Image: Sargon of Akkad

Description: Bronze head of a king of the Old Akkadian dynasty, most likely representing either Naram-Sin or Sargon of Akkad. Unearthed in Nineveh (now in Iraq). In the National Museum of Iraq, Baghdad. Height 30.5 cm. M. E. L. Mallowan, "The Bronze Head of the Akkadian Period From Nineveh", Iraq / Volume 3 / Issue 01 / The British Institute for the Study of Iraq, Spring 1936, 104–110. "The life-size bronze head illustrated on Plates V–VII was found by Dr. R. Campbell Thompson and Mr. R. W. Hamilton at Quyunjiq in 1931 (during the excavations at Nineveh on behalf of the British Museum which were financed by Sir Charles Hyde, Bt.) and published in A.A.A., vol. XIX, pl. L. Since that time, however, the corroded surface of the metal has been cleaned, and the head appears once more in its pristine beauty. The metal has not yet been analysed, but it would appear to be bronze, and the head to have been cast, certain details having doubtless been worked out with a chisel. On grounds of style the workmanship may be assigned to the Akkadian period, and may be dated approximately to the twenty-sixth century B.C."
Title: Sargon of Akkad
Credit: Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
Author: Photograph: Iraqi Directorate General of Antiquities
Usage Terms: Public domain
License: Public domain
Attribution Required?: No