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Akkadian Empire and Egypt background and Comparative Analysis
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Akkadian Empire and Egypt background and Comparative Analysis
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The podcast discusses the collapse of the Akkadian and Egyptian Empires. The Akkadian Empire was unified by Sargon through warfare, leading to advancements in trade and infrastructure. The empire fell due to strong winds and attacks. Egypt relied on the Nile River for its economy and had a decentralized power structure. Ptahsi II's death marked the end of the Old Kingdom, leading to ecological issues. Egypt faced drought and famine, but Enkatesi managed food supplies and helped the people. The main difference between the two civilizations was the distribution of power. The Akkadian Empire could have had a different outcome if power was shared. Hi everybody, I'm Samantha Petrie and today we're going to be talking about the collapse of the Akkadian and Egyptian Empire. The Akkadian Empire was located across Mesopotamia. The empire has two distinct geographical features, rain-fed agriculture regions in the north and irrigated fields between the Tigris and Euphrates River in the south. We still are not sure where the city of Akkad was located, but we can tell that this was where the city's capital was and where the king would rule. There were five dynasties in total. Sargon was the first and he unified the empire by conquering neighboring groups with warfare. But this led to the development of roads, irrigation, and advanced trade. By the end of the Akkadian Empire's rule, we know that they were suffering from strong winds called shamals. From analyzing living corals and the chemical and isotope signatures of carbon and oxygen inside of them, we're able to reconstruct sea surface temperatures and understand what the weather was like years ago. After analyzing these corals, we can see a prolonged winter season around 4.5 to 4.1 BCE. This was around the time of the Akkadian collapse. These shamals would divert the king's attention from surrounding nations waiting to attack onto people in dire need of food. Now let's talk about Egypt. Egypt resides in northeastern Africa, surrounded by the Nile Delta, the Western Desert, and the Nile River Valley. The Nile is so ingrained into Egypt's culture that it got separated by Upper and Lower Egypt. Upper Egypt is upstream of the Nile and Lower Egypt is downstream Nile, which is why it might look flipped on a map. The Nile River is such a key part to Egypt's economy that they even based their calendar system around the flooding patterns of the river. There are three seasons, Akhet, a time for Nile to flood, Peret, the growing season, and Shamu, a harvesting season. Egypt has excellent coverage from the surrounding nations. To the north is an ocean, to the east is a stream, and to the south they have some competition, but to the west is just a dry desert. Egypt was ruled by Ptahsi II for 94 years before he came to an end. At the time of Ptahsi's rule, he was giving up more and more power to the surrounding officials and nomarchs, and the pharaoh's name became more of a figurehead instead of an actual role of power. The job of the pharaoh is to unite Lower and Upper Egypt, but when there was no one to take on this role, the two sides split. Ptahsi's death marked the end of the Old Kingdom, and with it a whole new set of ecological issues came into play. Ptahsi did give up a lot of power from the pharaoh position to the officials and nomarchs instead, but I see this more as a positive thing, because having one person with all power leads to too much work and bad outcomes, as we can see from the Akkadian Empire, which faced collapse. On the other hand, the Egyptian Empire had a ton of people in charge and a lot of options for someone to step up and guide the people in these troubling times. Using radiocarbon dating, we're able to assess pollen fossils from up to millennia ago and assess climate changes. The New York Times article states that the results showed a decrease in the Late Bronze Age of Mediterranean trees and oaks, pines, and carobs, and in local cultivation of olive trees, which experts interpret as a consequence of repeated periods of drought. Because of this drought, Egypt was going through a huge starvation period, and people were distressed without the ability to grow crops. Enkatesi stepped up to the plate, and he controlled food supplies, imposed rationing, and erected temporary dams to impound water. This was Egypt's saving grace. Because someone was able to show up and do the job needed, they were able to cut back and help the people. When I was comparing these two civilizations, I feel like this was the major difference, was the amount of power that people had. In the Akkadian Empire, there was only one man, and he couldn't save them. But in the Egyptian Empire, there was a ton of people, even though it only took one to step up, there was still that option to, and Akkadia didn't have that. I think that there could have been a different outcome for Akkadia if they did a better job of giving out power to the people. There would have been someone available to focus on external issues, and then also someone to focus on internal issues. All references for this podcast can be found in The Collapse of the Akkadian Empire and Ancient Egypt, a comparative analysis by Samantha Petrie's essay. That is all for today. Have a great summer.
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