Assyria

An Assyrian winged bull, or lamassu.

In the Middle Bronze Age, Assyria was a city state on the Upper Tigris river, named after its capital, the ancient city of Assur.

The Assyrians were just to the north of their rivals, the Babylonians. All the kingdoms of ancient Mesopotamia used the cuneiform writing system invented by the Sumerians.

Assyrian people

Assyrians are an ethnic group whose descendants remain in what is today Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria, but who have gone to the Caucasus, North America and Western Europe during the past century. Hundreds of thousands more live in Assyrian Diaspora and Iraqi Refugees Communities in Europe, the former Soviet Union, The United States, Australia, New Zealand, Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon.

Inscription mat Assur-ki for Assyria in the Rassam cylinder, 1st column, line 5
Head of a woman, dating to the Akkadian period (c. 2334–2154 BC), found at Assur, on display at the Pergamon Museum in Berlin
Ruins of the Old Assyrian trading colony at Kültepe
Partial relief of Tiglath-Pileser III (r. 745–727 BC), under whom the Neo-Assyrian Empire was consolidated, centralized and significantly expanded
Detail of a stele in the style of the Neo-Assyrian royal steles erected in Assur in the 2nd century AD (under Parthian rule) by the local ruler Rʻuth-Assor^[1]
Line-drawing of a royal seal of the Old Assyrian king Erishum I (r. c. 1974–1934 BC). The seated ruler is thought to represent the god Ashur, with Erishum being the bald figure being led toward him.^[2]
Stele of the Neo-Assyrian king Ashurnasirpal II (r. 883–859 BC)
Ruins of one of the entrances of the Northwest Palace at Nimrud (Assyrian capital 879–706 BC), destroyed by the Islamic State in 2015
Stele of Bel-harran-beli-usur, a palace herald, made in the reign of the Neo-Assyrian king Shalmaneser IV (r. 783–773 BC)
Stele of Ili-ittija, governor of Libbi-ali, Kar-Tukulti-Ninurta, Ekallatum, Itu, and Ruqahu, c. 804 BC