The Assyrian state is considered the first empire in the history of mankind. Power, where the cult of cruelty flourished, lasted until 605 BC. until it was destroyed by the combined forces of Babylon and Media.
Birth of Ashur
In the II millennium BC. the climate in the Arabian Peninsula worsened. This forced the natives to leave their original territory and go in search of " a better life". Among them were the Assyrians. They chose the valley of the Tigris River as their new homeland and founded the city of Ashur on its banks.
Although a fertile place was chosen for the city, the presence of more powerful neighbors (Sumerians, Akkadians and others) could not but affect the life of the Assyrians. They had to be the best at everything in order to survive. Merchants began to play a key role in the young state.
But political independence came later. First, Ashur was under the control of Akkad, then Ur, captured by the Babylonian king Hammurabi, and after that the city became dependent on Mitania.
Ashur remained under the rule of Mitania for about a hundred years. But under King Shalmaneser I, the state was strengthened. The result is the destruction of Mitania. And its territory, accordingly, went to Assyria.
Tiglathpalasar I (1115 - 1076 BC) managed to bring the state to new level. All neighbors began to reckon with him. It seemed that " finest hour» close. But in 1076 B.C. the king is dead. And among the contenders for the throne, there was no worthy successor. The Aramean nomads took advantage of this and inflicted several crushing defeats on the Assyrian troops. The territory of the state was sharply reduced - the captured cities came out of power. In the end, Assyria was left with only its ancestral lands, and the country itself was in the deepest crisis.
Neo-Assyrian power
It took Assyria more than two hundred years to recover from the blow. Only under King Tiglapalasar III, who ruled from 745 to 727 BC. the rise of the state began. First of all, the ruler dealt with the Urartian kingdom, having managed to conquer most of the cities and fortresses of the enemy. Then there were successful trips to Phoenicia, Syria, Palestine. The crowning activity of Tiglapalasar III was the ascent to the Babylonian throne.
The military success of the king is directly related to the reforms he is carrying out. So, he reorganized the army, which used to consist of landowners. Now, soldiers were recruited into it who did not have their own sector, and all the expenses for material support taken over by the state. In fact, Tiglapalasar III became the first king who had at his disposal regular army. Besides, big role success was played by the use of metal weapons.
The next ruler Sargon II (721-705 BC) was destined for the role of the great conqueror. He spent almost the entire time of his reign on campaigns, annexing new lands, and also suppressing uprisings. But the most significant victory Sargon is the final defeat of the Urartian kingdom.
In general, this state has long been considered the main enemy of Assyria. But the Urartian kings were afraid to fight directly. Therefore, they in every possible way pushed certain peoples dependent on the country of Ashur to revolt. Unexpected help to the Assyrians was provided by the Cimmerians, even if they themselves did not want it. The Urartian king Rusa I suffered a crushing defeat from the nomads, and Sargon could not fail to take advantage of such a gift.
Fall of the god Khaldi
In 714 B.C. he decided to put an end to the enemy and moved inland, but crossing the mountains was not easy. In addition, Rusa, thinking that the enemy was heading for Tushpa (the capital of Urartu), began to gather a new army. And Sargon decided not to risk it. Instead of the capital, he attacked the religious center of Urartu - the city of Musasir. Rusa did not expect this, because he was sure that the Assyrians would not dare to desecrate the sanctuary of the god Khaldi. After all, he was honored in the northern part of Assyria. Rusa was so sure of this that he even hid the state treasury in Musasir.
The result is sad. Sargon captured the city and its treasures, and ordered the statue of Khaldi to be sent to his capital. Rusa could not survive such a blow and committed suicide. The cult of Haldi in the country was greatly shaken, and the state itself was on the verge of death and no longer posed a threat to Assyria.
