NOV 3, 2024

History, Bronze Age

<aside> 📒 Notes on the Assyrian Empire, made from the Fallon of Civilization’s video

</aside>

https://youtu.be/jpAphcaVJIs?si=7wZebo4f5TU7DLWv

• Years weren't numbered in Assyria. Instead, it was given a name (like, to honor a governor or to signify an event like a solar eclipse or conquest). A long lists of years in order were kept
• Farming was seasonal, so in off-season folk got hired into labor (digging channels or building) or war
  • Rebellious cities could lock their gates and wait out the summers so the enemy would need to retreat for harvest
  • 475 BC, King Tiglath-Pileser reformed army. A professional core of elite armored troops (cavalry and chariots) with expendable infantry, assembled from conquered states and the outskirts of empire
    • Logistics and engineering (bridges, siege engines, tunnel digging) was also top notch
• Deportation and resettlement happened to the conquered
  • Assyrian cities were pretty cosmopolitan due to that
• High-ranking citizens carried cylinder seals that were used to sign stuff (including sealing if houses or chests or cargo)
• Plague was a constant threat to any military campaign
• Assyrians struggled to keep Babylon in their grip
  • Declaring a local Babylonian made the people happy – but on the first occasion they declared independence
  • Appointing an Assyrian governor led to rebellions
  • Giving the throne to a royal brother or uncle could lead to him trying to attempt a coup
  • King Sennacherib laid siege and leveled the city – which seemed excessive in Assyria and led to an outcry
  • Seems like a lot of provinces and conquered lands rebeled and Assyrians were putting them down violently
• The Hanging Gardens of Babylon might be King Sennacherib's (reigned 704 – 681 BC) gardens at Nineveh
  • “Hanging” refers to “leveled” or “terraced”
• Elamite people were instrumental to fall of Sumer and, milenia after, were a problem to Assyria
  • Ashurbanipal burned Babylon (after his father rebuild it and his grandfather rased it too). He also conquered Elam
• Asian lions were a problem for Middle East, early kings often hunted them to show that he's a protector of realm
• Collapse
  • Climate change: from one of the wettest periods to mega-drought (starting 725 BC). Assyrians started digging irrigation canals and addressing the problem – but it was a stress point. And their food mega-yields were no more
  • They were great at conquest, but heavy-handed at ruling, which meant constant rebellions
    • The last king crushed Elam and Babylon – but that created a power vacuum in which oppressed Medeans rose, occupied Elam and marched on Assyrians
    • Medeans made a deal with Babylonians and joined forces for war
  • Actually, no good Assyrian records are kept of the final decade of Ashurbanipal (in contrast to his early, well-documented years)