Issues of ethnicity have long vexed archaeologists studying Mesopotamian societies of the late third millennium BCE. Scholars working in the region have frequently debated the existence and distinctiveness of Sumerian and Akkadian ethnic groups, as well as the nature of their potential interrelationship. Through an analysis of both biological evidence (nonmetric traits) and mortuary treatment data gleaned from the burials of the A "Cemetery" at the site of Kish, Iraq, the present work explores possible ways in which an Akkadian ethnic identity may have been conceived of and commemorated during the time of Akkadian imperial ascendancy (ca. 2350-2150 BCE). In keeping with recent discussions of ethnic ascription and self-identification-which have stressed the flexible, situational, and politicized nature of ethnogenesis and ethnic identification-here we attempt to situate the discussion within what must have been a fraught and fluid time for the inhabitants of Kish. Despite data suggesting some biological differences between individuals buried in the A "Cemetery," the relative homogeneity of burial treatment seen in graves representing both the late Early Dynastic III and Akkadian periods cries out for interpretation. This pattern may speak to a lack of distinct Akkadian ethnic identity (at least in the time and place under study) or possibly to an attempt by those making the later Akkadian Period burials to play down the remembrance of possible Sumerian-Akkadian ethnic differences. The latter explanation would be tantalizing evidence of the strategic politics of identity on the part of Akkadians living at Kish in a time of political flux.