Neo-Assyrian Empire Circa 911 BCE to 609 BCE

The Iron Age in the Levant and the Mesopotamian region was radically dynamic. After the Late Bronze Age Collapse circa 1050 to about 1000 BCE, there was a violent rearranging of the kingdoms in the region. The Collapse had marked the end of Mycenaean/ Cretan kingdom or empire, the end of Egyptian New Kingdom dynasties and the emergence of the powerful Neo Assyrian dynasts.

Around 900 BCE, the two remaining super powers in the region were the Neo-Assyrian dynasts and Egypt. Between their territories and ambitions was a cluster of smaller kingdoms and a confederation of small, but powerful and important Phoenician city states along the coast of the Mediterranean.

This crucial Iron Age significantly the saw the spread of “civilization” westward along the coasts of the Mediterannean all the way to Iberia/ Spain and North Africa. The Phoenician traders established dozens of trading ports and small colonies beginning arond 1000 BCE. Those Phoenician colonies carried the seeds of “civilization” into Europe and the strike the roots of the Carthagian Empire. Those early Phoenician trading posts continued to grow and expand, and would later serve as way stations for Jewish merchants and early Christianity as well as Greek culture into the early Roman republic and later empire.

The rivalry of the Egyptians and Assyrians in the Iron Age

The Neo Assyrians and Egyptian rivalry and intemittent warfare also shaped the early history of Israel, Judaism and in turn the ideas and world views of Abrahamic religions, Christianity and Islam. Those three major belief system also, happened to grew out of a unique, dynamic and frequently violent place in the Iron Age.

People who don’t know the origins and history of the Levant in the Iron Age frequently question the bloodiness of the Torah, all the wars, the violence, genocide, cruelty, ruthlessness, the hide bound vindictivemess in the Old Testament need only look at the enviroment. The Torah was probably compiled and written during the reign of Josiah, King of Judah in the seventh century BCE, when it was “discovered” during major renovations of the First Temple [ Solomon’s ] in Jerusalem. The Torah provided a code, laws, rules, rituals for making the the small Kingdom of Judah, a more tightly organized nation one with a unifying state religion, as well as an official history, [ Creation, the Patriarchs, Noah, Abraham’s covenant, Moses, etc. It provided a crucial orgin story for the early Jews. There early Hebrews were likely Canaanites who had had worshipped diverse gods in the predecessor of Torah God of Abraham, in the polytheism of Yahwehism. El or Yahweh was the paramount deity. It is with the Ten Commandments thing, that the hard line on monothesim is clarified. Hence the Ten Commandments and story of Abraham, Noah, and such to reinforce the one god, one state, one people ideal. It worked well then, and endured right up into the present for billions of believers.

BThe Levant and south to the Sinai Peninsula had long been a hot zone. It lay at the intersection of Egyptian and Mesopotamian powers, literally the crossroads of history and civilizations. The smaller kingdoms between the super powers fluctuated between being allies and client states with the big powers or were absored into the larger powers. The minor kingdoms had to constantly work a balancing act between the the major powers, typically, paying tribute and being vassals of either the Egyptians or the Assyrians, then later, the Achaemenids or Persians who displaced the Neo Babylonians who had revolted against the Neo Assyrians, and knocked them over around 612 BCE.

The Neo Babylonian dynasts briefly dominated the Levant area until they were ousted by the new bosses that came out of Persia, the Achaemenid Dynasty. The New Babylonians who had previously deposted the Neo Assyrians around 609, were ousted in 539 by Cyrus the Great, the Achaemenid boss.

Cyrus is celebrated in Jewish history because he released the hostages who had taken by Nebuchadnezzar II. It was a common practice in empire building to take hostages or captives of leaders or nobles from a conquered city state or kingdom to assure the good behavior of the conquered and to assure their continued tribute. Empire building was always about the money, the flow of goods and control of resources, genocide was rarely necessary, especially in labor intensive pre-industrial economies.

The Neo Bablyonian “empire”, of course, is most renowned in world history for destroying Jerusalem in 587 BCE, and the “captivity” of the Jews, under Nebuchadnezzar II. But he was only doing what every other emperor was doing.

Egypt and Assyria

Egyptologists categorize the Iron Age era when the Neo Assyrians were flourishin as the Third Intermediate Period, about 1069 BCE to 653 BCE.

Third Intermediate Period pharaohs succeeded the last ruler of the New Kingdom, Rameses XI, who perished in 1078 BCE. He was a descendant of Rameses the Great, or Rameses II, who had ruled from 1303 BCE to 1213 BCE. Rameses II is the pharaoh associated with the story of Moses and Exodus.

Assyrian history and archaeology is generally sorted into four periods.

Early or Pre-Assyrian Period, 2600- 2025 BCE.
Old Assyrian Period, 2025 BCE to 1364 BCE
Middle Assyrian Period, 1363 BCE -912 BCE
Neo-Assyrian Period, 911 BCE – 609 BCE
The roots and a very brief synopis of the Assyrians

The first Assyrian ruler or king is uncertain but the consensus points to Puzur-Ashur I, who founded the first independent city state and would become the progenitor of later Assyrian kings.

Prior to establishment of the Old Assyrian dynasty. Mesopotamia had been dominated by the Uruks, and then Akkadian rulers.

The Akkadian Empire existed from 2334 BCE to 2154 BCE, but included two “big names’ and quasi-legendary kings, Sargon I, and Naram-Sin. The history of that early period is fuzzy, almost half legend, some names, dates, artficacts,

The Uruk Era or period, circa 2600 BCE to witnessed the rise of the Akkadian dynasts, but it also produced the famous Epic of Gilgamesh around 2100 BCE.