Still in Mesopotamian civilizations
and the last to discuss is the Assyrian civilization the first super power in
history, which started in today's North Iraq and conquered the known world at
the time. Sometimes referred to as the war machine in reference to the number
of wars and battles they started and the number of lands they occupied, and if
you look into the you tube or the majority of books you will find them
discussing the war effort which is a major part of their civilization. But,
behind this fighting might there must be knowledge in both war art and
administrating the vast empire. W e will try to concentrate on one period and
also their relations with Israel and Judah for the people learning the Bible,
also their amazing sculpture and wall figures art.
The 3 periods of this empire are:
1)
The early empire 1813 – 1755 BC
2)
Middle empire 1500 – 1350 BC
3)
Neo-Assyrian empire 911- 612 BC
We will concentrate at the
neo-Assyrian period, but not to forget what the previous periods established.
The early Assyrians founded the city of Ashur named after the father god and
his wife goddess Ishtar of war and might. This city will remain important to
them throughout their different empires along with other 5 cities are the heart
of the Assyrian empire and their spiritual centers, Harran,Calah,Ninevah, Dur-
shrunken, Arbela and of course Ashur. It is worth noting two things that
happens throughout their history
1 – After every king's death there is
a revolt somewhere in the empire
2 – Every land they occupy they
displace the population there with people from other region, and they take the
cream of the population they occupy back to their capital city.
The first king to start the revival
of the Assyrian empire is Addad-Nirari II(911 – 891 BC) started by occupying
Kadumuh and Nisibin both Aramaic cities and by taking the noble and educated
back with them to Ashur which had a great influence on the language. As the
Assyrians liked the Aramaic alphabets being only 28 compared to the 700 symbols
and adopted it in 850BC while cuneiform remained for the king letters until
700BC when cuneiform seized (we will pick the influential kings only).
The third king was Ashurnasripal II
(883-859) whom built his palace in Calah and was found by the excavation's of
Austin Layard in 1845, and in it we find the reason he moved from Ashur. It was
because of several revolts that occurred as he took power, one of which is the
city of Suru south of Khabour river, where he describes on a tablet what
happened." To the city of Suru I
drew near, and the terror and splendor of Ashur overwhelmed them. The chief and
the elders of the city, to save their lives came forth into my presence and
embraced my feet saying "if it is thy pleasure slay! If it is thy pleasure
let live! That which thy heart desireth do!" In the velour of my heart and
with the fury of my weapons I stormed the city, all the rebels they seized and
delivered them up"
In other text found he says that he
beheaded some, others burnt alive, eyes put out and ears and noses cut. He was
known to be one of the most ruthless of the Assyrian kings
Ashurnasripal II in British museum
He started his campaign by
neutralizing the Aramaean kingdom of Bit Adini and from there headed North to
the neo-Hittite area occupied that in search of copper then came down along the
Mediterranean to seize Tyre,Siddon,Byblos and others reaching all the way to
Cyprus.
The sixth king was the greatest among
all the kings of Assyria Tiglath-pilesar III (745-727 BC) also called the
REFORMER
Stella from Tiglath-Pilesar III
palace wall (British meseum)
This King took drastic measures in
order to keep the empire stable and expand as much as possible he introduced:
1 – the deportation on a massive
scale in the regions that he thinks that could rebel like parts of median where
he displaced 65,000 of its population to
other regions of the empire also 30,00 of Hamah Syria he deported them to the
Zargos mountains.
2 – he broke the big regions to small
administrative authorities with their own governments to prevent kings from uniting
a big uncontrolled one.
3 – Compulsory military service to
every citizen of the empire regardless of his origin
4 – Communication by a group of
riders that criss-cross the empire allowing the rapid dissemination of orders
from the king and the delivery of reports from the provinces
5 – A multi –ethnic system where he
managed to make the Arabs. Egyptians, Israelis and Syrians work together, pay
taxes and join the army and reach political positions like any other citizen
while maintaining the cultural customs.
The 8th king was Sargon II
(721-705 BC) as we learnt from the first Sargon of Akkad that the name means
legitimate king which means he killed the king existing
and for that reason a vast rebellion
occurred in the empire:
1-
Babylon first falls to a Chaldean from old Sumer named
Merodach Balaldan with the help of Elam and manages to rule for 10 years until
708BC when Sargon II defeats him
2-
Ashdod city Philistia close to Egypt also revolted
with the help of the Egyptians, they were also defeated
3-
Lower Egypt fell at 710 BC punished for supporting the
rebels and it was always what the Assyrians wanted to complete their empire.
This shows
clearly their might of organizing military campaigns with careful planning and
swift execution
The 11th
king was the last of the great kings of Assyria Ashurbanipal (669-627 BC)
this king was known for his love to art and
literature. When he built his great palace in Nineveh he made sure to build a
library, the first known library in history to keep some 22,000 tablets written
in cuneiform collecting all the writings of Summer and Akkad and the early
Assyrian heritage. The wall of his palace was full of awesome relief drawings
which we will see later. At his reign Assyria became the first superpower in
history when in 667 BC took his armies to Egypt and reached all the way to
Thebes the spiritual capital of the Egyptians and in other words he took lower
and Upper Egypt and that is the entire known world at the time. In 2 years time
the Egyptians managed to regain their country but not for long as Ashurbanipal
came in 664 BC to regain it and put a puppet king .
In 653 BC
several revolts occurred, it always starts by one or two then the rest joins,
it all started by:
1 – Lydia
in Asia Minor joining the Egyptians as their puppet king revolted
2 – Elam in
the East
3 – Judah
4 –
Philistia
5 – Media
in Iran
6 –
Phoenicia on the Mediterranean
In only 5
years Ashurbanipal managed to suppress all of them and took their kings to
prison, which makes you think about their might and capability to accomplish
all of this.
The art we
have is either a portrait of the king
and his hunting or the army and they were so detailed and relieved on
the walls. But the artifacts remaining where astonishing with details written
on them, here the most famous
below is a close up
to the side were king Jehu of Israel
submit by bowing to the Shalmanaser
THE WINGED BULL GUARD OF ISHTAR GATES
THE FAMOUS DYING LIONESS WHICH
SURPRISED THE ARTISTS BY ITS DETAILS
No comments:
Post a Comment