The death of an empire
The Assyrian empire grew. But the policy pursued by its kings in relation to the captured peoples led to constant revolts. Destruction of cities, extermination of the population, brutal executions the kings of the defeated peoples - all this caused hatred for the Assyrians. For example, the son of Sargon Sennacherrib (705-681 BC), after the suppression of the uprising in Babylon, executed part of the population, and deported the rest. He destroyed the city itself and flooded the Euphrates. And this was an unjustifiably cruel act, because the Babylonians and Assyrians are kindred peoples. Moreover, the former always considered the latter their own. younger brothers. This may have played certain role. Sennacherrib decided to get rid of the arrogant "relatives".
Assarhaddon, who came to power after Sennacherrib, rebuilt Babylon, but the situation escalated every year. And even a new surge in the greatness of Assyria under Ashurbanipal (668-631 BC) could not stop the inevitable collapse. After his death, the country plunged into endless strife, which Babylon and Media took advantage of in time, enlisting the support of the Scythians, as well as Arab princelings.
In 614 B.C. The Medes destroyed the ancient Ashur, the heart of Assyria. The Babylonians did not participate in the capture of the city; according to the official version, they were late. In fact, they simply did not want to participate in the destruction of the shrines of a kindred people.
Two years later, the capital, Nineveh, also fell. And in 605 BC. in the Battle of Karchemish, Prince Nebuchadnezzar (who later became famous for his hanging gardens) finished off the Assyrians. The empire died, but its people did not die, who retained their self-identity to this day.
Need help with test! 1 question: the main part of the population of the ancient Russian state were:a) dependent peasants
b) artisans and merchants
c) free farmers
d) "senior" and "junior" warriors
Question 2: senior combatant, large landowner, owner of a patrimony
a) fireman
b) tiun
c) boyar
d) lad
Question 3: Choose the correct statements
a) final destination the trade route "from the Varangians to the Greeks" was Byzantium
b) hired Scandinavian warriors East Slavs called the Normans
c) the prince of Kyiv was the head of Russia
d) as a result of Prince Oleg's campaigns against Byzantium, trade agreements beneficial to Russia were signed
e) all over Russia christian religion spread only peacefully
f) the adoption of Christianity did not change international position Russia
g) in the cities of Russia, a large role was played by the veche
h) main military organization Old Russian state was a regular army
i) the prince appointed the head local government- posadnik
to) princely retinue was divided into "senior" - boyars and "younger"
Question 4: Restore the sequence of events
a) the complete defeat of the Pechenegs by the Russian squad
b) the massacre of the Drevlyans with Prince Igor
c) Prince Oleg's campaign against Byzantium
d) adoption of Christianity
e) joining the union of Vyatichi tribes
5 question: insert in place of gaps
In the ____________ century, 2 large East Slavic associations were formed. One was in the north, in the Ilmenye, with a center in ____________, the other in the south, in the Dnieper region, with a center in ____________.
Question 6: On what basis is the series formed?
907, 911, 941, 944,
7 question: what is superfluous? (i.e. not correct)
in the city centers of veche:
a) was in charge of issues of war and peace;
b) solved money and land issues;
c) was the highest judicial instance;
d) discussed laws;
e) commanded the people's militia;
Thanks in advance!
A) King B) Kagan C) bek 3. The capital of the Volga Bulgaria was the city A) Itil B) Panticapaeum c) Bosporus 4. The religion of Judaism spread in A) Greek policies B) Scythia C) Khazaria 5. Slavic tribes paid tribute A) Greeks B) Balts C) Khazars 6. Volga Bulgaria was located on the territory of A) Upper Volga B) Middle Volga C) Lower Volga 7. Islam spread in A) Khazaria B) Volga Bulgaria C) in the Greek city-states 8. “Obrami » Russian chronicles called the tribes A) Goths B) Sarmatians C) Avars 9. In the VI century A) the Bosporan kingdom was created B) the Scythian kingdom C) the Avar Khaganate 10. The great migration of peoples began with the invasion of A) Sarmatians B) Huns C) Goths
Assyrians, who belonged to the Semitic language group(this group also includes Arabic and Hebrew) and those who came from arid regions Arabian Peninsula and the Syrian desert, through which they roamed, settled in the middle part of the Tigris River valley (the territory of modern Iraq).
