The “King of Battle” begins with Sargon rallying his reluctant troops to campaign
against the distant kingdom of Purusˇanda (Purusˇhaddum from the MBA Assyrian
archives). This prominent center in the Assyrian network is often associated with the
MBA palace complex of Acemhöyük in the southeastern vicinity of the Salt Lake (Tuz
Gölü), though Barjamovic ( 2011 : 357 – 378 ) has persuasively argued against this location,
citing possible locations further south and west in the Kayseri region. In the “King of
Battle” narrative, Sargon is responding to grievances from Akkadian merchants trapped
in the kingdom of Purusˇanda, who are suffering abuse at the hands of its tyrant king,
Nur-Daggal. He is successful in rallying his troops and sets off with an army across a
fantastical landscape. They cross mountain passes strewn with boulders of lapis lazuli
and impassable thickets. Sargon eventually reaches Purusˇanda and breaches its walls.
Nur-Daggal immediately surrenders, redresses his wrongs, and Sargon and his army
rule Purusˇanda for three years (for text, translation and discussion see Westenholz 1997 :
102 – 131 ).
The second narrative concerns a widespread rebellion against Sargon’s grandson,
Naram-Sin. Unlike, the “King of Battle” texts, which is a literary narrative with no
known parallel in Old Akkadian (i.e. there is as yet no evidence that it was composed
during the reigns of Sargon and Naram-Sin), part of the “Great Revolt” appears on a
scribal exercise tablet written in Old Akkadian, as well as in Old Babylonian inscrip-
tions copied from monuments erected by Naram-Sin (see reference below). The Great
Revolt relates a sequence of upheavals against the Akkadian king. The first involves an
alliance of Mesopotamian kingdoms united under the king of Kisˇi, Iphur-Kisˇi. A
second uprising includes seventeen kingdoms on the fringes of Akkadian rule, and is
led by Gula-AN, king of Gutium. The list of kings and kingdoms joining in this
second rebellion is of particular relevance, and has been the focus of an ongoing
discussion concerning the extent of Akkadian imperial enterprise, and the historicity
of these narratives in general.
Only fragments of the original Old Akkadian sources have been recovered, and these
relate events exclusively from the first intra-Mesopotamian rebellion led by Iphur-
Kisˇi (Westenholz 1997 : 224 – 229 ). An Old Babylonian copy of a royal inscription of
Naram-Sin constitutes additional “historical–literary” evidence for the Great Revolt
(Michalowski 1980 ; Westenholz 1997 : 238 ), though here again the text is very frag-
mentary and does not include events related to the second rebellion (with its Anatolian
rebels).
The earliest record of the second rebellion led by Gula-AN is narrated on an Old
Babylonian (post-Akkadian, post-EBA) recension tablet. Zipani, the king of kanisˇ,
joins the rebel alliance against Naram-Sin (Westenholz 1997 : 251 ). In later Hittite
versions, further Anatolian elements are included. Pamba, the king of Hatti, is listed
with Zipani among the rebels; the kingdom of Purusˇanda (the setting for the “King
of Battle”) is destroyed by the rebel alliance (Van De Mieroop 2000 : 140 ).
Views of the historicity of the “King of Battle” and “Great Revolt” traditions range
from legitimate accounts of Akkadian enterprise into Central Anatolia, to anachro-
nistic fabrications reflecting contemporary (i.e. Old Babylonian/Old Assyrian) geo-
political realities. A literal reading of these narratives suggests to some that the
Anatolian kingdoms were in vassalage to the Akkadian kings (see e.g. Orlin 1971 :
228 – 331 ; Bryce 1983 : 11 ). Some have also suggested that Akkadian campaigns were
actually undertaken into Anatolia (Westenholz 1998 ).
–– Sumer, Akkad, Ebla and Anatolia ––