Assyrian Empire 911-612 BCE

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Assyrian Empire911-612 BCE
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Empire

• 1st to rule a far flung empire and diverse people

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Empire

• Rulers of the neo-Assyrian Empire (911-612 BCE)
  moved westward toward the Mediterranean Sea
• This movement coincided with long distance trade
  routes heading to eastern Asia
• Allowed for booty as well as tribute and taxes
  from those the Assyrians conquered
• Guaranteed access to iron and silver deposits
• Long tradition of trade with Syria and Anatolia
• Capital Nineveh

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Empire

• Originally started off as aggressive program of
  self-defense and reestablishment of old claims
• Driven by pride, greed, religious conviction
• Assyrians controlled (at its peak) areas in the
  Med. Sea (Anatolia, Syria-Palestine, Egypt)
  through Mesopotamia to Iran

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Characteristics of the Empire

• Larger than anything that had come before
• Dedicated to the enrichment of the imperial
  center at the expense of the periphery (funnel)

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God and King

• Center of the universe, all belonged to him
• Earthly representative of the gods
• Instrument of the gods
• Hereditary
• Anointed by priests
• Ashur, capital city
• Theocracy

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Kings Secular Duties

• Received info daily from messengers and spies
• Made decisions
• Heard complaints
• Corresponded through scribes
• Received and entertained foreign envoys and
  government officials
• Military leader (planning, inspections)

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Kings Religious Duties

• Supervisor of state religion
• Oversaw public and private rituals
• Oversaw upkeep of temples
• Consulted gods through divination before making
  decisions for the state
• Carried out under chief god Ashur
• All victories were proof of Ashurs superiority
  over conquered peoples gods

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Propaganda

• Blew his own horn
• Throughout kingdom royal inscriptions of
  victories, power of the king, and punishments if
  people challenged his laws
• Relief sculptures hunts, sieges, executions,
  deportations on the walls of palaces at Kalhu and
  Nineveh
• Huge statues of king to awe visitors to the court

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Ashurbanipal II
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Conquest and Control

• Superior military organization and technology
• Two groups
• Men who were obligated to give military service
  according to land grants
• Peasants and slaves contributed by landowners

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Conquest and Control
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Conquest and Control

• 500,000 troops
• Light armed bowmen and slingers (projectiles)
• Spearmen with body armor
• Cavalry (speed and mobility)
• Four man chariots
• Iron weapons
• Tunnels, mobile towers
• Spies
• Signal fires

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Mass Deportation

• Terror tactics to discourage resistance and
  rebellion
• Mass deportation forcible uprooting of large
  numbers of people or communities in order to
  transport and resettle them
• Break the morale of the enemy
• Shift large amounts of labor to center of the
  empire

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Control and Economic Problems

• Vast distances
• Diverse landscapes
• Many types of people with various languages,
  customs, religions, and politcal organization
• Tight control at the center and lands closest to
  the core
• Less in outer areas

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Control and Economics

• Divided into provinces
• Provincial officials obtained tribute and taxes,
  maintained law and order, raise troops, undertake
  public works, give provisions to Assyrian troops
  passing through
• Central government dealt directly with provinces,
  frequent inspections

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Culture and Society

• Free landowning citizens
• Farmers and artisans attached to the estates of
  the king or landowners
• Slaves (had legal rights and could move up)
• All subjects and deportees were considered human
  beings
• All had same legal rights and protection
• All had labor and military obligations

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Culture/Intellect

• Preservation of old and acquisition of new
  knowledge important
• Math
• Astronomy
• Physicians experimented
• Library of Ahshubanipal at Nineveh
• 25000 fragment and tablets
• Literary and scientific knowledge
• Preserved Mesopotamian art, literature
• House of Knowledge

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• This tablet, telling the myth of the goddess
  Ishtar's visit to her sister, the underworld
  goddess Ereshkigal, ends with a colophon
  describing it as the property of Assurbanipal,
  'king of the world, king of the land of Ashur'
  from Assurbanipal's Library in Nineveh

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Economy

• Agriculture was foundation of economy
• Vast majority worked in agriculture to support
  the army, government officials, religious people,
  professionals, artisans etc
• Trade at local level (foods, crafts)
• Long distance trade ( luxury goods- textiles,
  gems, dyes, ivory)
• Silver was the medium of exchange