For student who love to study history

1. BSN 4C- ROY (Group 1)
Asian Studies

2. Assyria
- the name derived from the city Asshur
on the Tigris, the original capital of the
country, was originally a colony from
Babylonia, and was ruled by viceroys
from that kingdom.
1,900 BCE - Ashur, capital of Assyria, is
founded.

3. • According to one interpretation of
passages in the biblical Book of Genesis,
Ashur was founded by a man named
Ashur son of Shem, son of Noah, after
the Great Flood, who then went on to
found the other important Assyrian cities.
(Gen 10:22)

4. Assyri
a
• the region in the Near East which,
under the Neo-Assyrian Empire
• reached from Mesopotamia (modern-day
Iraq) through Asia Minor (modern Turkey)
and down through Egypt.
• The empire began modestly at the city of
Ashur (known as Subartu to the
Sumerians), located in Mesopotamia north-
east of Babylon, where merchants who
traded in Anatolia became increasingly
wealthy, and that affluence allowed for the
growth and prosperity of the city.

6. • Assyria began as a small
trading at community centered
at the city of Ashur and grew
to become the greatest
empire in the ancient world prior
to the conquests of
Alexander The Great and, after
him, the Roman Empire

8. Assyrian
Empires
• Historians have divided the rise and fall of the
Assyrian Empire into three periods:
The Old Kingdom
The Middle Empire &
The Late Empire (also known as the Neo-Assyrian
Empire)
- although it should be noted that Assyrian history
continued on past that point, and there are still
Assyrians living in the regions of Iran and Iraq, and
elsewhere, in the present day. The Assyrian
Empire is considered the greatest of the
Mesopotamian empires due to its expanse and the
development of the bureaucracy and military
strategies which allowed it to grow and flourish.

9. Assyrian’s The First Rise
The Assyrians first rose to power when the
Akkadian Empire fell. The Babylonians had
control of southern Mesopotamia and the
Assyrians had the north.
One of their strongest leaders during this time was
King Shamshi-Adad. Under Shamshi-Adad the
empire expanded to control much of the north and
the Assyrians grew wealthy.
However, after Shamshi-Adad's death in 1781 BC, the
Assyrians grew weak and soon fell under control of
the Babylonian Empire.

10. Assyrians’ Second Rise
• The Assyrians once again rose to power
from
1360 BC to 1074 BC.
This time they conquered all of
Mesopotamia and expanded the empire
to include much of the Middle East
including Egypt, Babylonia, Israel, and
Cypress. They reached their peak under
the rule of King Tiglath-Pileser I.

11. Assyrians’ Final Empire
• The neo-Assyrian Empire The final, and
perhaps strongest, of the Assyrian Empires
ruled
from 744 BC to 612 BC.
• During this time Assyria had a string of powerful
and capable rulers such as Tiglath-Pileser III,
Sargon II, Sennacherib, and Ashurbanipal.
These leaders built the empire into one of the
most powerful empires in the world.
• They conquered much of the Middle East and
Egypt. Once again, it was the Babylonians who
brought down the Assyrian Empire in 612 BC.

12. Assyrian Warfare
• The Assyrian Empire
- was built on the strength of their powerful army
-The warrior society of the Assyrians produced
fearsome soldiers as well as innovative
generals.
- They used chariots, iron weapons, and
siege equipment to dominate their enemies.
- The early Assyrians were a warrior society.
• Every young man was expected to train as a
warrior and be ready to fight.

13. Assyrian Warfare
As the Assyrian Empire grew,
they built a standing army.
• A standing army
- is one made up of
professional soldiers
whose only job is to
fight.
The Assyrian soldiers were
trained in siege warfare, battle
tactics, and hand-to-hand
combat.

14. Assyrian Warfare
• Every spring the Assyrian army would launch
a battle campaign. They would conquer rich
cities, expanding the Assyrian Empire and
bringing back wealth to the king.
• It is estimated that the size of the Assyrian
army at its peak was several hundred
thousand soldiers.

15. Assyrian Warfare
The secret to its success
- was a professionally trained standing
army,
- iron weapons,
- advanced engineering skills,
- effective tactics,
and, most
importantly,
- a complete ruthlessness
which came to characterize
the Assyrians to their
neighbors and subjects and
still attaches itself to the
reputation of Assyria in the
modern day.
.

16. Assyrian Warfare
• Chariots
One of the greatest strengths of the Assyrian army
was its chariots. A chariot is a wheeled vehicle pulled
by two to four horses. Riders would stand on the
chariot. Typically there were two riders; a driver and a
soldier armed with a spear and a bow and arrow.
Sometimes a third man was added to protect the rear.
Chariots were used to smash into enemy lines to
create a gap for the rest of the army. They were also
used for leaders and generals who could move about
the battlefield quickly issuing orders.

