Who were the Assyrians?

One of the major ancient civilizations of the Middle East whose culture still makes its mark.

The Assyrians will always be remembered both for their antiquity as a civilization and for their brutal military methods that terrorized the entire Middle East and part of the West. Their armies, their soldiers and their ferocity on the battlefield brought them resounding and respected success during the 9th and 7th centuries BC in the region of Mesopotamia. They extended their dominions from the Turkish part, passing through Iran until they reached Egypt.

But not everything was Blood and violence with the Assyrian people. They had a great predilection for art and architecture, stamping great works wherever they set foot. They wanted to impose their regional hegemony by confronting the Babylonian Empire, which was the power of the moment and which managed to survive by joining forces with another competitor, the Medes, who formed a coalition to wipe out the Assyrians.

In this article we will give a brief overview of the history of the Assyrian peopleone of the most important elements that occurred in the cradle of civilizations.

The origin of the Assyrians

The Assyrians were a nomadic peoples of Semitic origin who moved through what is known today as the Middle East.. The origin of their name corresponds to what was the main capital of the Assyrian people, Assura or Ashura in Arabic. This word was dedicated to the god Assur, which according to the mythology of Antiquity means "the God of Life", represented in its beginnings in the form of a tree.

Although a priori the god Assur represented the creation of everything, of vegetation, of life, of order and of the infinite, as the Assyrian empire expanded, his figure was distorted, until it was given a more perverse and warlike meaning to encourage the soldiers to promote new conquests. He was the king of the gods and the god of kings, and and every Assyrian citizen or ruler had to perform a ritual to obtain his blessing. to obtain his blessing.

According to archaeological discoveries made in the city of Assura, al-Charquat in present-day Iraq, on the banks of the splendid Tigris River, this was a colony of the Babylonians that passed to the Assyrians after their total destruction. This ancient city was revealed in 2003 and declared an endangered World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

Imperial period

Like any other empire of antiquity, the Assyrian empire went through the life cycle that all empires share: birth, splendor and decadence. Here are the three moments that explain the existence of the Assyrian empire.

First Assyrian Empire

It was in this period (1814-1781 BC) that the Assyrian Empire was consolidated as such. The increase of the Assyrian population outside its regions caused the first tensions and battles with the Assyrians. the first tensions and battles with neighboring nations.. Under the rule of King Shamshi Adad I until 1760 BC, since in that year he was defeated by the Babylonian Empire.

Middle Assyrian Empire

This was a tumultuous time of great turmoil throughout the Mesopotamian region, especially for the Assyrians. Once annexed to the Babylonian Empire, they began to suffer invasions by other emerging powers such as the Hittites and the so-called Sea Peoples from the Balkan peninsula.

It is here that the Assyrians began to carve their legacy, a legacy feared for years to come. They resisted against all the attacks suffered on all fronts from the Hittites, Egyptians, Arameans or the Mitanni..... So they territorially extended their domains, and established the practice of terror as a weapon of war, burning, killing and razing to the ground the conquered regions.

The Neo-Assyrian Empire

Curiously, just as the Assyrians seemed more ruthless militarily, they wanted to lay the foundations of an administrative system of assimilation of peoples, avoiding their destruction and taking care of their fellow citizens. In each region a province was established with a governor and its respective representative buildings (usually temples).

King Sargon II, of the Sargonid dynasty, was in charge of bringing another element to the Sargonian Empire.took it upon himself to bring another, less warlike element to his empire: art, architecture and urban modernization. The gardens and plants are one of the shining attributes of the era, making the capital Nineveh one of the most beautiful in Mesopotamia.

However, all this - even with the accommodation of the masses - was done with an iron hand and in a despotic manner. The inequality and cruelty with which the second-class inhabitants were treated caused the empire to fall into a spiral of weakness and uncontrol, which would culminate with the reconquest of the Babylonians around the year 609 BC.

The artistic legacy

We have focused a lot on the conquests and military battles of the Assyrian empire. In its cruelty and political administration. However, it was not all fights and skirmishes between ethnic groups and archaic nations. There was also an artistic brilliance of which remains of incalculable value are still discovered today.

In terms of architecture, the Assyrians assimilated part of the Chaldean art, improving and enlarging the palaces and temples that they built to and temples they built to demonstrate their power and greatness. A differential detail was the identification plaques that adorned the facades of the buildings: fired brick and glass was the material used to give beauty to the monuments. Art historians agree that the Assyrian temples are the most spectacular of Mesopotamia, highlighting that of Sargon II of the eighth century BC.

The Assyrians were brilliant in descriptive reliefs, carved with special care and finesse. Basically, they represented the battles won, the heroic characters who carried them out and the rulers who subdued the people. Firmness, power and hierarchy was the theme present in every Assyrian representation. In the paintings there is no variation in the narrative, but the most used colors were blue, yellow and red. Vibrant colors that told the daily life of the Assyrian culture. The remains preserved today bear witness to the greatness of this civilization.