Timeline Assyria
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History: http://www.acc.umu.se/~robil/assyria/history.html
Ninevah: http://www.nineveh.com/
Overview: http://idcs0100.lib.iup.edu/WestCivI/assyrian.htm
9600BC-8500BC Some dozen villages
piled one on top of the other occupied the site of Jerf el-Ahmar at a
bend of the Euphrates River. In 1999 the area was flooded under the
waters of the Tishrin Dam.
(AM, 11/00, p.56)
9500BC-6100BC The Neolithic site of Abu Hureyra, 40
miles downstream from Jerf el-Ahmar, was flooded under the waters of
the Taqba Dam in the 1970s.
(AM, 11/00, p.58)
2750BC Gilgamesh, a Sumerian King, ruled the city of
Uruk (Babylonia) about this time, which had grown to a population of
over 50,000. Gilgamesh was the subject of many epics, including the
Sumerian "Gilgamesh and Enkidu in the Nether World" and the Babylonian
"Epic of Gilgamesh." In 1844 Westerners discovered an epic poem based
on Gilgamesh on stone fragments in Mosul, Iraq. In 1853 clay tablets
inscribed with the tale were found in Nineveh, the former capital of
Assyria. 5 Sumerian versions were later acknowledged. George Smith
completed his translation of the Epic in 1874. In 2004 Stephen Mitchell
published “Gilgamesh: A New English Translation.” Derek Hines authored
“Gilgamesh.”
(eawc, p.1)(SFC, 12/14/04, p.E4)(ON, 11/07,
p.4,6)(Arch, 5/05, p.16)
2500BC The Jiroft culture (later Assyria, Persia,
southeastern Iran) flourished about this time.
(Arch, 5/04, p.51)
2200BC A statue of the Sumerian king Entemena of
Lagash was made about this time. The head was later lost and in 2003
the remaining body was looted after the fall of Baghdad. In 2006 it was
returned to Iraq’s National Museum.
(SFC, 7/26/06, p.A3)
1300BC Assyria was a middle-eastern empire of this
time.
(MT, 3/96, p.3)
1300BC-1200BC A sprawling Assyrian administrative
center was discovered by Dutch archeologists in 1997 in Rakka, 340
miles north of Damascus. The site included a 15-foot high 2-story
building with 2 bathrooms, 2 toilets and a tiled floor.
(SFC,12/9/97, p.B3)
1000BC-900BC The search for the 10 lost tribes of
Israel, who were dispersed in the tenth century BCE when the Assyrians
conquered part of the Holy Land, is depicted on a CD titled The Myth of
the 10 Lost Tribes, by Creative Multimedia Corp.
(New Media, 2/95, p.84)
900BC-840BC The Assyrians expanded
their empire to the west. By 840 they conquered Syria and Turkey,
territory that had formerly belonged to the Hittites.
(eawc, p.6)
883BC-859BC Ashurnasirpal II. He
established the new capital city of Kalhu (Nimrud).
(AM, 7/00, p.50)
858BC-824BC Shalmaneser II,
Assyrian ruler.
(AM, 7/00, p.50)
812BC-783BC Hada-Nirari III,
Assyrian king enumerated the Philistines among the Palestinian states
conquered by him.
(R.M.-P.H.C.p.63)
810BC-805BC Sammuramat ruled
Assyria as Queen.
(eawc, p.6)
803BC Hadad-Nirari, Assyrian king,
conquers the Palestinian states including the Philistines.
(R.M.-P.H.C.p.63)
800BC Nimrud, capital of Assyria,
500 miles east of Byblos, sample of ivory carving from a piece of
furniture depicting a woman in a window wearing an Egyptian wig.
(NG, Aug., 1974, S.W. Matthews, p.171)
745BC-727BC Tiglath-Pileser III
ruled as the Assyrian king.
(R.M.-P.H.C.p.63)
734BC Rezon of Syria, and Pekah of
Samaria were in league, whereas Ahaz of Jerusalem had become a vassal
of the king of Assyria. The Philistines had attached themselves to the
Syrian league, so that Tiglath-Pileser came up with the special purpose
of sacking Gaza. Hanunu, the king of Gaza, fled to Sebako, king of
Egypt; but he afterwards returned and, having made submission, was
received with favor.
(R.M.-P.H.C.p.63)
732BC Tiglath-pileser III, an
Assyrian, took Damascus and killed Rezin. He then captured many cities
of northern Israel and took the people to Assyria. The Egyptian troops
had at one time joined forces with Damascus, Israel and some other
states to resist Shalmaneser III at Qarqar.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty21.html)
722BC Hoshea, the king of Israel,
sent messengers to Osorkon in Egypt. He was requesting help against
Assyria’s Shalmaneser V. No help was sent. Samaria was captured and the
Israelites were taken away to Assyria. The Assyrians conquered Israel
and left nothing behind. The Hebrew kingdom of Judah managed to
survive. Descendants of the Israelites not exiled by the Assyrians were
later known as the Samaritans.
(eawc, p.7)(WSJ, 10/13/00,
p.W15)(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty21.html)
721-705BC Sargon II ruled as king of Assyria.
