The rule of Shamshi-Adad I

From around 1813 BCE, Assyria came under the rule of Shamshi-Adad I (ruled c. 1813-1781 BCE), a prince of an Amorite dynasty. He had imperialist

These remains of a ziggurat are located at Nimrud. The city reached the height of its wealth in the ninth century BCE, hundreds of years after it was founded.

Ambitions and conquered an area that extended from Assyria in the east to Mari on the Euphrates River in the west and Babylonia in the south. Ruling from Ashur, Shamshi-Adad established what was probably the first centrally organized empire of the ancient Middle East. At the death of Shamshi-Adad, his son Ishme-Dagan I succeeded to the throne. During Ishme-Dagan’s reign, King Hammurabi of Babylonia captured Ashur, bringing the Assyrian Old Empire to an end. Assyria became part of the Babylonian Empire around 1760 BCE.

Toward the end of the third millennium BCE, a new population group arrived in Mesopotamia. The Hurrians founded large colonies on the upper reaches of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers. These colonies were the forerunners of the Mitanni Empire. By around 1500 BCE, the Hurrian Mitanni kingdom had come to dominate northern Mesopotamia. The kingdom subjugated Assyria, maintaining regional control for the next century, while the Hittites were establishing their rival empire to the north. Around 1363 BCE, while the Mitanni were preoccupied with the Hittites, the Assyrian king Ashur-uballit I successfully attacked the Mitanni and won back Assyrian freedom. This marked the beginning of the Middle Empire.