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Assyria - Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia 11/5/09 12:28 PM Assyria - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 11/5/09 12:28 PM Assyria From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Ancient Assyria was a civilization centered on the Upper Tigris river, in Mesopotamia Mesopotamia (Iraq), that came to rule regional empires a number of times in history. It was named for its original capital, the ancient city of Assur (Akkadian: Aššur; Arabic: .(Atur ݏݏݏݏ ,Ašur ݏݏݏݏ :Aššûr, Aramaic אַשור :Aššûr; Hebrew ﺃﺷﻮﺭ The term Assyria can also refer to the geographic region or heartland where these empires were centered. During the Old Assyrian period (20th to 15th c. BCE, Assur controlled much of Euphrates · Tigris Upper Mesopotamia. In the Middle Assyrian period (15th to 10th c. BCE), its Sumer influence waned and was subsequently regained in a series of conquests. The Neo- Eridu · Kish · Uruk · Ur Lagash · Nippur · Ngirsu Assyrian Empire of the Early Iron Age (911 – 612 BCE) expanded further, and Elam under Ashurbanipal (r. 668 – 627 BCE) for a few decades controlled all of the Susa Fertile Crescent, as well as Egypt, before succumbing to Neo-Babylonian and Akkadian Empire Median expansion, which were in turn conquered by the Persian Empire. Akkad · Mari Amorites Isin · Larsa Contents Babylonia Babylon · Chaldea 1 Early history Assyria Assur · Nimrud 2 Old Assyrian city-states and kingdoms Dur-Sharrukin · Nineveh 2.1 City state of Ashur Hittites · Kassites 2.2 Kingdom of Shamshi-Adad I Ararat / Mitanni 2.3 Assyria reduced to vassal states Chronology 3 Middle Assyrian period Mesopotamia 3.1 Ashur-uballit I Sumer (king list) 3.2 Assyrian expansion Kings of Assyria Kings of Babylon 3.3 Tiglath-Pileser I reaches the Mediterranean Sea 3.4 Society in the Middle Assyrian period Mythology Enûma Elish · Gilgamesh 4 Neo-Assyrian Empire Assyro-Babylonian religion 5 Language Language 6 Arts and sciences Sumerian · Elamite 7 Legacy and rediscovery Akkadian · Aramaic 8 Notes and references Hurrian · Hittite 9 Literature 10 See also 11 External links http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assyria Page 1 of 8 Assyria - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 11/5/09 12:28 PM Early history The earliest neolithic site in Assyria is at Tell Hassuna, the center of the Hassuna culture in Iraq. Of the early history of the kingdom of Assyria, little is positively known. According to some Judaeo-Christian traditions, the city of Ashur (also spelled Assur or Aššur) was founded by Ashur the son of Shem, who was deified by later generations as the city's patron god. The upper Tigris River valley seems to have been ruled by Sumer, Akkad, and northern Babylonia in its earliest stages. The Akkadian Empire of Sargon the Great claimed to encompass the surrounding "four quarters"; the regions north of the Akkadian homeland had been known as Subartu. It was destroyed by barbarian Gutian people in the Gutian period, then rebuilt, and ended up being governed as part of the Empire of the 3rd dynasty of Ur. Old Assyrian city-states and kingdoms The first inscriptions of Assyrian rulers appear after 2000 BC. Assyria then consisted of a number of city states and small Semitic kingdoms. The foundation of the Assyrian monarchy was traditionally ascribed to Zulilu, who is said to have lived after Bel-kap-kapu (Bel-kapkapi or Belkabi, ca. 1900 BC), the ancestor of Shalmaneser I. City state of Ashur The city-state of Ashur had extensive contact with cities on the Anatolian plateau. The Assyrians established "merchant colonies" in Cappadocia, e.g., at Kanesh (modern Kültepe) circa 1920 BC – 1840 BC and 1798 BC – 1740 BC. These colonies, called karum, the Akkadian word for 'port', were attached to Anatolian cities, but physically separate, and had special tax status. They must have arisen from a long tradition of trade between Ashur and the Anatolian cities, but no archaeological or written records show this. The trade consisted of metal (perhaps lead or tin; the terminology here is not entirely clear) and textiles from Assyria, that were traded for precious metals in Anatolia. Like many commercial city-states in history, Assur was to a great extent an oligarchy rather than a monarchy. Authority was considered to lie with "the City", and the polity had three main centres of power — an assembly of elders, a hereditary ruler, and an eponym. The ruler presided over the assembly and carried out its decisions. He was not referred to with the usual Akkadian term for "king", šarrum; that was instead reserved for the city's patron deity Assur, of whom the ruler was the high priest. The ruler himself was only designated as "the steward of Assur" (iššiak Assur), where the term for steward is a borrowing from Sumerian ensi(k). The third centre of power was the eponym (limmum), who gave the year his name, similarly to the archons and consuls of Classical Antiquity. He was annually elected by lot and was responsible for the economic administration of the city, which included the power to detain people and confiscate property. The institution of the eponym as well as the formula iššiak Assur lingered on as ceremonial vestiges of this early system throughout the history of the Assyrian monarchy.