The Assyrian Empire, known for its military prowess, dominated much of Mesopotamia through brutal conquest and superior tactics like ladder assaults and tunnel digging. Their powerful rulers, such as Sennacherib and Ashurbanipal, expanded the empire and established significant cultural contributions, including the first organized library. Ultimately, Assyria fell to the Persian Empire, marking the end of a notable era in ancient history.

1. Assyria Proclaimed as one of the strongest empires to ever have existed, Assyria used all their strength in order to gain control of all of Mesopotamia.

2. The Key to Assyria’s Success in the Fertile Crescent By Jack Gregory

3. Assyrian Military Much of Assyria’s rise and fall in the ancient world was due to their superior militaristic point of view. The Assyrians used this to their advantage and dominated most of the Fertile Crescent.

4. The Rise of Assyria As mentioned earlier, much of Assyria’s rise was due to the availability of natural resources. Their armor allowed them to easily overpower the entire Fertile Crescent along with much of the surrounding areas. The Assyrians soon reached the top of the Western hierarchy, dominating most of the land.

5. Assyrian Tactics in Battle Assyrians used many tactics to help achieve supreme domination. The Assyrians’ use of ladders was an interesting tactic. They would push the ladders up against the enemy’s walls while Assyrian archers fired distractions. Before the enemy could react, Assyrian soldiers would climb up and slaughter as many as possible. Another well known tactic among the Assyrians involved tunnel digging. They would send their soldiers underground to dig a tunnel beneath the enemy’s walls. Then after the hole was dug, the wall would fall into the hole and collapse.

6. Assyrian Tactics (continued) Unlike their predecessors, the Persians, the Assyrians were incredibly disrespectful, intolerant, and vicious when invading a city. They would often kill every single person in the invasions and those who were spared were kept as slaves and had to lead a very saddening life.

7. Natural Resources Impact Assyria’s Fighting Assyria’s position in the Fertile Crescent was also key to their domination. Because they had great natural resources, they had access to great weaponry and armor.

8. The Fall of Assyria As Assyria rose, the Persian Empire began to dominate as well, causing a threat. Assyria did it’s best to repel the Persian invaders, but eventually fell.

9. Bibliography http://www.mfa.org/exhibitions/sub.asp?key=15&subkey=6028 http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/gabrmetz/gabr0009.htm Text Book

10. Assyrian Rulers Assyria was a military based empire because of its rulers. Assyrian kings built an empire that stretched from east and north of the Tigris River all the way to central Egypt. These rulers were mighty and powerful, helping Assyria to rise and fall.

11. King Sennacherib Ruled from 705-681 B.C. King Sennacherib was a great king of Assyria. He wasn’t modest however, and bragged about sacking 89 cities and 20 villages, burned Babylon, and ordered most of its inhabitants killed. Sennacherib was the first Assyrian ruler who used a navy. He used them in 694 B.C. to pursue Chaldean rebels and defeated them. He had various problems with Babylon during his rule and claimed to have destroyed the city. He flooded Babylon despite its traditional status as a holy city. Sennacherib was able to retain the lands conquered by his father and even threatened the Egyptian frontier. King Sennacherib moved his capital from Dur Sharrukin to Nineveh. It was established along the Tigris River.

12. King Ashurbanipal Ruled from 668-627 B.C. King Ashurbanipal prided himself on his ability to read in several different languages. He was the only Assyrian king that could actually read and write. Ashurbanipal also collected more than 25,000 clay tablets from throughout the Fertile Crescent. He established the first systematically organized library in his palace at Nineveh. Collections of reliefs and carvings depicted Ashurbanipal as hunting and killing lions. Lion hunt was a royal sport in Assyria. Ashurbanipal was known by enemy nations for his cruelty action to defeated kings. King Ashurbanipal died in 627 B.C. The empire fell shortly and was followed by a revolt in the court.

13. King Nebuchadnezzar Ruled from 605-562 B.C. After the Chaldeans defeated the Assyrians, they made Babylon their capital. King Nebuchadnezzar took over the Babylonian Empire and restored it. He united Babylon and Assyria, an extraordinary accomplishment. His palace was listed as one of the Seven Wonders of the world by the Greek visitors. This was the “hanging gardens of Babylon”. Nebuchadnezzar erected many famous buildings even after the empire was overthrown by Cyrus of Persia. He improved canals and restored many religious monuments. Nebuchadnezzar defeated Egypt, Tyre, Edom, and Judah. Shortly after his death in 562 B.C., the empire fell and the Persians take over the empire. Babylonian bricks were inscribed, “I am Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon”.

14. Works Cited &quot;Ashurbanipal.&quot; Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia . 13 Nov 2008, 19:59 UTC. 20 Nov 2008 < http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ashurbanipal&oldid=251617048 > . &quot;Sennacherib.&quot; Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia . 16 Nov 2008. 19 Nov 2008 < http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sennacherib&oldid=252213754 >.