Ashur became their first major outpost and one of the capitals of the future Assyrian state. Due to the proximity and as a result of acquaintance with the more developed Sumerian, Babylonian and Akkadian cultures, the presence of the Tigris and irrigated lands, the presence of metal and wood, which their southern neighbors did not have, due to the location at the intersection of important trade routes ancient east, the former nomads formed the foundations of statehood, and the settlement of Ashur turned into a rich and powerful center of the Middle East region.
Most likely, it was the control over the most important trade routes that pushed Ashur (this was the name of the Assyrian state originally) on the path of territorial conquest (in addition to the seizure of slaves and booty), thereby predetermining the further foreign policy of the state.
The first Assyrian king who started a major military expansion, was Shamshiadat I. In 1800 BC. he conquered all of Northern Mesopotamia, subjugated part of Cappadocia (modern Turkey) and the large Middle Eastern city of Mari.
In military campaigns, his troops reached the shores mediterranean sea, and Assyria itself began to compete with the mighty Babylon. Shamshiadat I himself called himself "the king of the universe." However, in late XVI century BC for about 100 years, Assyria fell under the rule of the state of Mitanni, located in the northern Mesopotamia.
A new surge of conquests falls on the Assyrian kings Shalmaneser I (1274−1245 BC), who destroyed the state of Mitanni, capturing 9 cities with the capital, Tukultininurta I (1244−1208 BC), which significantly expanded the possessions of the Assyrian state , who successfully intervened in Babylonian affairs and made a successful raid on the powerful Hittite state, and Tiglath-Pileser I (1115-1077 BC), who made the first in the history of Assyria sea swimming across the Mediterranean.
But, perhaps, Assyria reached its highest power in the so-called Neo-Assyrian period of its history. The Assyrian king Tiglapalasar III (745−727 BC) conquered almost the entire powerful Urartian kingdom (Urartu was located on the territory modern Armenia, to present-day Syria), in addition to the capital, Phenicia, Palestine, Syria, a fairly strong Damascus kingdom.
The same king, without bloodshed, ascended the throne of Babylon under the name of Pulu. Another Assyrian king Sargon II (721-705 BC), spending a lot of time in military campaigns, capturing new lands and suppressing uprisings, finally pacified Urartu, captured the state of Israel and subjugated Babylonia by force, taking the title of governor there.
In 720 BC Sargon II defeated the combined forces of the rebellious Syria, Phoenicia and Egypt that joined them, and in 713 BC. makes a punitive expedition to Media (Iran), captured before him. The rulers of Egypt, Cyprus, the Sabaean kingdom in South Arabia fawned over this king.
His son and successor Sennacherrib (701-681 BC) inherited a huge empire, in which rebellions had to be suppressed periodically in its various places. So, in 702 BC. Sennacherrib in two battles at Kutu and Kish defeated the powerful Babylon-Elamite army (the Elamite state, which supported the rebellious Babylonia, was located on the territory modern Iran), capturing 200,000 prisoners and rich booty.
Babylon itself, whose inhabitants were partly exterminated, partly resettled in various areas Assyrian power, Sennacherib flooded the river Euphrates with the discharged waters. Sennacherib also had to fight with a coalition of Egypt, Judea and the Arab tribes of the Bedouins. During this war, Jerusalem was besieged, but the Assyrians failed to take it because, as scientists believe, a tropical fever that crippled their army.
The main foreign policy success of the new king Esarhaddon was the conquest of Egypt. In addition, he rebuilt the destroyed Babylon. The last powerful Assyrian king, during whose reign Assyria flourished, was the already mentioned library collector Ashurbanipal (668−631 BC). Under him, the hitherto independent city-states of Phenicia, Tire and Arvada, were subordinated to Assyria, and a punitive campaign was carried out against the longtime enemy of Assyria, the Elamite state (Elam then helped his brother Ashurbanipal in the struggle for power), during which in 639 BC. e. its capital, Susa, was taken.
During the reign of three kings (631-612 BC) - after Ashurbanipal - uprisings raged in Assyria. Endless wars exhausted Assyria. In Media, the energetic king Cyaxares came to power, expelled the Scythians from his territory and even, according to some statements, managed to win them over to his side, no longer considering himself to be indebted to Assyria.
