Neo-Assyrian Empire
(911 BC to 609 BC)
What happened?
The Neo-Assyrian Empire began with the ascension of Adad-nirari II in 911 BC, until the fall of Nineveh at the hands of the Medes and the Babylonians in 609 BC. It was an Iron Age Mesopotamian empire and became the largest empire of the world until that time. The Assyrians perfected early techniques of imperial rule, which became standard in later empires. They were the first who armed themselves with iron weapons, and their troops employed advanced, military tactics.
Assyria emerged as the most powerful state with the conquest of Adad-narari II. They dominated the Ancient Near East, East Mediterranean, Asia Minor, Caucasus, and parts of North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. They conquered their rivals from Babylonia, Persia, Medes, Egypt and others.
Assyria maintained a large and flourishing rural population with a number of big cities, such as Nineveh and Assur. Assyria was known for its brutality and cruelty during this period. But this reputation was only reserved for those who took up arms against the Assyrian King. None of the kings during this time committed acts of genocides, massacres or ethnic cleansing against civilian populations, non-combatant men, women or children.
Aramaic became an official language of the empire, alongside Akkadian. After succeeding the Middle Assyrian Empire. Upon the death of Ashurbanipal, the Empire began to disintegrate due brutal and unremitting civil wars in Assyria. Rival kings made alliances with enemies of Assyria and defeated an Assyrian-Egyptian alliance in 609 BC. Assyria ceased to exist as an independent state. But the Assyrian history continued.
Tumbled Stone - Rose Quartz
± 800 BC to ± 600 BC
Rose quartz owes its name to the pink color since ± 1800. Before that, it was called milk quartz.
The stone has been used and appreciated for centuries as the stone of love. In classical Greek and Roman times, the goddess of love Aphrodite or Venus was thought to have brought the stone to Earth. This mineral is dedicated to the goddess. In various Greek legends and myths, involving Adonis and Cupid, the god of love and desire, let appear this rose gemstone. But he use of rose quartz goes dating back to 7000 BC. Beads of rose quartz have been found in the area once known as Mesopotamia.
Historical descriptions indicate that Assyrians, along with the Romans, might have been the first to use Rose Quartz. Specifically, jewelry of rose quartz was known to be crafted by the Assyrians around 800 BC - 600 BC. The Romans used it as a seal to signify ownership.
But the legendary healing and love powers of the rose quartz go back thousands of years, perhaps even earlier than 600 BC. Tibetan and Chinese cultures honored the gemstone and is (in 2021) still one of the major carving stones used in China. Rose quartz was said to have been used by Isis in an Egyptian legend, to help her maintain her youth and beauty. Facial masks of rose quartz were reported to have been found in Egyptian tombs. It is quite possible the ancient Egyptians used this gem as some form of beauty treatment. A comparison between Egyptians and Romans is their belief that the rose quartz was a token of love as early as 600 BC. They also believed the stone could prevent aging.
Rose quartz remains one of the most loved gemstones for jewelry making.
Replica. Found: Nineveh, Iraq (JN0589)
Sumerian Star Chart
± 650 BC
This is the reproduction of an archaic British Museum Sumerian star map or “planisphere”. It is a rotatable instrument to map the stars and constellations. The forerunner of the planisphere is the astrolabe. That instrument was used for navigation for 1200 years and was replaced by the sextant in the 16th century. This circular stone tablet was recovered in the late 19th century in King Ashurbanipal's underground library in Nineveh, Iraq. As a result, it was long thought to be an Assyrian tablet dating from about 650 BC. A computer analysis matched the depicted sky over Mesopotamia in 3300 BC. It proves that the map is of much older Sumerian origin. The tablet is the earliest known astronomical instrument. It consists of a segmented, disk-shaped star chart with marked units of angular measures on the edge.
The scientific world has very different views on the tablet. Unfortunately, about 40% significant parts of the stone planisphere are missing. The damage dates to the sack of Nineveh. The back of the tablet is not engraved. The inscriptions are still studied by modern scholars. It provides extraordinary evidence for the existence of Sumerian astronomy.
The original preserved in the British Museum is in fact already a copy. At the order of Ashurbanipal, a library was assembled, sending scribes throughout his empire to collect and copy texts of every type and genre from the libraries of the temples. Most of the texts were observations of events and omens. They were texts describing the behavior of certain people and animals, about the movements of celestial bodies, etc. Dictionaries also appeared for Sumerian, Akkadian, and other languages. Most of the traditional Mesopotamian tales, such as the Epic of Gilgamesh, survived only to our time because they were included in the library of Ashurbanipal.
After the destruction of Nineveh in 612 BC. the library was buried under the walls of the burning palace of Ashurbanipal. There it remained hidden for more than 2000 years.