Shar-Kali-Sharri

Shar-Kali-Sharri
Predecessor Naram-Sin of Akkad (father)
Successor Igigi
Spouse(s) Tutasharlibish[1]
Relatives Sargon of Akkad (ancestor)
Macehead dedicated by Shar-Kali-Sharri to the temple of Shamash at Sippar (BM 1883,0118.700).

Shar-Kali-Sharri (Shar-Gani-Sharri;[2] r. c. 2217-2193 BC middle chronology, c. 2153-2129 BC short chronology) was a king of the Akkadian Empire. Succeeding his father Naram-Sin in c. 2217 BC, he came to the throne in an age of increasing troubles. The raids of the Gutian hill peoples of the Zagros mountains that began in his father's reign were becoming more and more frequent, and he was faced with a number of rebellions from vassal kings against the high taxes they were forced to pay to fund the defence against the Gutian threat.[3] Sumer also suffered from a terrible drought during Shar-Kali-Sharri's reign in about c. 2200 BC, leading to the complete abandonment of some cities. This is complementary to Egyptian records, which suggest there was a drought around the same time during the reign of king Pepi II.[4] After Shar-Kali-Sharri’s death in c. 2193 BC, Sumer fell into anarchy, with no king able to achieve dominance for long.[5] The king list states:

"Then who was king? Who was not the king? Igigi, Imi, Nanum, Ilulu: four of them ruled for only 3 years."

The next recorded king of Akkad to rule for any reasonable amount of time was Dudu, who is said by the king list to have reigned for 21 years. However by this time the Akkadian empire was no more, and Dudu most likely controlled no more than Akkad itself, meaning Shar-Kali-Sharri was the last Akkadian king to actually have an empire under his control.

Out of the 24 years of his reign, names survive for some 18 of them, and indicate successful campaigns against the Gutians, Amorites, and Elamites, as well as temple construction in Nippur and Babylon.[6]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Elisabeth Meier Tetlow (2004). Women, Crime, and Punishment in Ancient Law and Society: The ancient Near East. Continuum International Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-8264-1628-5. Retrieved 29 July 2011.
  2. ↑ written šar-ka3-li2-šar-ri2 𒊬𒂵𒉌𒊬𒌷 in later manuscripts of the Sumerian King List, but šar-ka3-li2 LUGAL-ri2 𒊬𒂵𒉌 𒈗𒌷 in royal inscriptions even though the LUGAL ("king") sign did not have the phonetic value of šar in Sumerian (Laurence Austine Waddell, The Makers of Civilization 1968, p. 529)
  3. ↑ John Haywood (2015-06-04). Chronicles of the Ancient World. Quercus Publishing Ltd. ISBN 978 1 84866 896 6.
  4. ↑ John Haywood (2015-06-04). Chronicles of the Ancient World. Quercus Publishing Ltd. ISBN 978 1 84866 896 6.
  5. ↑ John Haywood (2015-06-04). Chronicles of the Ancient World. Quercus Publishing Ltd. ISBN 978 1 84866 896 6.
  6. ↑ Year-names of Sharkalisharri
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