Petrovich makes two major assumptions that are not well justified.
First, he assumes that the Akkadian Empire was the first empire, and therefore concludes the Sargon the Great had to have been Nimrod, despite living at least five centuries after the Dispersion.
Genesis 10 does not say that Nimrod created the first empire. It says that he began to be a mighty one. From what I've been able to ascertain, Nimrod's army did not exceed 20 soldiers. Two generations later, the army of Gilgamesh was only 50 warriors. Another two generations later, Abraham fielded an army of 300 men.
Furthermore, Genesis 10 associates Nimrod with Babel. Therefore, it makes no sense to identify him as Sargon five centuries after the Dispersion from Babel. The Sumerian Epic, Enmerkar and the Lord of Arratta places En-mer-kar (Nimrod) as contemporary with the confusion of tongues, which he hoped to reverse.
Second, Petrovich assumes that because the city of Accad is listed as one of Nimrod's first four cities, therefore the city of Akkad from Babylonia was founded by Nimrod. However, it appears that three of Nimrod's four cities had their names repeated after the Dispersion as the refugees went downstream on the Tigris River and founded new cities in lower mesopotamia named after the original ones. See York and New York for this very human behavior. The city of Uruk in Lower Mesopotamia was named after Erech / Kiriki on the upper Tigris River, which in turn was named after Cain's city of Enoch/Erech.
I expect that Nimrod founded Uruk and Kish in Lower Mesopotamia after he had founded the three cities in Assyria mentioned in Genesis 10. Those later cities probably date to about 50 years after the Dispersion, which puts their foundings about 2140 BC.
I'm still affectionately partial to the Karaca Dag theory. :)
I am curious how your views of Nimrod differ from those offered by Douglas Petrovich in "Nimrod the Empire Builder: Architect of Shock and Awe", 2023.
Petrovich makes two major assumptions that are not well justified.
First, he assumes that the Akkadian Empire was the first empire, and therefore concludes the Sargon the Great had to have been Nimrod, despite living at least five centuries after the Dispersion.
Genesis 10 does not say that Nimrod created the first empire. It says that he began to be a mighty one. From what I've been able to ascertain, Nimrod's army did not exceed 20 soldiers. Two generations later, the army of Gilgamesh was only 50 warriors. Another two generations later, Abraham fielded an army of 300 men.
Furthermore, Genesis 10 associates Nimrod with Babel. Therefore, it makes no sense to identify him as Sargon five centuries after the Dispersion from Babel. The Sumerian Epic, Enmerkar and the Lord of Arratta places En-mer-kar (Nimrod) as contemporary with the confusion of tongues, which he hoped to reverse.
Second, Petrovich assumes that because the city of Accad is listed as one of Nimrod's first four cities, therefore the city of Akkad from Babylonia was founded by Nimrod. However, it appears that three of Nimrod's four cities had their names repeated after the Dispersion as the refugees went downstream on the Tigris River and founded new cities in lower mesopotamia named after the original ones. See York and New York for this very human behavior. The city of Uruk in Lower Mesopotamia was named after Erech / Kiriki on the upper Tigris River, which in turn was named after Cain's city of Enoch/Erech.
I expect that Nimrod founded Uruk and Kish in Lower Mesopotamia after he had founded the three cities in Assyria mentioned in Genesis 10. Those later cities probably date to about 50 years after the Dispersion, which puts their foundings about 2140 BC.