In southern Iraq, archaeologists have excavated a remarkable collection of carved clay tablets—ancient records of Akkadia, the world’s oldest empire. Marked with the administrative details of ...

Before the recent Girsu excavations, the knowledge and functioning of the Akkadian Empire were poorly understood. The recent ...

The finds, which also include dozens of clay sealings, contain details of a metric system used to measure resources, as well as evidence of a cult of personality around a particularly charismatic rule ...

“The new tablets and sealings provide tangible evidence of a Sumerian city and its citizens under Akkad rule which will last about a century and half before the fall of the empire ...

This story appears in the April 2009 issue of National Geographic magazine. The world's first empire, known as Akkad, was founded some 4,300 years ago, between the Tigris and the Euphrates Rivers.

Researchers from the British Museum and Iraq have unearthed over 200 clay cuneiform tablets and 60 seals, offering a detailed record of the early Akkadian empire. These 4,000-year-old tablets ...

The ancient Assyrian language is classified as Akkadian; it was the language of the Assyrians and Babylonians, written in Cuneiform. To facilitate administrative tasks of the Assyrian Empire Aramaic ...