In Babylonia, a longtime rival of Assyria, King Nabobalasar, the founder of the New Babylonian kingdom, comes to power, who also did not consider himself a subject of Assyria. These two rulers made an alliance against their common enemy Assyria and began joint military operations. Under the circumstances, one of the sons of Ashurbanipal - Sarak - was forced to enter into an alliance with Egypt, by that time already independent.
Military actions between the Assyrians and the Babylonians in 616-615. BC. came with mixed success. At this time, taking advantage of the absence of the Assyrian army, the Medes broke through to the indigenous regions of Assyria. In 614 BC they took the ancient sacred capital of the Assyrians Ashur, and in 612 BC. the combined Median-Babylonian troops approached Nineveh ( modern city Mosul in Iraq).
Nineveh since the time of King Sennacherib was the capital of the Assyrian state, a large and beautiful city gigantic squares and palaces, political center Ancient East. Despite the stubborn resistance of Nineveh, the city was also taken. The remnants of the Assyrian army, led by King Ashshuruballit, retreated to the Euphrates.
In 605 BC in the battle of Karchemish near the Euphrates, the Babylonian prince Nebuchadnezzar (the future famous king of Babylon), with the support of the Medes, defeated the combined Assyrian-Egyptian troops. The Assyrian state ceased to exist. However, the Assyrian people did not disappear, retaining their national identity.
I wanted to write just one post, but in search of information I began to stumble upon a lot of interesting things. Therefore, I decided to combine a series of articles and call it the Priesthood. I myself don’t know how many chapters there will be, while 2 are planned, I don’t know what conclusions I will come to at the end, I will publish according to the degree of readiness. So who are these mysterious priests? From the dictionary: the priesthood is a group of people who studied natural phenomena and worship in archaic civilizations. In my understanding, this is an estate of people or demigods, which once served as an interface between the gods of the giant race and humanity. Priests did not always personally lead states, more often they remained in the shadows, but it was they who were the core and architect of states and world empires. The priests are a kind of brahmins who stood above the kshatriyas.
The lightning-fast death of the Assyrian Empire is by and large one of the mysteries of the history of the Ancient East. Yes, this topic is not widely discussed, films are not made on this topic and popular books are not written. However, if we objectively look at the history of the Ancient East, then the collapse of Assyria should attract attention, questions should arise. The state that played for 15 centuries key role in the fate of Mesopotamia, Palestine and even Egypt disappeared at the peak of its power, disappeared once and for all. Moreover, along with Assyria, the Assyrian people also disappeared (modern Assyrians have a very vague attitude to the ancient Assyrians). That is, the pogrom of Nineveh and other cities was not limited to the massacre of the overwhelming number of Assyrians. This does not happen so often with peoples and empires. Even the collapse of the Third Reich was not the end of the German nation and statehood. And the Assyrians were cleansed by full program. So why all of a sudden?
The official story relates this to the fact that the terrible and cruel Assyrians (thanks to Asimov) got so tired of their neighbors that they united and, having piled on the whole bunch, defeated Assyria. Well, let's start with the fact that the Assyrians were, of course, far from being angels, but for those times it was not something beyond the realities of that time, the pyramids from the heads cut off by the Assyrians completely resonated with the pyramids from the hands cut off by the Egyptians or even x * yov. Further, they did not pile on the whole bunch. Oddly enough, but Egypt, which suffered from the Assyrians, fought on the side of the last Assyrian king. Why Egypt did this will become clear in later chapters.
I will put forward my version. Nineveh and the Assyrian state were destroyed due to an attempt to create a prototype of the Internet. Yes, of course, that Internet was within the framework of the then technologies, but the idea was just as grandiose. It was not Nineveh that was destroyed at all, but an extensive library, or rather a database created by one of the kings of Assyria, Ashurbanipal.