18. Assyrian Warfare
• Weapons
The Assyrians used a wide variety of weapons
including swords, spears, bows and arrows,
slings, and daggers. The Assyrians were the
first to use iron to make their weapons.
Iron - was stronger than the bronze used by
their enemies and gave them a distinct
advantage.

19. Assyrian Warfare
Armor - The main armor used by Assyrian soldiers was a shield and helmet.

20. • Archers had a
shield bearer
who would
cover them
while they got
off shots.

21. • Archers had
a shield
bearer who
would cover
them while
they got off
shots.

22. Assyrian Warfare
Siege Equipment - The Assyrians
invented some of the first siege
equipment to defeat fortified cities.
They used battering rams to break down
gates and siege towers to go over walls.
This was the first time that such
complicated siege equipment was used in
battle.

24. Assyrian Warfare
• A phrase oft-repeated by Assyrian kings in
their inscriptions regarding military
conquests is. . . .
"I destroyed, devastated,
and burned with fire"
those cities, towns, and regions which
resisted Assyrian rule.

25. Assyrians’ Great Warriors
• The Assyrians were perhaps most famous for
their fearsome army.
• They were a warrior society where fighting was a part
of life. It was how they survived.
• They were known throughout the land as cruel and
ruthless warriors.
• Two things that made the Assyrians great warriors
were their deadly chariots and their iron
weapons.
• They made iron weapons that were stronger than the
copper or tin weapons of some of their enemies.
• They were also skilled with their chariots which could
strike fear in the hearts of their enemies

26. Assyrians’ Warrior Kings
• The kings of the Assyrians were
expected to be warriors themselves.
• They led the Assyrian army into battle
and fought fiercely. Of course, they were
surrounded by an elite force of troops
whose job was to keep the king alive.
Even so, some kings did die in combat,
such as Sargon II.

28. Assyrians’ Kings
NAME TIMELINE
Ancient Assyrian KingsAssur-nasirpal II 885-860 B.C
Shalmaneser III 860-825 B.C
Shamsi-Adad V 825-808 B.C
Adad-nirari III 808-783 B.C
Shalmaneser IV 783-771 B.C
Assur-dayan III 771-753 B.C
Assur-nirari V 753-747 B.C
Tiglath-pileser III (Pul) 747-727 B.C
Shalmaneser V 727-722 B.C
Sargon II 722-705 B.C
Sennacherib 705-681 B.C
Esar-haddon 681-668 B.C
Assur-banipal 668-626 B.C
Assur-etil-ilani 626-607 B.C

29. • Assyria is famous primarily for its military
innovations. Siege warfare, cavalry, and the
integration and methodical organization of
warfare were all advanced considerably by the
Assyrian state in its insatiable desire to conquer
its neighbors.
• What Assyria is not well known for are its civil
innovations. Yet, Assyrian armies were sacking
foreign cities, the Assyrian homeland was being
enriched with various things stolen and looted
from other countries. The Assyrians may not have
been great innovators, but they were great
derivators, taking inventions from various parts of
the world and adapting them to their own needs.

30. Assyrian Cities
• Ashur
• Nineveh

31. Ashur
• The city was an important center of trade, as it
lay squarely on a caravan trade route that ran
through Mesopotamia to Anatolia and down
through
the Levant.
• All of the great kings (except for Sargon II, whose
body was lost in battle) were buried at Ashur,
from the earliest days of the Assyrian Empire
down to the last, no matter where the capital city
was located.
• A more likely account is that the city was named
Ashur after the deity of that name sometime in
the 3rd millennium BCE; the same god's name is
the origin for 'Assyria.

33. Nineveh
• one of the oldest and greatest cities in antiquity. The
area was settled as early as 6000 BCE and, by 3000,
had become an important religious centre for worship of
the goddess Ishtar
• King Sennacherib built great walls around the city with
fifteen gates, created public parks and gardens,
aqueducts, irrigation ditches, canals, and greatly
expanded upon and improved the structures of the city.
• "Nineveh, with its heterogeneous population of people
from throughout the Assyrian Empire, was one of the
most beautiful cities in the Near East, with its gardens,
temples, and splendid palaces"
• The city was best known through the Christian era (and still
is) by
the central role it plays in the Hebrew composition known in
the Bible as The Book of Jonah.

35. • The Library at Nineveh
The last great Assyrian king, Ashurbanipal, constructed
a great library at the city of Nineveh. He collected clay
tablets from all over Mesopotamia. These included the
stories of Gilgamesh, the Code of Hammurabi, and
more.
Much of our knowledge of the Ancient civilizations of
Mesopotamia comes from the remains of this library.
According to the British Museum in London, just over
30,000 tablets have been recovered. These tablets
make up around 10,000 different texts.
.

36. Assyrian Declination
The destruction of the Assyrian capital Nineveh by a coalition
of Babylonian and Median invaders in
612 B.C.E. which marked the fall of the empire.