ASSYRIA: The Rise and Fall of an Empire

1. A PowerPoint Experience By: Aleks Jaunzemis, Jameer Green, Paul Gloth, and Matt Gillespie ASSYRIA:The Rise and Fall of an Empire

2. Who were the Assyrians? The Assyrians were a nation that existed from approximately 1307 BC through 612 BC. It was formed after several states of Babylon rose up and rebelled. They called themselves Assyria, after the leader city Ashur. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assyria

3. Assyrian Timeline 2500 B.C. (2250) The three great Assyrian cities of Ashur, Arbel and Nineveh are clearly established long before this date, yet no solid archaeological evidence can be cited (because of a lack of research into this area). By 2500 B.C., these cities were thriving metropolises. 2371 B.C. (2379) Sargon of Akkad rises to power, establishing the first Assyrian kingdom in South Mesopotamia. 2000 B.C. (2750) Assyrian merchant colonies in Cappadocia are well established by this time. From the Assyrian clay tablets found at these sites, trade with the city of Ashur in tin and textiles was the main business. 1307 B.C. (3443) Adad-narari establishes the first Assyrian empire. 1115 B.C. (3635) Tiglath-Pileser establishes the second Assyrian Empire. The Aramean invasions of Assyria begin. 934 B.C. (3816) Ashur-dan II establishes the Neo-Assyrian empire. The Empire unifies the Middle East, from Egypt to the Caspian Sea, under one rule and by so doing lays the foundation for the subsequent rise of the Persians, Hellenism, Christianity, and Islam. 752 B.C. (3998) Aramaic is made an official language of the Empire, alongside Akkadian. 612 B.C. (4138) The Neo-Assyrian empire collapses under an attack by Medes, Scythians and Babylonians tribes. http://www.aina.org/aol/peter/timeline.htm The difference of size between conquests. The Neo-Assyrian Empire.

4. A Fairly Important person: King Ashur-dan II • He reigned from 935 B.C. until his death in 912 B.C. • Ashur-Dan II concentrated on rebuilding Assyria within it’s natural borders. • He built government offices in all provinces. • He also provided ploughs for the farmers, which resulted in record grain production. Ashur-Dan II rushed Assyria into the next era of it’s existence. The Neo-Assyrian era. He left behind a very much improved Assyria, which the next four kings proceeded to transform into the major empire of its time. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashur-dan_II

5. Religion: • Mostly practiced Babylonian Heathenism until the country converted to Ashurism. • The leader of their religion was Ashur, whom they deemed chief of the gods and at the same time the emblem of their distinct national aspirations. • Although Assyria was obliterated by 600 BC, Ashurism remained as the main religion for quite some time afterword. http://www.sacred-texts.com/ane/rbaa.htm

6. Politics: “In the 7th century BC, the kingdom of Assyria was by far the largest Near Eastern empire of its time, encompassing the area of the modern states of Iraq, Syria and Lebanon in their entirety, half of Israel, wide parts of south-eastern Turkey and extensive regions of Western Iran.” • Assyria was split into approx. 70 provinces, each of which were governed by someone who was hand picked by the king. • In order to prevent dynasties from arising, the king made the position of governer non-hereditary, and most of the governers were Eunuchs. (Castrated men) • The King had a divine mandate. This meant his word was the will of the gods, and that he could intervene at all levels of his empire. • Even though the governors responded to the king, they were also authorized to act independently in his name. • The king maintained residences all over the empire which he visited regularly during his continual travels through his kingdom. This was so that he could keep his cities in check. • The capital city, or at least where the king resided most often, was Nineveh. • The army was the largest standing army ever seen in the Middle East or Mediterranean. http://knp.prs.heacademy.ac.uk/essentials/assyrianempire/

7. Culture • As a nation, the Assyrians were obsessed with war. • They were constantly involved in battles, especially with their neighboring states. • They had a class system, which had 3 levels. The high, middle, and low classes. • The most wealthy people, other than the king, were the Assyrian Generals. http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/Assyrians.html

8. Impacts: Other than becoming a successful warrior empire, the Assyrians also contributed with some advances in science and medicine. • The Assyrians were the first people to divide the circle into 360 degrees • They were among some of the first people to use latitide and longitude for geographic navigation. • They invented a complex system of medicine that revolutionized the medical system even as far away as Greece. • They also invented the first library. “The odd paradox of Assyrian culture was the dramatic growth in science and mathematics; this can be in part explained by the Assyrian obsession with war and invasion.” http://wsu.edu/~dee/MESO/ASSYRIA.HTM

9. What did those ideas do to help shape our world? Those innovations and ideas brought about many things. Obviously, lattitude and longitude revolutionized our ways of cartogrophy, and navigation. Their medicinal system brought up our modern medicinal system. Some of the oldest libraries in Assyria contain a wealth of otherwise unobtainable knowledge. With the invention of the 360 circle, people would go on to invent things like 24 hour time and the compass. http://www.sacred-texts.com/ane/rbaa.htm

10. MLA Citations In order of slides.... • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assyria • http://www.aina.org/aol/peter/timeline.htm • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashur-dan_II • http://www.sacred-texts.com/ane/rbaa.htm • http://knp.prs.heacademy.ac.uk/essentials/assyrianempire/ • http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/Assyrians.html • http://wsu.edu/~dee/MESO/ASSYRIA.HTM • http://www.sacred-texts.com/ane/rbaa.htm • All pictures are from google images