Let's start our conspiracy hypothesis with a description of an amazing fact. Assyria, which kept the entire Middle East at bay, was led by illiterate kings. Before Ashurbanipal, not one Assyrian king could neither read nor write. At the same time, taxes were collected, impregnable fortresses were taken and palaces were built. It is hard to imagine that such a vast and urbanized empire was run by ignoramuses. The then interfluve abounded in cities, which means there were a lot of literate people.
From the fact of the illiteracy of the Assyrian kings, the first assumption can be made. Assyria was a golem state. That is, it was not the military leaders of the Assyrians who really ruled Assyria at the strategic level. The kings were only a military aristocracy, and then, if the technologically advanced and best Assyrian army in the world planned campaigns thousands of kilometers away. and took impregnable fortresses, indicates that in military affairs there were some military advisers-engineers next to the kings (as in the case of the Mongols). By the way, the same Ashurbanipal did not personally participate in any of the dozens of military campaigns. To help answer the question of who really ruled this state, again, the biography of Ashurbanipal will help.
Ashurbanipal was not the eldest son of the king of Assyria (the eldest son was from a Babylonian, that is, an Amorite). So, he was not supposed to inherit the empire. That is why Ashurbanipal was taught to read and write and prepared for the career of a priest. But the ambitious grandmother of Ashurbanipal somehow managed to promote her beloved granddaughter to the emperor. Even during his lifetime, Esarhaddon declared his heir not to his eldest son, but to Ashurbanipal, which almost unleashed a civil war.
We see that certain priests possessed real knowledge. How strong the Assyrian priesthood was is not clear. Most likely, Assyria was actually controlled by the priesthood from Babylon, the Assyrian priests by nationality were trained by the priests from Babylon and controlled by them. It is difficult to judge who these mega-priests of Babylon were by nationality. At first, I wanted to call them Chaldeans, but in fact in those days the Chaldeans were miserable nomads, it was only later that they demographically defeated Babylon, and all the Babylonians began to be called Chaldeans. Babylon itself was once inhabited by no less wild tribes of the Amorites. If we dig deeper, we find Akkadian Semites and incomprehensible Sumerians. I will put forward the assumption that the so-called priesthood is a group of families from the Ancient Near East who possessed and perhaps still possess extensive knowledge and technologies that they inherited from the time of the presence of giant gods on Earth.
How does one relate to this power? On the one hand, the giants were preparing the priesthood to suppress the population of the Earth, on the other hand, it was precisely this priesthood that, sooner or later, had to come to the idea of the development of mankind to the level of a cosmic race. On the third hand, it was with these people that the reptoids were supposed to establish contact. But it is precisely these forces that have survived to our time that can interfere with the reptoids or delay the denouement. More about the origin of this priesthood in the second chapter.
Why did the priests need a great Assyria? The question is key and especially important. I'll put forward a hypothesis. The Reptoids killed the giants left on Earth. Having lost the direct leadership of the gods, the priesthood found itself in a strategic impasse. What to do, how to survive? But since the expeditionary forces of the Reptoids quickly faded away (more on this in the series of articles "Revenge"), the surviving priests of the Sumerians were left to their own devices. And if the gods had already abandoned them, they decided to create the kingdom of God on Earth. That is, to create a single world state or an empire that will accumulate knowledge and contribute to the development of mankind, it was at this moment that the idea of \u200b\u200bconquering world domination, and hence the consolidation of earthlings, was born. However, no one prepared the priests for such a turn of events. There were no really working social technologies gods, so the priesthood moved towards the goal through a series of trials and serious mistakes. Suddenly, vast empires began to appear, and with each generation of these empires, they became more extensive and more powerful.
Unfortunately, after the departure of the gods, technological and managerial degradation began. The once united civilized mankind began to spread rapidly, and the centers of civilizations on different continents lost contact with each other and began to move away from each other linguistically and culturally, and some of them died altogether. The tragedy of this priesthood was that they had advanced knowledge, but did not have the resources and genetics to implement these technologies. But everything was not so unpromising, over time, the priests learned to design and build vast states. Their dream was to create a single empire that would include all known civilized areas. After all, in the sky, on Nibiru, there was a single empire with common language and one king. The situation with languages was deplorable. The languages given by the gods were not entirely organic to people, so pretty soon the languages were significantly distorted and over the millennia they diverged so much that people could not even understand their neighbors. Other technologies also underwent degradation, the priesthood itself could not keep the technologies unchanged, the language and mathematics were simplified, many things were forgotten as unnecessary, and some of the technologies remained in the form of incomprehensible and non-working rituals.
