Assyrian Empire
Submitted to Mr. Richard Sellick
Members :
Section 1005
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Kanyanat
Fariya
Papon
Le Minh
Daran
Parinada
Lerviriyaphan
Ninparnich
Sakulratanajaroen
Hoang Ngoc
Rungwattanasophon
Suriyaworakul
5961124
5961157
5961190
5961056
5961054
5961037
Table of contents
- Timeline
- Rise and fall
- Government
- Cities and Layout
- Beliefs and Religion
- Economy
- Slavery
- Inventions
- Writing
10
- Arts
11
- References
12
Time period
1365 BCE : First Assyrian empire was created
911 BCE : Neo assyrian empire
900 BCE : Changed capital city from assur or calah/Nimrud and
started invading
824-824 BCE : Conquer Bit Adini, the most powerful state in
upper Euphrates.
824 BCE : had inner problems and declined invading
811 BCE : Inner strengthening and end of temporary decline.
Started invading again.
705 BCE : changed capital city to Dursharroshin
700 BCE : changed capital to Nineveh
627 - 612 BCE : civil wars occurred, enemy attacked from all sides
especially Neo-Babylon.
609 BCE : Assyrian Empire collapsed
Rise and fall
Assyria is an old empire ,created approximately in the middle
age of Sumer. There were small cities in the north of Mesopotamia in
control of main empire which they didnt want to.
Until 911, before common era, Neo Assyrian was raised from the
collapse of Babylon. Assyrian started to slowly invade from the
northern part of mesopotamia to the southern part of mesopotamia.
The main trigger of northern invading is Bit Adini , the most
powerful state in the northern part of mesopotamia. Assyrian and Bit
Adini fought against each other for 10 years and Assyrian who won
that fight and successfully conquered Bit Adini. After this, a long war
Assyria started to have inner problems about government. The kings
death made their emotional and government ruin and fell apart. They
stopped and declined invading other states, leave their colonies. After
clearing their internal conflict,then they started to invade again. And
this time, they invaded very fast and largely. But maybe because of the
inner problems did not clear perfectly, Assyria started to has a civil
war again. And this time Neo-Babylon and other tribes also attacked
Assyrian simultaneously. Assyrian had to go against from inner
problem and outer problem because of the revenges of other tribe. At
612 BCE, Assyria could no longer handle these anymore, so the
empire collapsed and Neo- Babylon rose again.
THE DESTRUCTION OF THE GREAT ASSYRIAN CITIES WAS SO
COMPLETE THAT WITHIN 2 GENERATIONS OF THE EMPIRES FALL, NO
ONE KNEW WHERE THE CITIES HAD BEEN.
Government
Assyrian government used a monarchy system and it was a
military-based empire which means that the military commanders
owned lands and made decisions for Assyria but still under control of
the king. Assyrian armies were so strong and powerful. They made
their own weapons made from steel.
They divided people into social classes or an organised
hierarchy. Starting from Pharaoh or the king, government officials,
soldiers, scribes ( people who make copies of documents and
manuscripts.), Merchants ,Artisans, Farmers and the last one is slaves
or servants.
And because the Assyrian empire was so large so it was hard to
control. Therefore, they divided the conquered territories into states
and made them dependent. The king chose the governors to be in
charge of each state . These governors were called satraps. Then
each state should pay taxes and provide men for the military,
otherwise they would burn the state. It is obvious that the Assyrian
ruled the people with harsh conditions.
Cities and Layout
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Assyria was the region in the East of Mesopotamia.
Assyria was located between Tigris River and Euphrates River.
Ashur was the capital city of old Assyrian Empire.
Ashur was located above the Tigris River.
Ashur was an important city of trading center.
Nineveh was the capital city of new Assyrian Empire.
- Nineveh was located on the eastern of Tigris River.
- Nineveh had the largest library at that time.
Beliefs and Religion
Their religion is Ashurism, established in Assyrian empire and
they had only one supreme god named Ashur. The gods name was
chosen to be as a capital city Assyrian Empire. Their gods were mostly
based on the elements of Earth like Ea means the god of water and
Sin means the moon god. All the main gods stayed at the large
temples and were admired at there. The cities would have at least one
temple and every village would have shrines instead as Assyrians
believed that all gods need houses.
Economy
Their economy was mostly based on agriculture. As the
expansion of area went further, they would earn more lands which
would give those lots of benefits like mining and forestry. People
believe that Assyrias civilization was from the immigration by an
unknown people in that area around 6000 BCE. Assyrians lived in
small villages and there were few large villages. Most of the large
villages served as trade and craft centers. At the same time, they also
had some slaves but slaves worked partly in the economy. The
Assyrians were also considered as very good at warfare and
organization.
Slavery
Slavery, Debt Slaves, Prisoners of War and the children that were
born as slaves. There were three types of slave, whether it was the
debt slave or not, the slave that born as a slave and the prisoner of
war. Most slaves in Assyria were debtors and slaves could work to pay
their master and if they paid all of their debts, they would be free. The
more obedience will have more training, but the less obedient, then
the prisoners will be forced to become "people of restricted freedom"
and to create a temple and die. Also, a slave is using like a symbol
because if you had a, it would mean that you were very wealthy.
Inventions
+ postal service : now, people still use this service to send stuff
+ library
+ locks and keys : we all need to have our privacy =))
+ drinking : beer
+ greek fire : this fire is more powerful than fire we use today
+ war inventions : I think that Assyrian people love to war
- Iron weapon
- Chariot
- Battering ram
+ dam
+ anti-depressant : they also make medicine at that time!
10
Writing
The Assyrians wrote on clay tablets and had a clay tablet library.
They used pictures to represent words that evolved overtime into
symbols. Cuneiform, a form of writing, was created by impressing a
square ended stylus into soft clay. Assyrians wrote letters enclosed in
clay envelopes to be sent using the postal system.
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Arts
The ancient region of Mesopotamia it is often called the Cradle
of Civilization.' Developed along with the beautiful of the art and
architecture. Mesopotamia was Iraq in the modern day and it is the
parts of Syria, Turkey, and Iran. Assyrian art preserves to the present
day dates to the Neo-Assyrian period. Art shows about the battle
scenes, and occasionally the impaling of the whole villages, was
intended to be show that how powerful they were, and was always
made for propaganda purposes. These stone reliefs lined the walls in
the royal palaces where were the foreigner received from the king.
And the Other stone reliefs depict the king with different deities and
conducting of the religion ceremony. A lot of stone reliefs were
discovered that they are in the royal palaces at Nimrud (Kalhu) and
Khorsabad (Dur-Sharrukin). A very rare discovery of metal plates
belonging to wooden doors was made at the Balawat (Imgur-Enlil).
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References
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