Mesopotamia: The Collapse of the Assyrian Empire

Episode 22: The Assyrian Empire, Warfare and Collapse

Ancient Mesopotamia: Life in the Cradle of Civilization

Dr Amanda H Podany

Film Review

At the time of its collapse the Assyrian empire, the largest the world had known, extended across Mesopotamia, Syria, Levant and parts of Anatolia.

Assyria became more unstable during the last century before its final collapse in 612 BC. Provincial kings had allowed provincial governors to become too independent, and civil rebellions were widespread. King Tiglath-Pilesur III (745-727 BC) temporarily increased the king’s power by making provinces smaller, appointing governors who directly accountable to the king and improved provincial communication (with horses and teams of rides). However he proved unable to prevent Assyria’s eventual downfall.

The province of Babylonia enjoyed special privileges under Assyrian rule (see The Special Status of Babylonia Under Assyrian Rule), with the whole empire adopting its language (Akkadian) and religion. In fact, it was common for either the king or his son to rule Babylonia directly. This changed after the death of Tiglath-Pilesur III, with the Babylonian throne changing hands 20 times in 100 years.

Under the reign of Sennacherib (704-681 BC), the Elamites supported a Babylonian revolt against Assyria and installation of their own king. Sennacherib’s army invaded to suppress the revolt and put his own son on the Babylonian thrown. A second invasion became necessary when the son was “disappeared” and a coalition of Babylonian. This time Elamite and Chaldean [1] forces fought Sennacherib’s army to a standstill.

In 689 BC, Sennacherib laid siege to the city of Babylon for 15 months, eventually decimating it palaces and temples. Worse still the the statue of the king of the gods Marduk was moved to the capitol of Assyria. Until it was returned in 668 BC, the annual reconsecration ceremony ceased to occur and Babylonia lacked (in the view of the population) a true king,

In 687 BC Sennacherib was assassinated by his sons, resulting in the first of many Assyrian civil wars.

In 671 Assyria conquered Egypt for the first time. They ruled the the country until 669 BC, when southern Egypt rebelled. Subsequent campaigns to retake southern Egypt were expensive and unsuccessful.

In 663 Assyrian king Asherbanipal (669 – 631 BC) [2] successfully conquered and occupied Elam.

Following his death, his son Ashur-etil-ilani became king of Assyria and installed his brother on the throne of Babylonia. Assisted by the Elamites, his brother led an uprising against Assyrian rule in 640 BC.

In 617 BC, the Babylonian king, with the support of Elamites and the Medes, [3] Babylonia invaded Assyria proper and conquered several regions west of the Euphrates.

In 612 BC, this coalition sacked Nineveh, [4] the new capitol of Assyria, with Babylonia taking control of much of Assyria – forming the Neo-Babylonian Empire.

---

[1] Chaldea was a small country that between the late 10th or early 9th and mid-6th centuries BC, whose population was assimilated into the indigenous population of Babylonia

[2] Ruled a loose coalition of city states in Media.

[3]See History of Assyria: Ashurbanipal’s Library and Gilgamesh

[4] Ashurbanipal moved the capitol of Assyria to Nineveh around 700 BC. At time it was sacked, it was the largest city in the world (est pop 230,000).

https://www.kanopy.com/en/pukeariki/video/5754238/5754282

How Civilization Collapsed in the Late Bronze Age

Episode 18: The Late Bronze Age and End of Peace

Ancient Mesopotamia: Life in the Cradle of Civilization

Dr Amanda H Podany

Film Review

This lecture concerns the mysterious collapse of all Near East civilizations during the 12th and 11th century BC.

Podany begins by describing the vast Near East trade network established by 1300 BC. The immense wealth of this is clear from the remains of a ship sunk off the coast of Turkey around 1250 BC. Departing from the kingdom of Alashiya (Cyprus), from its cargo it had clearly visited several Mediterranean ports before sinking off the coast of Anatolia.

In its hold were 10 tons of copper ingots from Alashiya, glass ingots and a ton of tin from Canaan, 150 enormous jars of terebinth resin (used as incense and in perfumed oils), ebony, ivory, three ostrich eggs, spices and olives from Africa, Mycenaean* drinking vessels and swords, 800 pounds of Egyptian gold, glass and shell Murax (a vivid purple dye) from Syria.

The Late Bronze Ange diplomatic/trading alliance first started to break down when Hittite invaded Canaan, which was under Egyptian control. The result would be a a direct confrontation between Egyptian and Hittite armies at the Battle of Qadesh in 1274 BC. The outcome was a stalemate, with the Hittites continuing to control the territory they conquered at Qadesh.