The Assyrians, although not their first project, initially turned out to be a success for the priesthood. Having concluded an alliance with the leaders of Assyria, the priests helped them plan military campaigns and supplied them with educated engineers. Brave warriors, backed up by the technology and magic of the priests, simply swept away the kingdoms surrounding them, creating a vast empire. However, Assyria was not the first here. The priesthood tried to unite the world with the help of Ur, Akkad, and then Babylonia. But these attempts were less ambitious.
Thanks to the Assyrians, the interfluve priesthood finally reached Egypt, effectively eliminating Egyptian priests as the main competitors. However, Babylon itself had to be given more than once to the warlike Assyrians for plunder. But what were the priests up to the Amorite Babylon? Main strength not in gold and people, but in knowledge. Secondly, a unified empire favored trade. Thirdly, rebellions regularly broke out in all parts of the empire, including in Babylon itself. These Assyrians successfully crushed uprisings with enviable constancy, collecting reparations and helping the priests to weaken competitors. And the position of the Assyrians themselves was very unstable, without the help of the priesthood, the empire would quickly drown in the fire of uprisings, which, in principle, happened.
But suddenly a terrible thing happened for the priests of an incomprehensible nationality, the empire was headed by the underpriest Ashurbanipal. Realizing the subordinate position of Assyria, Ashurbanipal decided to turn the tide, collect knowledge from all over the empire and hand it over to the Assyrian elite. Ashurbanipal intended to create a library that was supposed to exhaust all the knowledge accumulated by mankind. He was especially interested in the information necessary for governing the state - on how to maintain constant communication with the deities, on predicting the future from the movement of the stars and from the entrails of sacrificial animals. The bulk of the information was extracted from the Sumerian and Babylonian texts specifically organized teams scribes. If the plan of the Assyrian king had succeeded, then the Assyrians would have been able to refuse the services of the priesthood of Babylon, and this meant death for very powerful families.
Why do I call the vast library of Ashurbanipal the Internet of the Ancient East? Yes, of course it was not the Internet, but rather a knowledge and data base. But some features modern internet were present there. First, any text found in the library was catalogued. The librarians of Ashurbanipal did a great job of cataloging, copying, commenting and researching the texts of the library, as evidenced by numerous glossaries, bibliography and commentaries. Ashurbanipal himself gave great importance organizing the library. His name was written on each tablet (a kind of ex-libris), the name of the original tablet from which the copy was made was given in the colophon (Yandex cache). Thus, the Library of Ashurbanipal was not just a pile of unorganized information. Secondly, and most importantly, the king systematically sent a kind of "search robots" to look for information in all the cities of the empire. Any text was subject to withdrawal or simply copied.
Realizing the value of knowledge and information, Ashurbanipal ordered to take from the conquered cities not only gold, silver and slaves, but also their libraries and archives, including priestly ones. And of course, one fine day, the time has come for Babylon. Babylon, as usual, was defeated, but now it has also been robbed of information. The priesthood suffered enormous losses. Of course, it is ridiculous to assume that they have lost everything. No, but after the libraries of Babylon were sacked, Nineveh was to be destroyed. Since then, the priesthood cursed the Assyrians and prepared for their complete extermination, the Assyrian project had to be closed. The competitor was too dangerous, there was too much information needed by the priests in this library. Yes, the priesthood could not immediately fulfill its plans. I had to wait right moment. And such a moment came after the death of Ashurbanipal. 17 years after the death of the priest-king, Nineveh, and in the place with it, the whole of Assyria was destroyed, and the Assyrians as a nation were destroyed, and their cities were wiped off the face of the earth. The last Assyrian king himself set fire to his palace, in the cellars, of which the library was located. Perhaps then the main part of the fund died. But I believe that being in the cellars of the palace, the extensive library did not suffer much. The Babylonians took what they needed and burned and destroyed everything else. Only clay tablets have come down to us, which accounted for no more than 10% of the library fund (25,000 tablets). Moreover, as it turned out, mainly mythology and astrological charts. Modern scientists practically did not find scientific works in the library. Although Ashurbanipal himself paid due attention not only to magic, but also to exact sciences as evidenced by his own words:
I studied what the wise Adapa (Adam) brought me, mastered all the secret art of writing on tablets, began to understand the predictions in heaven and on earth, participate in pundits' discussions, I predict the future together with the most experienced interpreters of predictions from the liver of sacrificial animals. I I can solve complex, difficult tasks for division and multiplication, I constantly read masterfully written tablets on such difficult language like Sumerian, or as difficult to interpret as Akkadian, familiar with the antediluvian records in stone, which are already completely incomprehensible.
