The question of the origin of the Akkadians is one concerning which there has been and is still much uncertainty, and which presents many problems for the future. It has been remarked that the fact that there is no special ideograph for "river," and the fact that "mountain" and "country" are represented by the same character, imply that the people with whom the cuneiform script originated came from a mountainous country--probably the tract to the east or the north-east. This assumption, however, is not wholly dependent on what is here stated, for it is a well-known and admitted fact that the ideograph generally used for "Akkad" stands also for other tracts that are largely mountainous, namely, Phoenicia and Ararat.
It may be of interest here to quote the passage referring to this.
The text in question is the exceedingly important syllabary designated by Prof. Fried. Delitzsch "Syllabary _B_." The text is unfortunately defective in the British Museum copy, but a duplicate found at Babylon by the German explorers completes it as follows:--
Uri [Cuneiform] Akkadu Ari [Cuneiform] Amurru Tilla [Cuneiform] Urtu.
From this we see that the ideograph for Akkad not only stood for that country, but also for the land of the Amorites (Amurru), and for Ararat (Urtu), both of them being more or less mountainous districts. That the ancient home of the Akkadians was of the same nature is, therefore, more than probable.
That the Akkadians were a conquering race is indicated by the legend of the god Ura, generally called "the Dibbara Legend," where the hero, "the warrior Ura," is represented as speaking prophetically as follows--
"Tâmtu with Tâmtu, Subartu with Subartu, Assyrian with Assyrian, Elamite with Elamite, Kassite with Kassite, Sutite with Sutite, Qutite with Qutite, Lullubite with Lullubite, Country with country, house with house, man with man, Brother with brother, shall not agree: let them annihilate each other, And afterwards let the Akkadian come, and Let him overthrow them all, and let him cast down the whole of them."
The Akkadians had dominion, at one time or another, over all the above nationalities, some of whom were permanently subjected. Tâmtu, the region of the Persian Gulf, was under their domination constantly, though the inhabitants were apparently rather turbulent, and unwilling subjects. The Assyrians were apparently for a time under Akkadian (Babylonian) rule, but threw it off at a very early period, and later on conquered Akkad itself. The Elamites, too, were for a while conquered by the inhabitants of Babylonia, and the Sutites (people of Sutî) are said to have been all transported by Kadasman-Murus (he reigned about 1209 B.C., according to Hilprecht). It will thus be seen that they played an important part in the history of the plain of Shinar where they settled, and to all appearance introduced their civilization.