A century later the Hatti (Hittite) empire would collapse (1185 BC). Babylonia collapsed in 1155 BC, after being invaded by the Elamites (from Syria). The Alashyian kingdom on Cypress collapsed around the same period, as did the Assyrian empire (formed when eastern Hatti declared independence from Hittite-controlled western Hatti) shrinking back to the single city-state Assur. In 1070 BC, Egypt’s New Kingdom collapsed after 400 years of rule.

The root cause of these simultaneous collapses is obscure. There are  written accounts (the most complete by pharaoh Ramses III) of unidentified Sea Peoples* in kilts attacking major cities and destroying palaces and citadels. Some historians blame grain shortages famines and others a flurry of earthquakes and fires that destroyed several cities.

The explanation Podany (and I myself) seems to prefer relates to popular anger and civil unrest stemming from the heavy oppression and exploitation the opulent elite of these empires imposed on their impoverished populations. This is supported by evidence that 1) only palaces and citadels were destroyed in most cities, with private dwellings left untouched 2) only some cities were attacked while others remained intact and 3) many inland cities beyond the reach of the “Sea Peoples” were destroyed.

This theory is consistent with research David Graeber and David Wengrow present in The Dawn of Everything reveal that (prior to the last 500 years) humankind has had an extremely low tolerance of extreme exploitation. See https://stuartbramhall.wordpress.com/2021/12/14/the-dawn-of-everything-a-new-history-of-so-called-civilization/

---

*Evidence, along with two Mycenaean ambassadors on board prior to the shipwreck, that the Mycenaean Greek city-states (which preceded the classical Greek city-states by several hundred centuries – see https://stuartbramhall.wordpress.com/2021/11/16/the-prehistoric-phoenician-hebrew-minoan-and-mycenaean-civilizations/) participating in the large Near East trading and diplomatic network established in the Late Bronze Age (1600 – 1200 BC).

**Believed to originate from Mediterranean island near Cyprus, Anatolia and Mycenaea), these Sea Peoples have been identified as originating from Pelest (origin of the name and the ancient Philistine people), Tjeker, Shekelesh, Denyen and Weshesh. Egypt repelled them, though some settled north of Egypt in Caanan. Podany raises the possibility that the Trojan War described by Homer in the Iliad was a Sea Peoples war.

This film can be viewed free with a library card on Kanopy.

https://www.kanopy.com/en/pukeariki/video/5754238

Mesopotamia and the Birth of Modern Diplomacy

Episode 16: Princes Hadu-Hepa, Diplomacy and Marriage

Ancient Mesopotamia: Life in the Cradle of Civilization

Dr Amanda H Podany

Film Review

This lecture is devoted to the intricate system of Near East diplomatic relations in the second millenium BC. The major kingdoms Podany discusses includes Mittani kingdom (in Syria), the Hatti Kingdom (home to the Hittites), Babylonia, Assyria and Egypt.

From 1550-1100 BC, Egypt occupied the Levant. When they began a military campaign against Mittani in the 14th century BC, the latter allied with Assyria, Hatti, and and Babylon in trying to draw Egypt into a regional peace treaty by showering the pharaoh with lavish gifts. Although Egypt war more powerful than the other four kingdoms, he eventually agreed to the treaty and the raids into Mittani ceased.

The pharaohs began sending messages written in Akkadian*, exchanging lavish gifts** with the Mesopotamian kingdoms, and even accepting Mesopotamian princesses as wives. Pharaoh Akhenaten (1372-1335 BC) archived numerous Akkadian clay tablets in Armana, much to the surprise of the nineteenth century archeologists who first uncovered them.

Thanks to this elaborate diplomatic system, the period 1500-1300 BC was one of unprecedented peace.

Podany gives special emphasis to the correspondence of king Tushratta of Mittani (died 1340 BC) and pharaoh Amenhautep III. Tushratta’s daughter Tadu-Hepe was engaged to marry the pharaoh (who already had numerous wives, including Tushratta’s sister). One letter Podany reads out chides the pharaoh for embarrassing Tushratta in front of foreign guests for sending an inferior gift consisting of worked gold (gold vessels and jewelry) rather than the gold bars he needed for a building project.

---

*Akkadian was the official language of all four Mesopotamian kingdoms.

**Egypt’s best gifts were gold, Babylon sent horses and lapus lazuli, Mittani glass and textiles, and the Hatti silver. All of them also sent jewelry, luxury clothing, furniture and tapestries as gifts.