What kind of antediluvian records is not clear. Perhaps the library contained practically full information about the history of our planet and mankind. The king himself probably could not even read all these priceless documents, but just in case he collected them.
It is obvious that the library was looted before being destroyed, or rather, the most valuable materials were seized, if this is not the case, then where did these antediluvian stones go? Burned out? The library was huge, it was not possible to take everything out at once, so most of the parchments and papyri were burned, the most valuable ones were taken out. In 1849 most the library (which was kept in the northwestern palace on the banks of the Euphrates) was found by the British archaeologist Austen Henry Layard. Three years later, Layard's assistant, the British diplomat and traveler Hormuzd Rasam, found the second part of the library in the opposite wing of the palace. Both parts were removed for storage in British museum. And even those miserable remnants that did not burn in the fire and were not taken out by the Babylonians allowed Europeans at the beginning of the 20th century to decipher the primary sources of the myth of the flood, of the gods of Sumer and Akkad. It turned out that Genesis, and hence Torra, is only a correspondence of more complete and ancient texts. And not just correspondence, but a heavily edited version. How after that you can be a Jew and a Christian, I personally do not understand. If your scriptures are only distorted and incomplete copies of ancient works, how can you attribute holiness to every letter and every word of this book?
And what knowledge has not reached us, that is, the general public, has not reached, one can only guess.
But in the future, libraries that contained important information mercilessly destroyed or disappeared. The library in Alexandria burned at least 3 times, the library of Ivan the Terrible disappeared without a trace, etc.
As for the priesthood, they did not grieve for the lost state-golem for a long time. Soon, practically within the same borders, the Neo-Babylonian and then the Persian empires were created, which, in turn, swung even at Greece, and if the Persians had succeeded in Greece, then at Italy. It is possible that the failure of the Persians forced the priests to defect to the other side. The rate was placed on the Macedonians, who suddenly began to win with a "dry score" of any opponents. Alexander's empire was unsurpassed in size and reach. And Sasha, too, was already aiming at Italy, but ... something happened to them there. Perhaps Sasha decided to steer himself, it seems that they decided to remove Sasha and dismantle the empire.
But that's a long time ago past days, although it seems to me that the USSR is very reminiscent of Assyria, and the Russians may well repeat the fate of the Assyrians.
Short story. Huge Assyria grew out of a small nome ( administrative districts) Ashur in the North. For a long time The “country of Ashur” does not play a significant role in the fate of Mesopotamia and lags behind its southern neighbors in development. Rise of Assyria falls on the XIII-XII centuries. BC and suddenly ends as a result of the invasion of the Arameans. For a century and a half, the population of the “country of Ashur” has been experiencing the hardships of foreign domination, is ruined, and suffers from hunger.
But in the ninth century BC e. Assyria is recovering. The era of large-scale conquests begins. Assyrian kings create a perfect war machine and turn their state into the most powerful power in the world. Huge spaces Western Asia submit to the Assyrians. Only by the beginning of the 7th century. BC e. their energy and strength dries up. The rebellion of the conquered Babylonians, who made an alliance with the tribes of the Medes, leads to the death of the colossal Assyrian empire. The people of merchants and soldiers, who held her weight on their shoulders, heroically resisted for several years. In 609 BC. e. the fall of the city of Haran, last stronghold"Countries of Ashur".
