The Assyrian Empire Essays - Nineveh Governorate, Achaemenid Assyria

The Assyrian Empire is a broad spectrum topic that I know very little about, that being the reason for this selection. Before this class I knew nothing more about the Assyrian Empire than their name, and the fact that they existed a long time ago. As it turns out, the Assyrians were the first of three (the Assyrians, Chaldeans, and Persians) Iron-Age empire building civilizations, maintaining dominance between the years 750-600 B.C.E., and are known for their engineering practices and their military might. By the middle of the 7th century B.C.E. they had conquered most of Mesopotamia either by actually warring with the area to be conquered, or from the people that were going to be overthrown just giving up without a fight based on Assyria?s reputation of having a fierce and ruthless army. Power is cataloged on the walls of Khorsabad, the vast Assyrian citadel. Scenes telling of sieges and warfare were recorded to attest to Assyria?s military might and string of victories. Alongside the scenes of war, were scenes depicting hunting. War and hunting were closely related, and used to show a rulers courage and physical prowess. The book tells of the Assyrians, their craft of war, and their ability to convey history through art, but not very in-depth. I would like to know more about their alphabet and what language they spoke. Where was their capitol, how did they develop their engineering practices, and what religion did they practice. The first website I explored was http://www.aina.org/aol/peter/brief.htm , this site provides a more comprehensive explanation of the Assyrians than the book, while keeping the information brief and to the point. The layout of the page contains images of Assyrian art, several maps pertaining to the empirical borders, and a visual of the Assyrian alphabet. The contents of the website are laid out at the top of the page starting with the geography of the empire, how far its boundaries reached, and a mention of the Arbel and Nineveh plains which were then, and are now, rich and fertile crop lands. To the south of Baghdad lies Babylon. There is a stark geographical distinction between Babylonia and Assyria. To quote Saggs, A journey in spring from Baghdad, the capital of modern Iraq and within the Area of Ancient Babylonia, to Mosul [Nineveh], which is near several old Assyrian capitals, takes the traveller into what is manifestly a different country. In the region of Baghdad and southwards the predominant vegetation is palm trees. . .The terrain is flat to the horizon, and for most of the year its sun-parched earth is arid and dead wherever irrigation ditches do not reach. Approaching Mosul [Nineveh] the traveller finds a striking change. The flat terrrain gives way to undulating plains, in spring green with pasturage or cereal crop and gay and scented with flowers and clover. The rolling plains are cut with wadis, aflow after spring rains, with higher ranges of hills on the horizon. The traveller has reached Assyria. The website goes on to explain the racial composition of Assyria, stating that native peoples are Mediterranean Caucasoid, Semitic people indigenous to Mesopotamia that are ethnically distinct from Arabs and Jews. The next topic covered is the language that was spoken in the time this empire. Assyrians spoke two languages throughout their history: ancient Assyrian (Akkadian), and Modern Assyrian (neo-syriac). Akkadian was written using the cuneiform system until about 750 B.C.. The second language, Aramaic, was brought by the Armenians and used because of its relative convenience (writing on papyrus) compared to Akkadian (writing on clay tablets). Next, the page covers the topic of religion in Assyria, the first of which being Ashurism, and was practiced until 256 A.D.. Assyria derived its name from the Ashur, their god, and Ashurism being the religion devoted to him. The second religion, Christianity was brought to the region around 33 A.D. and is still in practice today. The website concludes with a brief history of Assyrians from their emergence, to the first and second golden and dark ages respectively, and then Diaspora to the present. This information includes a graph giving a rough breakdown of the Assyrian population in the world today by geographic location. The second site that I found