History
2221 BC - 2130 BC
The dark age in Mesopotamia is the earliest known dark age in the history of mankind and was an era filled with chaos and destruction. It was a period of great upheaval, constant war, horrendous plague, and stagnant cultural growth throughout the region. Millions of people died during this period, either from warfare, famine, or plague.
The dark age began during the latter years of the reign of Naram Sin, the king of the Akkadian Empire, who ruled from 2254 to 2218 BC. After learning that Anu, who was held as the chief god of Mesopotamia, never shared his grace on his people, Naram Sin prayed to him, asking for signs and omens, and waited for an answer from Anu. However, Anu never answered his prayers and the king rebelled against him. He assembled his army and marched on his temple in the city of Uruk and plundered it before burning it down. Anu and his pantheon, the Anunnaki, were angered with Naram Sin and unleashed their wrath on the Akkadians, sending plagues throughout Mesopotamia, since their empire was widespread in almost the entire region, giving initiation to the dark age. The people were not only anguished with epidemic, but a severe drought broke out in the Ancient Near East, with rapidly increasing aridity, and failing rainfall, which eventually resulted in famine.
The Akkadians also came under increased pressure from rebellious forces within their Empire as well as invaders from without, a challenge which they had always faced since the founding of the empire, but the plagues, the drought, and the famine weakened the empire to the point where the type of invasions and rebellions which, in the past, were crushed, could no longer be dealt with easily. They lost control over many Sumerian cities and the kings of these cities sought to establish their own government, but were heavily afflicted by the plagues that the Anunnaki had sent in all the lands. The Akkadians also waged continual war against three powerful outside forces; the Elamites, the Gutians, and the Amorites. Out of these three nations, the Gutians proved to be the greater threat.
The Gutians were a tribe of barbarians that lived in the mountain region far east from Mesopotamia, known as the Zagros Mountains, a mountain region where many barbarian tribes settled. They swept into the civilized world in vast hordes, wrecking armies with a combination of sheer terror and overwhelming numbers. Gutian invasions induced population displacement on a scale never seen before during that time period and the impending arrival of the barbarian hordes spread terror.
The Gutians were enemies of the Akkadians since the founding of their empire. Under the reign of King Sargon, who was the founder of the Akkadian Empire, the Gutians became a huge threat and he was forced to fight against them in several campaigns. He was able to defeat them and subdue them, preventing them from continuing their raids upon his provinces. It was left to his successors, however, to follow up this movement by more systematic endeavors and on a larger scale to bring various of the groups in the distant, forbidding regions of the Zagros Mountains, so difficult of access, to subjection.
In the year 2154 BC., Anu made a pact with the Gutians, offering them the lordship over all the territory that was under the power of the Akkadian dynasty in exchange of exterminating the Akkadian people and taking their city, Akkad, the capital of the empire. The Gutians took revenge for their long subjection to the Akkadians, sweeping down in force into their city, and effectively destroying their empire in a ferocious and expeditious campaign of destruction.
After the invasion, the Gutians claimed the city of Akkad as their own and established their realm, with the dead remaining to rot in the streets and houses, and the city in ruins. Once the kingdom of Akkad was fully vanquished, the Anunnaki seized from sending plague and disease upon humanity. The people were now oppressed by the tyranny of the Gutians and under their crude rule, prosperity declined. The Akkadians bore the brunt of this as their city was center of the Empire, so that it was in Akkad that the Gutians established their own center in place of the destroyed city. The Gutians also subjugated many of the cities that were once part of the empire in the same way they took over Akkad. The army of Uruk showed great resistance against the Gutian force and fought them in many battles, but their resistance was eventually crushed. Although the Gutians did not supplant all of the territory that was once part of the Semitic empire, many cities throughout the region were under Gutian power and the kings were left with no other choice but to submit themselves to the barbarian rulers.
Lagash was one of the few cities that were never under Gutian rule due to the strong resistance of its ruler, King Gudea, who came to power shortly after the Akkadian Empire had been overrun. He was able to stand against the frequent border raids of the barbarians, spending much of his time building city walls, and restoring those which had been destroyed in the constant warfare endemic to the region. Gudea made Lagash militarily strong enough to preempt any Gutian attack and provided his people with peace while also insuring their safety. He proved to be a pragmatic realist who could guide his people through perilous times. Still, the king knew the time was not yet ripe for a full scale Sumerian rebellion because the Gutians were still too strong and the Sumerians were still too weak.
