Assyria in the Early Period

ASSYRIA IN THE EARLY PERIOD The land of Assyria may originally have been inhabited by the Subaraeans, a race which at a later time occupied parts of Meso potamia, the hill country north of Assyria, and the valleys of the Zagros range as far south as Kirkuk. The Assyrians, themselves a mixed race with close affinities to the people of North Syria, speaking a language very closely related to Akkadian but with marked peculiarities, probably entered the Tigris valley before the time of Sargon of Agade. They brought with them a calendar of their own, and a yearly eponymous office, the limit or limmu. Their conquest brought about a breach in the continuity of civilization at the city of Ashur ; after the Sumerian domination in the early Sumerian period, there is a new city which shows no sign of influence from the south. The Agade kings and their suc cessors reimposed their rule on the Assyrians, and Babylonian domination continued until the time of the Amorite dynasty. Very few remains of the second millennium are extant, but they are sufficient to prove that Assyrian art and civilization developed in a distinctive national manner. The formative age was that of Ashur-uballit. This king ascended to the throne when Assyria was subject to the kings of Mitanni; when he died, his territory included Mitanni, the Tur 'Abdin, and a large tract south-east of Ashur. This was due to his organization of the state on a mili tary basis. Certain features of Assyrian civilization were due to this military organization; the prominence of certain war-gods, Shulmanu, Enurta, or of the warlike aspects of Ishtar, may be so explained.

Bas-reliefs.

Two bas-reliefs, one in terra-cotta, the other in stone, dating from the middle of the second millennium, show the distinct Assyrian style. The stone object is a basis for a cult object, and the relief represents a king or priest between two figures surmounted with rayed disks, holding staves surmounted by similar disks. The subject is derived from Babylonian themes, the execution is peculiar to Assyria. On a narrow relief below the main scene, men and horses are shown climbing over mountains; the battle scenes of later times faithfully follow this model, and the relief is of great importance beca use it proves that the frieze style was already formed by the 13th century B.C. The terra cotta relief apparently depicts Ashur as a tree-god, accompanied by two smaller, unidentified figures. The Assyrian national god was always closely associated with tree-worship, a feature which connects his worship with Syrian and Mediterranean cults; on the other hand, the same myth of Creation was related about Ashur of the Assyrians as about Marduk of Babylon.

Painting.

Painting in various techniques was practised in the time of Tukulti-Enurta I., about 125o B.C. tiles were decorated in blue, red and white with geometrical patterns, palmettes, and conventional religious subjects, such as two goats arranged her aldically beside a sacred tree. It is probable that this art arose from Egyptian and Mediterranean influences, due to the lively international trade and political intercourse of the 15th century B.C., the "Amarna age." Glazed terra-cotta pots were common, and some specimens seem to have been imported from Cyprus and Crete.

Seals.

Assyrian seals share the characteristics of the "Syro Hittite" style rather than the Babylonian. Tablets from the As syrian provincial town of Arrapkha (Kirkuk) show impressions from short thin cylinders, the themes generally introducing mon sters or sacred trees and certain amuletic devices. But in another particularly attractive style, on a longer larger type of cylinder, the ground was more spaciously treated, and hunting scenes, ani mals bounding across rocks, and so forth, were cut in shallow intaglio.

Social Life.—Though the Hammurabi code was studied at an early date in Assyria, the Assyrian kings drew up a set of laws of their own, which reflect a social life rather different from Babylonia. Women, unless public or sacred prostitutes, were closely veiled; married women in some cases stayed in their father's house and did not enter the husband's family. The king's court consisted of an officialdom partly borrowed from Babylo nian models, partly peculiar to Assyria. The dichotomy to be observed in the institutions can be seen in names within the same family; Semitic and non-Semitic names were used indifferently in a manner which suggests intermarriage of the Assyrian-speaking people with Subaraeans.

The Assyrian kingdom was powerful throughout the i 3 th and I2th centuries; occasionally Babylonian kings were able to reverse the position, the most striking instance being Nebuchadrezzar I. about i z 5o B.C. An Assyrian revival culminated in the successful campaigns of Tiglathpileser I. about r o9o–I o6o B.C. ; this king was, however, actively engaged in repelling Aramaean tribes, and from about io50-95o B.C. the invasion of Syria and northern Babylonia by this people exhausted Babylonia and Assyria.