Assyrian history for beginners
Five steps through four thousand years
Begin with the people, place the ancient civilisation in context, follow the empires, ask what came after, and meet modern Assyrian communities.
- 1.
Who and where
Meet a living people and locate the ancient Tigris heartland, modern homelands and global diaspora.
Begin here - 2.
Ancient Assyria in context
See how Ashur developed among the interconnected societies of Mesopotamia, Anatolia, Syria and Iran.
Read the geography - 3.
The imperial periods
Follow the Old Assyrian merchant age, Middle Assyrian territorial state and Neo-Assyrian Empire without flattening their differences.
Follow the timeline - 4.
What happened after the empire
Separate the fall of a state from the fate of populations, languages, settlements and memories.
Examine the evidence - 5.
Modern Assyrian communities
Understand churches, languages, names, displacement and the connections between homeland and diaspora.
Meet the present
Ten terms to know
A beginner’s glossary
These definitions open the subject; individual articles explain the evidence and exceptions.
- Akkadian
- An East Semitic language used in ancient Assyria and Babylonia; Assyrian was one of its dialect traditions.
- Aramaic
- A Northwest Semitic language family that spread widely during and after the Assyrian imperial period.
- Ashur / Aššur
- The ancient city, its principal god and—depending on context—the Assyrian land or state.
- Cuneiform
- A wedge-shaped writing system used for several languages; it is not itself a language.
- Diaspora
- Communities living away from a historical homeland while maintaining varied connections across borders.
- Lamassu
- A monumental protective figure with a human head, animal body and wings, placed at important gateways.
- Neo-Aramaic
- Modern Aramaic languages and varieties, including North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic and Surayt/Turoyo.
- Neo-Assyrian
- The scholarly name for Assyria’s first-millennium imperial phase, conventionally beginning in 934 or 911 BCE.
- Sayfo
- “Sword” in Syriac/Neo-Aramaic; a communal name for the First World War-era genocide.
- Syriac
- A classical Aramaic literary language and an adjective for related churches, literature and living identities.
Go deeper
Your first three reads
Who are the Assyrians?
Assyrians are a living people rooted in northern Mesopotamia, with ancient historical connections, Neo-Aramaic and Syriac traditions, and a global diaspora.
Read article Ancient history · 6 minAncient Assyria timeline
Follow Assyria from the city of Ashur and its merchant networks to a territorial empire, the fall of Nineveh, and life after the kings.
Read article Modern history · 6 minDo Assyrians still exist?
Yes. Assyrians live in Middle Eastern homelands and a global diaspora, maintaining varied identities, institutions, languages and cultural traditions.
Read article