The film can be viewed free with a library card on Kanopy.

https://www.kanopy.com/en/pukeariki/video/5754238/5754272

The Role of Refugees in Building the Babylonian Empire

Episode 12: Migrants and Old Assyrian Merchants

Ancient Mesopotamia: Life in the Cradle of Civilization

Dr Amanda H Podany

Film Review

This lecture mainly concerns the foreign refugees that settled n Mesopotamia during the Ur III period. These included the Eblaites from Ebla (west of the Euprates); the Hurrians (from Assyria); the Gutians (from the Zagras mountains on Iran’s western border); the Elamites (from Elam – now western Iran); and the Amorites (originating in the Levant but occupying large portions of southern Mesopotamia from 2000 to 15000 BC).

Only the Amorites, who repeatedly raided Mesopotamian crop land to pasture their herds, posed a serious threat to the Ur III dynasty. During the 21st century BC, King Shulgi and King Shu-Sin constructed one of the world’s first defensive walls to keep them out. This would prove ineffective. When Amorite kings eventually took power in central and northwest Mesopotamia, their territory included a previously insignificant area known as Babylon,

Hamurabi was one of these kings. In 1900 BC, Yamhad (Aleppo in modern day Syria) eventually emerged as the largest Babylonian (Amorite) kingdom.

During this period, Mesopotamia had between 70 and 100 separate kingdoms that  formed military alliances with other powerful kingdoms and engaged in near constant warfare.

King Gilgamesh, who ruled Uruk around 2500 BC, was celebrated in the Akkadian epic poem the Epic of Gilgamesh. According to Podany, his rule was a prelude to the very successful Old Babylonian Period.

Podany spends a significant portion of the lecture discussing the trading colony Assyrian immigrants established in 2000 BC in Kanash in Anatolia (modern day Turkey). The merchants originated from Ashur, the religious capitol of Assyria on the west bank of the Tigris. Ashur tradesmen (usually extended family members) transported tin and fine textiles via donkey caravans from Assyria to Kanash, which they traded for silver (the medium of exchange).

The film can be viewed free with a library card on Kanopy.

https://pukeariki.kanopy.com/video/migrants-and-old-assyrian-merchants

Jericho: Oldest City on Earth?

Jericho: Oldest City on Earth?

Magellan TV (2019)

Film Review

This documentary explores the ancient history of Jericho, based on archeological remains and carbon dating.

Recent evidence suggests that the city of Jericho dates nearly to 10,000 BC. The first known settlement (10,000 – 9,000 BC) contains some of the earliest examples of domesticated plants and animals. It’s believed Jericho was originally founded by “affluent” hunter gatherers, who came across the regions abundant grain grasses when the last Ice Age receded. Cultural artifacts suggest they had extensive trading relationships with other communities throughout the fertile crescent, including Göbekli Tepa Turkey.

The next settlement at Jericho (8,500 – 7,300 BC) is referred to as the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A Settlement. It seems to have had a much stronger religious focus (with evidence both of the “mother goddess” and male animalistic gods. Residents still mostly relied on wild gazelle for meat, though there’s some evidence they ate sheep and goats. It’s not clear whether these animals were domesticated or if people caught them and kept them in pens before eating them. They also ate domesticated wheat, barley, peas, and beans.

This city was replaced by the larger Pre-Pottery Neolithic B settlement (7300 – 5800 BC), housing roughly 2,000 people. Here the homes were rectangular, with clear evidence of domesticated pigs, goats, sheep, and oryx. The residents engaged in ancestor worship. Some major natural catastrophe (flood?) depopulated all of Palestine around 6000 BC, with human settlement resuming in the 5th century BC. Archeologists believe that between 5800 and 4000 BC, the region’s residents were nomadic herders, continually moving domesticated animals between pastures rather than settling in specific region.

During Jericho’s copper period (4,000 – 3,000 BC), the settlement was more like a small village than a city. Residents imported their copper (and obsidian) from the region that is modern day Turkey.

During Jericho’s bronze age (3100 – 1400 BC), it was clearly a city again, with defensive walls, an army and evidence of written Mesopotamian and Egyptian language. The city lost its independence in 2000 BC and for three and a half centuries was occupied by multiple competing powers, including Egypt, Assyria, the Mittanites and other regional powers. In 1550 BC the city was destroyed and would not reappear as an urban center for 100 years.

In 1400 BC the city was destroyed once again during wars with Israelite tribes. This would be consistent with the Biblical account in the book of Exodus.