[1] Kingdom of Shamshi-Adad I The city of Ashur was conquered by Shamshi-Adad I (1813 BC – 1791 BC) in the expansion of Amorite tribes from the Khabur river delta. He put his son Ishme-Dagan on the throne of a nearby city, Ekallatum, and allowed the former Anatolian trade to continue. Shamshi-Adad I also conquered the kingdom of Mari on the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assyria Page 2 of 8 Assyria - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 11/5/09 12:28 PM allowed the former Anatolian trade to continue. Shamshi-Adad I also conquered the kingdom of Mari on the Euphrates putting another of his sons, Yasmah-Adad on the throne there. Shamshi-Adad's kingdom now encompassed the whole of northern Mesopotamia. He himself resided in a new capital city founded in the Khabur valley, called Shubat-Enlil. Ishme-Dagan inherited the kingdom, but Yasmah-Adad was overthrown, and Mari was lost. The new king of Mari allied himself with Hammurabi of Babylon. Assyria now faced the rising power of Babylon in the south. Ishme-Dagan responded by making an alliance with the enemies of Babylon, and the power struggle continued for decades. Assyria reduced to vassal states Hammurabi eventually prevailed over Ishme-Dagan, and conquered Ashur for Babylon. With Hammurabi, the various karum in Anatolia ceased trade activity — probably because the goods of Assyria were now being traded with the Babylonians' partners. Assyria was ruled by vassal kings dependent on the Babylonians for a century. After Babylon fell to the Kassites, the Hurrians dominated the northern region, including Assur. There are dozens of Mesopotamian cuneiform texts from this period, with precise observations of solar and lunar eclipses, that have been used as 'anchors' in the various attempts to define the chronology of Babylonia and Assyria for the early second millennium, i.e., the "high", "middle", and "low" chronologies. Middle Assyrian period (Scholars variously date the beginning of the "Middle Assyrian period" to either the fall of the Old Assyrian kingdom of Shamshi-Adad I, or to the ascension of Ashur- uballit I to the throne of Assyria.) Ashur-uballit I In the 15th century BC, Saushtatar, king of Hanilgalbat (Hurrians of Mitanni), sacked Ashur and made Assyria a vassal. Assyria paid tribute to Hanilgalbat until Mitanni power collapsed from Hittite pressure from the north-west and Assyrian pressure from the east, enabling Ashur-uballit I (1365 BC – 1330 BC) to again make Assyria an independent and conquering power at the expense of Map of the Ancient Near East during the Amarna Babylonia; and a time came when the Kassite king in Period, showing the great powers of the day: Babylon was glad to marry the daughter of Ashur-uballit, Egypt (green), Hatti (yellow), the Kassite kingdom whose letters to Akhenaten of Egypt form part of the of Babylon (purple), Assyria (grey), and Mitanni Amarna letters. This marriage led to disastrous results, as (red). Lighter areas show direct control, darker areas represent spheres of influence. The extent of the Kassite faction at court murdered the Babylonian king the Achaean/Mycenaean civilization is shown in and placed a pretender on the throne. Assur-uballit orange. promptly marched into Babylonia and avenged his son-in- law, making Kurigalzu of the royal line king there. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assyria Page 3 of 8 Assyria - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 11/5/09 12:28 PM law, making Kurigalzu of the royal line king there. Assyrian expansion See also: Military history of the Neo-Assyrian Empire Hanilgalbat was finally conquered under Adad-nirari I, who described himself as a "Great-King" (Sharru rabû) in letters to the Hittite rulers. The successor of Adad-nirari I, Shalmaneser I (c. 1300 BC), threw off the pretense of Babylonian suzerainty, made Kalhu his capital, and continued expansion to the northwest, mainly at the expense of the Hittites, reaching Carchemish and beyond. Shalmaneser's son and successor, Tukulti-Ninurta I, deposed Kadashman-Buriash of Babylon and ruled there himself as king for seven years, taking on the old title "King of Sumer and Akkad". Another weak period for Assyria followed when Babylon revolted against Tukulti-Ninurta, and later even made Assyria tributary during the reigns of the Babylonian kings Melishipak II and Marduk-apal-iddin I. The correct chronology of these Assyrian kings is still is much debated. There are four crucial solar eclipse records. For example, the Assyrian eclipse associated with June 15, 763 BC is widely accepted by the defenders of a middle chronology, but three ignored solar eclipses from the reign of Esarhaddon would affect the calculation drastically.
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