History of the ancient kingdom of Assyria
Time passed, and already from the XIV century. BC e. in the Ashurian documents the ruler began to be called the king, like the rulers of Babylonia, Mitanni or the Hittite state, and Egyptian pharaoh- his brother. Since that time, the Assyrian territory either expanded to the west and east, then again shrank to the size of the historical ancient Assyria- a narrow strip of land along the banks of the Tigris in its upper reaches. In the middle of the thirteenth century BC e. Assyrian armies even invaded Hittite power- one of the strongest at that time, they regularly made trips - not so much for the sake of increasing the territory, but for the sake of robbery - to the north, to the lands of the Nairi tribes; to the south, more than once passing through the streets of Babylon; to the west - to the flourishing cities of Syria and.
The next heyday of the Assyrian civilization reached at the beginning of the XI century. BC e. under Tiglathpalasar I (about 1114 - about 1076 BC). His armies made more than 30 campaigns to the west, captured Northern Syria, Phoenicia and some provinces of Asia Minor. Most of the trade routes linking west with east again fell into the hands of Assyrian merchants. In honor of his triumph after the conquest of Phenicia, Tiglathpalasar I undertook a demonstrative exit on Phoenician warships to the Mediterranean Sea, showing the still formidable rival - who is in fact a great power.
Map of ancient Assyria
A new, third stage of the Assyrian offensive falls already on the IX-VII centuries. BC e. After a two hundred year hiatus, former time decline of the state and forced defense from the hordes of nomads from the south, north and east, Assyrian kingdom reasserted itself as a mighty empire. She launched her first serious offensive to the south - to Babylon, which was defeated. Then, as a result of several campaigns to the west, the entire region of Upper Mesopotamia came under the rule of ancient Assyria. The way was opened for further advance into Syria. Ancient Assyria, over the next few decades, practically did not know defeat and was steadily moving towards its goal: to take control of the main sources of raw materials, centers of production and trade routes from the Persian Gulf to the Armenian Highlands and from Iran to the Mediterranean Sea and Asia Minor.
In the course of several successful campaigns, the Assyrian armies defeated their northern neighbors, after a grueling and ruthless struggle they led the states of Syria and Palestine to submission, and, finally, under King Sargon II in 710 BC. e. Babylon was finally conquered. Sargon was crowned king of Babylon. His successor, Sennacherib, fought for a long time against the rebelliousness of the Babylonians and their allies, but by this time Assyria had become the strongest power.
However, the triumph of the Assyrian civilization did not last long. The uprisings of the conquered peoples shocked different areas empires - from southern Mesopotamia to Syria.
Finally, in 626 BC. e. the leader of the Chaldean tribe from southern Mesopotamia Nabopolassar captured royal throne in Babylonia. Even earlier, to the east of the kingdom of Assyria, the scattered tribes of the Medes united in the Median kingdom. culture time Assyria passed. Already in 615 BC. e. Medes appeared at the walls of the capital of the state - Nineveh. In the same year, Nabopolassar besieged ancient center countries - Ashur. In 614 BC. e. the Medes again invaded Assyria and also approached Assur. Nabopolassar immediately moved his troops to join them. Ashur fell before the arrival of the Babylonians, and at its ruins the kings of Media and Babylon entered into an alliance, sealed dynastic marriage. In 612 BC. e. allied forces laid siege to Nineveh and took it only three months later. The city was destroyed and plundered, the Medes returned to their lands with a share of the booty, and the Babylonians continued to conquer the Assyrian inheritance. In 610 BC. e. the remnants of the Assyrian army, reinforced by Egyptian reinforcements, were defeated and driven back across the Euphrates. Five years later, the last Assyrian detachments were defeated. This is how it ended the first "world" power in the history of mankind. At the same time, no significant ethnic changes took place: only the “top” of Assyrian society perished. The huge centuries-old inheritance of the kingdom of Assyria passed to Babylon.
