ACCAD

(Acʹcad) [fortress].

One of the four cities founded by Nimrod that formed the “beginning of his kingdom.” (Gen. 10:10) Accad (or Akkad) has been identified with the ancient city of Agade, which archaeological evidence indicates to have been situated on the Euphrates River near Sippar, about thirty miles (48.3 kilometers) from Babylon, in the area where the Euphrates and the Tigris Rivers draw close together. The precise location, however, is uncertain.

The name Akkad is also applied to the whole northern region of what later was called Babylonia. Akkad appears to have received prominence as the principal or royal city of that region under an ancient king named Sargon (not the Sargon of Isaiah 20:1). The southern region of Mesopotamia was known as Sumer. Babylonia grew out of these two areas, and in Babylonian texts her rulers were still called “king of Akkad” down to the time of Babylon’s fall in 539 B.C.E. On the Cyrus Cylinder, Babylon’s conqueror takes over the title of “King of Babylon, king of Sumer and Akkad.”

The Akkadians appear to have surpassed the Sumerians in fine sculpture work and intricate seal-cutting. The name “Akkadian” today is used to describe the ancient Assyrian and Babylonian cuneiform writing.