Akkadian cuneiform script from the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery archives. The Ernst Herzfeld papers. Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. Smithsonian ...

The Akkadians also pioneered new forms of art and writing, and their economic reach—including trade with the far-off Indus Valley—brought exotic goods and animals such as elephants ...

And yet this destruction was largely unnecessary. Among the important pieces of art missing is a 4,300-year-old bronze mask of an Akkadian king that is featured in most books of ancient art history.

Believed to date back to the 15th century B.C.E., the artifact’s surface is carved with cuneiform script in the ancient language of Akkadian. Now considered extinct, Akkadian is the earliest ...

Well that title seems to go to the Akkadian Empire, the first known multinational empire in the world. The Akkadian Empire existed for a short time between 2334-2218 BCE, and was founded by Sargon ...

Akkadian was written in cuneiform, a system invented by the Sumerians that involves engraving pictograms and symbols into clay with a reed stylus. Akkadian’s specific script contained 600 signs ...