Ancient Assyria: A Very Short Introduction

Role of climate in the rise and fall of the Neo-Assyrian Empire

“…U-series data. References (61)(62)(63)(64)(65)(66)(67)(68)(69)(70)(71)(72)(73)(74)(75)(76)(77)(78)(79)…”

Ancient Observation of Spinal Cord Injury: The Case of the Assyrian Lion

“…Sometimes the king would invite nobles to accompany him. 3 The Lion Hunt of Ashurbanipal, a series of Assyrian palace reliefs from the North Palace at Nineveh dating from approximately 645 BCE, which is now in the British Museum in London, UK, shows King Ashurbanipal hunting lions ( Figure 1). In fact, the royal lion hunt was the staged and ritualized killing by the king of lions that had been captured and released into an arena.…”

Revolutionizing a World

“…They destroyed the capitals of Ashur (614 BCE), Nineveh (612 BCE) and Kalhu (612 BCE). The Assyrians attempted to hold on to power for some time after the sacking of their core cities, particularly in Harran, but they ultimately failed, and by 605 BCE the Assyrian state had disappeared from historical texts (Zawadzki 1988;Radner 2015).…”

“…In the eighth century BCE, local officials with demonstrated ability may have been increasingly appointed by the Assyrians to administer provinces. The aim of this practice may have been to minimize rebellions as well as to put more capable administrators in place (Mattila 2002;Radner 2015). Given that there were rebellions in the empire, this tactic probably did not always succeed in maintaining provincial order.…”