Very few Akkadians survived the massacre and the survivors migrated to the city of Ur, where they lived in the wilderness as a nomadic tribe. They were not more but a decimated race, but as the years passed, a new generation rose out of the ashes. This new generation of Akkadian warriors had witnessed the brutalities of life as children, watching their families die of plague or massacred in the Gutian invasion, and their home destroyed. When Anu discovered that there were survivors among the Akkadians, he ordered all the kings of Mesopotamia to persecute and exterminate them. Thus they were forced to defend what rested of their people, continuously fighting against enemy forces. Their experiences in battle with the many hardships and tragedies they suffered, forced the new generation of Akkadians to harden their emotions and become ruthless warriors.
Because he was considered the greatest warrior among his tribe, Manishtusu was proclaimed as the leader of his people and once obtaining the leadership, commanding an army of a thousand, he led a fierce campaign against the Gutians. The campaign against the barbarians initiated as a protracted genocide, as Manishtusu besieged all the cities they took over and slaughtered them. The survivors fled to Akkad where they joined the army led by the Gutian king himself, Puzur Suen. Learning about the attacks that the Akkadian warlord was launching against his hordes, the Gutian king gathered his army and prepared for battle. In the battle against the Akkadians, the Gutians greatly outnumbered them, but were overpowered by Manishtusu and his forces. Puzur Suen was personally slain by Manishtusu while the Gutian army was routed by the Akkadian soldiers.
After defeating the Gutians, Manishtusu made a symbolic gesture, trampling on the bodies of the dead barbarians and raised his sword to the sky, symbolizing his victory over the Gutians. His victory legitimized the fall of Gutian power over Mesopotamia and the end of the dark age. After this battle, Manishtusu continued to pursue the demoralized barbarian forces with the aid of the army of Lagash, sent by King Gudea, who thought it was the perfect time for an open rebellion. Both leaders were able to drive them out of Mesopotamian territory and once the Gutians were gone, peace returned. Having no more battles to fight, the Akkadian people dedicated themselves in rebuilding their city. For now their battles were over, but they knew that in the future, after all their failed attempts of exterminating them, the Anunnaki were going to strike again. All the kings that Anu appointed to eradicate the Akkadians failed to complete the task and he continued to machinate against them, engaging in plots and intrigues with the rest of the Anunnaki.
Post Dark Age
The plagues were long gone, famine was disappearing, the Gutians were no longer in power, and after their defeat, for a short period of time, there was no conflict in the land. Each city took the advantage of establishing self-government and recuperate from calamity. However, despite their utter defeat which marked their fall of power, it did not prevent the surviving Gutians from returning to the region and entered Mesopotamia once again seven years later after the new Gutian king, Lord Tirigan, vowed to destroy the Akkadians and conquer Sumer once again. However, he was never able fight them. Before he could ever reach the Akkadians, a new Sumerian king rose to power and engaged war against the barbarians.
Utu-Hengal, King of Uruk and a man who was said to be a descendant of the legendary king Gilgamesh, was one of the first native Sumerian kings to rule over Sumer after centuries of Akkadian and Gutian rule. The king succeeded in driving the Gutian invaders out of Sumer, forming a coalition of sumerian cities, including Lagash, to end the threat of the barbarians and defeated them. After defeating the Gutian army, Utu Hengal left the barbarian king alive and took him as a prisoner. He then forced Tirigan into submission by using the commonly practiced methods of the era, that is, he paraded the conquered king throughout his city, Uruk’s streets, and then finished the job by putting his foot on Tirigan’s neck and chopping off the vanquished’s head. Utu-Hengal was now master of southern Mesopotamia and the political and economic life in Sumer revived during his reign. His success marked the first wave of a Sumerian reaction, and was followed up not long afterwards by the establishment of the Third Dynasty of Ur. The sovereignty of Sumer was not regained until the Akkadian warlord Manishtusu and Utu-Hengal of Uruk (c. 2123-2113 BC) routed the Gutians, and Ur-Nammu, the governor of Ur (2112-2095 BC), asserted the independence of his city and founded the Third Dynasty of Ur.
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