15. Trade in Assyria Assyria used their militaristic power to gain control of some of the most resourceful trading routes in all of the area. Amelia Abdellatif

16. How and Why Assyria Gained Control of the Land Assyria started to gain control by expanding their empire through military brutality towards neighboring lands. Once they gained control of resourceful land, Assyrians seized all trade routes. The Assyrians continued their rule by reinforcing all rules. Assyria needed to control trade because in order for them to fully succeed as an empire, all kinds of resources needed to be available to them.

17. Assyrian Domination After their fall, Assyria was and still is considered one of the most skilled empires to have ever existed. Being able to have such organizational skills was the key to their success. With their detailed plans and conquests, Assyrians were able to seize what they wanted, when they wanted. Assyrians swiftly dominated almost all of Mesopotamia, creating one of the greatest empires EVER. Assyria consisted of skilled and tactiful soldiers.

18. Fast Facts Although Assyrians were able to fend for themselves, most of the higher classmen owned slaves, purchased form neighboring lands. Trade centers were located in the centers of the villages, everyone had to gather in order to trade. Assyria traded with the only resources they had in surplus, metal and timber. Assyrians were attributed for their tactful skills in seizing trade routes and containing all other civilians. Conquest and homicide (if necessary) as a means of securing all trade routes.

19. Bibliography Information http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/prehistory/egypt/othercultures/assyrians.html http://www.livius.org/as-at/assyria/assyria.html http://www.history.com/encyclopedia.do?articleId=201687 http://hamblinwj.byu.edu/class/238ANE/ANE34Assyria1/Assyria.pdf http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/westasia/history/assyrians.htm World History Textbook Photographs http://www.truthnet.org/Daniel/Introduction/mesop1.jpg http://trade-routes-resources.blogspot.com/2005/11/old-assyrian-trade-routes-1880-1740-bc.html

20. The Assyrian empire was advanced to many different determinants mainly because of cultural diffusion. Assyria was known as a “melting pot” of diversity, which consists of many factors, including culture, religion, and languages, which is relevant to writing. The empire resembled others when it came to religion and culture. They practiced two religions and were polytheistic. Assyrians also shared some characteristics of their culture with other civilizations, such as languages and beliefs. Assyria Culture and Religion

21. Assyria was known for its diversity of cultures, religions, and languages because of the large population of middle easterners, Mesopotamians, and Armenians. Their culture resembled many different empires and civilizations because of cultural diffusion. Assyria had been conquered many times and has adopted parts of their culture that way. Hammurabi was a reason for cultural diffusion because he crushed Assyria’s attempt at being independent, which led to more conquerings by other empires. Assyria first took their common language from Sumeria but changed it later on into a form of arts and language that was extremely similar to those of the Babylonian empire. CULTURE

22. The Assyrians practiced two religions which were Ashurism and Christianity. Ashurism was the first religion of the Assyrians. The religion, Ashurism, and later the whole empire of Assyria, was named after the national god, Ashur. The city, Nineveh, was named after Nina, the Ishtar of Assyria. The first Assyrian church was founded in A.D. 33 by Thomas, Bartholomew, and Thaddeus. Ashurism was practiced until A.D 256 Nature was worshiped and it was believed that every nature object was possessed by a spirit The Assyrians were polytheistic, therefore, they worshiped many gods such as the following: Anu, god of the heavens; Bel, god of region inhabited by man, beasts, and birds; Ea, god of the waters; Sin, the moon-god; Shamash, the sun-god; and Ramman, god of the storms, etc. RELIGION

23. The Assyrians had a form of writing called cuneiform, which the Babylonians also used. Cuneiform was inscribed with a reed stylus on clay tablets and they were wedge-shaped symbols. During their history, Assyrians have spoken two languages: ancient Assyrian (Akkadian), and Modern Assyrian (neo-syriac). Akkadian was also known as the Babylonian-Assyrian language Akkadian was written with the cuneiform writing system on clay tablets and A new way of writing was developed by 750 B.C, in which people wrote on parchment, leather, or papyrus. LANGUAGES AND WRITING

25. B. Siren, Christopher. The Assyro-Babylonian Mythology FAQ version 1.9html . 1994. 25 Nov. 2008 <http://home.comcast.net/~chris.s/assrbabyl/-faq.html> BetBasoo, Peter. Brief History of Assyrians. 25 Nov. 2008 <http://www.aina.org/aol/peter/brief.htm#Religion> Hooker, Richard. The Assyrians 1170 – 612 B.C. The Assyrian Period. 25 Nov. 2008 < http://wsu.edu/~dee/MESO/ASSYRIA.HTM > National God of Assyria . 25 Nov. 2008 <http://images.google.com/images?gbv=2&hl=en&q=national+god+of+Assyria > Quartz Hill School of Theology. Assyria . 25 Nov. 2008 http://www.theology.edu/lec19.htm WORKS CITED