THE AGADE PERIOD The men who spoke a Semitic language now called Akkadian had long been present in Babylonia, as menials and foreign settlers, before a general rising in the northern cities in the district after wards called Akkad gave them power. The dynasty founded at Agade by Sargon did not come into the country as foreigners ; there was no clear breach with Sumerian civilization, but certain differences are doubtless due to adaptations by a people of foreign speech. The archaeological evidence proves this very clearly.
Some badly broken bas-reliefs from Susa, from monuments erected at this time, prove that the "Stele of Vul tures" was copied faithfully. But there was a notable develop ment in the treatment of the human figure. One fragment, from Lagash, shows battle scenes in different registers; in them, the men are much slimmer, the muscles and fleshy contours are care fully shown, and the drapery does not obscure the form beneath. To this extent the famous Stele of Victory set up by Naram-Sin is typical of the finest Babylonian work of the period. Foreign influences were clearly at work. Egyptian has been plausibly sug gested. The remarkable feature of the stele is the composition; as the king and his warriors ascend the lower spurs of a hill in the Zagros, throwing their enemies down, a lofty peak rises sheer above them. The prototype of this stele was a rock-carving recently found at Darband-i-Gawr, "The Pagan's Pass," in the Qara Dagh, near Sulaimaniah, the territory of Lullubu in Agade times. Another feature of the bas-relief was the rendering of the human face ; on the stele of Naram-Sin from the Diarbakr dis trict the heavily bearded face of the king is shown in profile, and the type was faithfully reproduced in the renderings of gods and kings for centuries afterwards. Rock-carving was not uncommon at this time; Anubanini, a king of the Lullubu had a bas-relief carved on a sheer rockface south of Hulwan. Yet another con vention became fixed from this time on ; gods and divine beings were given horns, the number varying according to rank. Naram Sin is given horns on the Stele of Victory because between the cutting of the rock-sculpture and of the stele he assumed divinity, a custom peculiar to this dynasty and subsequently copied by the dynasties of Larsa, Ur and Isin. Bas-reliefs on stone vessels depict heroes or gods fighting monsters, and this period may mark the development of the common types of composite creatures.
Free figures display a develop ment from the roughly cut and inadequately observed head of Manishtusu to the correctly proportioned and finely cut head of a man from Adab ; the technique of inlaid eyes and eyebrows was derived from the preceding era. Similarly in the body there is a range between the continuance of the old lumpish treatment of the flounced skirt, and the fragment of another statue of Manishtusu in which the folds of the garment falling from the shoulder do not obscure the form of the waist, hips and thighs.
No buildings of any extent certainly belonging to this period have yet been discovered. There was a change in the form of the brick which became rectangular, rather large. From this time onwards the timber needed for roofing was obtained, generally by military expeditions, from the Lebanon, cedar being the most favoured. Foreign architecture was also studied ; a description, with dimensions, of a typical hissar of Asia Minor is given in a text of Naram-Sin. Brick stamps were commonly used, whereas the written inscription was previously customary.
The same features that characterize the best bas-reliefs may be found in the seals, very elaborate treatment of human and animal bodies, balanced spacing and symmetrical opposition. Extremely hard stones, including crystal quartz, were chosen, and the sides of the cylinders are generally concave, a feature hard to understand if the seals were intended to give a flat impres sion. The crystal quartz cylinders were filled in the centre with a variegated paint which shone through the translucent stone.
Sea-trade was very active; the quays at Ur and Agade were frequented by the ships of Magan, a country of uncertain location reached by sailing down the Persian Gulf. This trade included the important traffic in copper and in the hard stone requisite for building. Tradition recorded campaigns of Sargon and Naram-Sin to Asia Minor, and there is no reason to doubt the historic fact; other campaigns down the Persian Gulf and across some part of the Mediterranean are not equally credible, but the king of Magan was certainly met in battle by Naram-Sin. To the east, continual strife with the Zagros tribesmen led to the establishment of Akkadian rule over an extensive area, and these efforts were probably directed towards keeping open the trade routes. In the north, Assyria and the Subaraeans alternately rebelled and succumbed.
