[7] Buccellati, Giorgio; Kelly-Buccellati, Marilyn (2002).“Tar’am-Agade, Daughter of Naram-Sin, at Urkesh”(PDF). In Al-Gailani Werr, Lamia. Of Pots and Plans.Papers on the Archaeology and History of Mesopotamiaand Syria presented to David oates in Honour of his

75th Birthday . London: Nabu. pp. 11–31. ISBN1897750625. Retrieved 18 March 2015.

4 Sources

• H.W.F. Saggs, The Babylonians , Fourth Printing,1988, Macmillan Publishers Ltd.

• J. P. Naab, E. Unger, Die Entdeckung der Stele des Naram-Sin in Pir Hüseyin , Istanbul Asariatika Nes-riyati XII (1934).

5 External links

• Victory Stele of Naram-Sin

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