Part XIII

We must now leave Babylonia for a while and turn our attention to the north, for before the Cassite dominion comes to an end (c. 1200 B.C.), we find the rulers of Assyria not only in a position of complete independence of the south, but inaugurating the aggressive policy which in due course, with many turns and twists, to be sure, made them the masters of a large portion of the ancient world world-conquerors in the full sense of the term.

Despite the large advance signalled in our knowledge of the earliest period of Assyrian history as a consequence of the thorough excavations that have been conducted during the past fourteen years by the German expedition at Kaleh-Shergat, ^[1] the site of the ancient capital of Assyria, we are still in the dark as to the origin of the northern state or the manner of its settlement.

The region offers a ready access to the northern hordes always pressing southwards from their mountain recesses, and since the names of some of the earliest personages in connection with the history of Assyria show affiliations with Mitanni names, as, for example, Ushpia, the first builder of the temple at Ashur, and Kikia who built the city wall, we are permitted to conclude that Hittite groups formed a contingent in the earliest settlements of Assyria to which the material found leads us.

Waves of Amoritic migrations or invasions must also have reached Assyria at an early date, and the circumstance that one of the oldest temples in Ashur is dedicated to the god Adad, of Amoritic origin, in conjunction with Ami, the patron god of Uruk who becomes the god of heaven in general, is significant. ^[2] The natural extension northwards of the Euphratean civilization would further tend to bring a steady string of settlers from the south.

The extension of the script and language of Babylonia to Assyria forms naturally the most significant symptom of the spread of the culture produced in the south, for with the script and language went the religious beliefs and practises (adapted so far as necessary to modified conditions), as well as the laws as an inherent element of the religion, deriving their authority direct from the gods. The form in which the culture is passed on is that assumed through the gradual predominance of the Semitic or Akkadian element of the population.

The earliest inscriptions recovered, which take us back to considerably beyond 2000 B.C., are couched in Akkadian, which is perhaps also to be taken as an indication that the movement to the north was largely from Akkad, the centre of the Semitic settlements, rather than from Sumer.

As already pointed out, the new documents found in considerable numbers through the excavations of Kaleh-Shergat enable us to carry back the history of Assyria to several centuries beyond the threshold of the third millennium before this era, but the facts gleaned from these documents, usually brief votive inscriptions, are meagre. We learn the names of early rulers, calling themselves at first patesis, ^[3] who record their activity in building walls or enlarging temples in the city of Ashur dedicated to various gods, as Ashur, Ishtar, Enlil, Anu and Adad and the goddess of the lower world, Ereshkigal.

It is not until we reach the days of Samsi-Adad, son of Ishme-Dagan, whose date may be provisionally fixed at c. 1850 B.C., that we obtain a more definite picture of the internal state of affairs. This ruler already bestows on himself the title "king of universal reign", which the later kings of Assyria so proudly wield and with far more justification. However, Samsi-Adad would assuredly not have used the title without some claim, albeit exaggerated, as a result of conquests made by him.

We find him, as a matter of fact, extending his realm far beyond the natural confines of Assyria. He speaks of subjecting to his control "the land between the Tigris and Euphrates", by which presumably he means Mesopotamia proper to the west of Assyria and which would include the Hittite settlements of Khani in that region. This is confirmed by a tablet found in Tirka, the capital of Khani, speaking of Samsi-Adad's activity in building a temple to Dagan in that centre. He passes still further to the north into the mountain districts of the Lebanon and erects monuments on "the coast of the great sea", by which he means the Mediterranean. ^[4]

To conquer such an extensive territory was no small achievement, and it points to a remarkable advance in power that the rulers of the city of Ashur should be prepared to take up the policy of the old Sumerian kings like Lugalzaggisi and Urukagina, and of Akkadian conquerors like Sargon, Naram-Sin and Hammurapi, to stretch their dominions to the "great sea". Samsi-Adad would not have been able to carry out such a plan but for the weakened condition of the south at the time, where, as we have seen, after the invasion of the Hittites a period of decided decline had set in.

This relationship between conditions in the south and those in the north becomes characteristic for the future; and we will have occasion to see how constantly weakness in Babylonia is taken advantage of by Assyria for an aggressive policy and, vice versa, periods of decline of power in the north are marked by a renewal of strength in the south. With the triumph of the Cassites in Babylonia, a strong central power was once more established and, correspondingly, we find Assyrian rulers unable to follow up the policy of extension inaugurated by Samsi-Adad.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Above, p. 55, seq.

[2]:

The temple is always spoken of as the "house of Anu and Adad".

[3]:

See Messerschmidt, Keilschrifttexte AusAssur (Leipzig, 1911).

[4]:

Hardly the Black Sea as Meyer, Geschichte des Altertums, 1, 2, p. 593. I do not hesitate to identify Lab 'an with Lebanon, and since Samsi-Adad immediately thereafter (col. IV, 13-18) speaks of the "coast of the great sea," he cannot have in mind anything else than the Mediterranean and in all probability at the point where the Dog River enters the Mediterranean.