The Assyrians and Babylonians could not have known that their great gods Ashur and Marduk, along with the other deities they worshiped, would be largely forgotten in modern times; or that the god of the people they defeated, the Israelites, would be worshiped by hundreds of millions of people. Yet thanks to the Israelites and their holy book, the Old Testament, the memory of those two nations was preserved throughout the Middle Ages (a. d. 500-1500) By contrast, Sumer, though its city Ur was mentioned in the Book of Genesis, would be lost to history for many centuries.
In 1842, archaeologists from several countries who had been conducting an excavation (ex-cuh-VAY-shun), or archaeological dig, on Assyrian sites found a set of tablets in Akkadian cuneiform. Because the Assyrians had retained use of Akkadian for a time, the archaeologists knew how to interpret the writing, but parts of the tablets bore another language they could not identify. Gradually they became aware of a culture older than that of Akkad, and over time they conducted a series of excavations at Ur and other cities.
These archaeological digs, which continue to the present day, have established much of the region's early history, but the archaeologists have faced several problems. Sumerian inscriptions were on clay, which is much less durable than stone. Also they have had to deal with the Mesopotamian practice of building on top of the ruins of past buildings. Thus many of these archaeological sites are in the form of tells, or small mounds of earth heaped over layers of ruins.
The digging up of Assyria began much earlier than that of Sumer, and the recovery of Babylonia followed excavations at Nineveh and other Assyrian cities. Between 1899 and 1917, a team of German archaeologists was able to uncover most of the layers that represented the empire of Nebuchadnezzar. They
Fertile Crescent (land between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in the Middle East. Corbis. Reproduced by permission.
Even reconstructed the Ishtar Gate, which stands in the Perga-mum Museum in Berlin. Flooding from the Euphrates, however, prevented them from reaching the level of Hammurabi's era.
Viewing the landscape of modern Iraq, it is perhaps hard to believe that this region was once called the Fertile Crescent, a land of lush gardens and fruit trees maintained by the extensive irrigation systems of the various Mesopotamian peoples. The delta of the Euphrates in southern Iraq is still green in many places, but the constant fighting in ancient times destroyed most of the irrigation systems, and much of the country is dry, rocky desert.
Yet Mesopotamia lives on in modern culture, in the Gil-gamesh Epic and in Hammurabi's Code, in the days of the week and in the many other aspects of astronomy to which the Babylonians contributed. The building styles of the area, particularly in Assyria, have continued to fascinate architects. Among these was an American, Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959), often
Saddam Hussein, painting on a wall. Archive Photos. Reproduced by permission.
Described as the greatest architect of the twentieth century, who included many Assyrian aspects in his designs.
Likewise it appears that the Romans made use of Assyrian styles in their monuments and other symbolism. Certainly the Romans, who built the greatest empire of the ancient world, must have been fascinated by the Assyrians' talent for warfare, which influenced military tactics for centuries to come. A less distinguished admirer may have been Adolf Hitler (1889-1945), who like the Assyrians waged a kind of “lightning warfare,” as he called it, which stunned the conquered peoples. Architecture in Nazi Germany, too, seems to have reflected Assyrian as well as Roman themes.
In modern times, Saddam Hussein has often been likened to Hitler.
His swift invasion of Kuwait seems to point back to Assyria, but he has clearly identified himself more with the legacy of Babylonia. During the Gulf War, the American media noted the fact that Nebuchadnezzar was his hero: thus, to carry on the theme of legitimacy, Saddam had reached back more than 2,500 years to identify himself with the past glories of his nation. In keeping with his admiration of Nebuchadnezzar's empire, in 1988 he began work on the restoration of ancient Babylon. Archaeologists there are reportedly piecing together the remains of Nebuchadnezzar's palace, Hammurabi's temple, and even the Hanging Gardens.
World History