(AM, 7/01, p.33)
720BC About this time some Jewish
tribes went missing after being sent into exile by the Assyrians under
Tiglath-Pilesar III. In 2002 Hillel Halkin authored “Across the Sabbath
River: In Search of a Lost Tribe of Israel,” an account of the search
for the lost tribes that included the Gadites, Reubenites and tribe of
Manasseh (Menashe) and its possible relationship to the Kuki-Chin-Mizo
people of Burma.
(WSJ, 8/8/02, p.D10)(SSFC, 8/11/02, p.M2)
713BC Azuri, king of the
Philistine city of Ashdod, refused to pay tribute and endeavored to
stir up the neighboring princes to revolt. Sargon [of Assyria] came
down and expelled Azuri, and established in his stead Azuri's brother,
Ahimiti.
(R.M.-P.H.C.p.64)
710BC Hanunu of Gaza was in the
revolt against the king of Assyria which led to the battle of Raphia,
the first struggle between Egypt and Assyria. Hanunu, the king of Gaza,
fled to Sebako (Shebaka), king of Egypt; but returned and, having made
submission, was received with favor.
(R.M.-P.H.C.p.71)
705BC-681BC Sennacherib, Assyrian
king, also had trouble with the Philistines. Mitinti's son, Rukipti,
had been succeeded by his son Sarludari, but it seems as though this
ruler had been deposed, and a person called Zidka reigned in his stead.
Sennacherib found conspiracy in Zidka, and brought the gods of his
father's house, himself, and his family into exile to Assyria,
restoring Sarludari to his former throne.
(R.M.-P.H.C.p.64)
705BC-681BC At the same time the
Ekronites had revolted against the Assyrian. Their king, Padi, had
remained a loyal vassal to his overlord, but his turbulent subjects had
put him in fetters and sent him to Hezekiah, king of Judah, who cast
him into prison. The Ekronites summoned assistance from North Arabia
and Egypt, and met Sennacherib at El-Tekeh. Here they were defeated,
and Sennacherib marched against Ekron, slaying and impaling the chief
officers. Padi was rescued from Jerusalem... Sennacherib then cut of
some of the territory of Judah and divided it among his vassals...
(R.M.-P.H.C.p.64)
705BC-681BC Sennacherib ruled the
Assyrians and built a new capital in Ninevah where he began to form a
library of Sumerian and Babylonian tablets. He managed to subdue the
entire region of western Asia.
(eawc, p.7)
701BC The Assyrian King
Sennacherib laid siege to Jerusalem.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.16)
700BC-600BC The search for the 10 lost tribes of
Israel, who were dispersed in the tenth century BCE when the Assyrians
conquered part of the Holy Land, is depicted on a CD titled The Myth of
the 10 Lost Tribes, by Creative Multimedia Corp.
(New Media, 2/95, p.84)
689BC Sennacherib destroyed
Babylon, but his son rebuilt it.
(eawc, p.7)
681BC-668BC Esarhaddon, son of Sennacherib became
monarch of Assyria after his father was assassinated.
(R.M.-P.H.C.p.65)
671BC Esarhaddon [of Assyria]
recorded a victory over lower Egypt at the cliff face of the Nahr al
Kalb (Dog River), between Beirut and Byblos.
(NG, Aug., 1974, S.W. Matthews, p.157)
668BC-627BC Ashurbanipal succeeded
Sennacherib as ruler over Assyria. He continued to develop the library
and by the time he finished, there were more than 22,000 clay tablets
collected.
(R.M.-P.H.C.p.65)(eawc, p.7)
662BC The Assyrian Empire
collapsed about this time and Egypt enjoyed about a century of
independence.
(eawc, p.7)
648BC Ashurbanipal destroyed the
newly rebuilt city of Babylon.
(eawc, p.7)
614BC The Babylonians
(particularly, the Chaldeans) with the help of the Medes, who occupied
what is today Iran, began a campaign to destroy the Assyrians.
(eawc, p.8)
612BC Ninevah (Mesopotamia) fell
to the Babylonians. The Chaldeans, a Semitic people, then ruled the
entire region thereby issuing in the New Babylonian period that lasted
to 539BCE.
(NG, Aug., 1974, p.174)
609BC The biblical king Josiah of
Judah was slain on Har (Mt.) Megiddo (root of Armageddon) about this
time when he was betrayed by Pharaoh Necho, whom he had approached to
stop from going to war on the side of the Assyrians against the
Babylonians.
(NG, Aug., 1974, p.180)(WSJ, 4/17/97,
p.A20)(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty26.html)
1853 Hormuzd Rassam (1826-1910),
Mosul-born Assyrian, and Sir Austen Henry Layard (1817-1894), British
archeologist, uncovered ancient Assyrian tablets at Nineveh (Iraq).
Layard published his paper on Assyrian-Egyptian Cross-Dating. By using
seal-impressions of rulers occurring on the same piece of clay, Layard
was able to assign a date to the Assyrian dynasty because the Egyptian
ruler’s reign was firmly dated.
(RFH-MDHP, 1969, p.59)(ON, 11/07,
p.4)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hormuzd_Rassam)
1860 Henry Creswicke Rawlinson
(1810-1895), English diplomat and Assyriologist, authored “Cuneiform
Inscriptions of Western Asia,” the 1st book on deciphering Assyrian
script.
(ON, 11/07, p.4)(http://tinyurl.com/34fg4f)
1872 Dec 3, George Smith,
Assyriologist at the British Museum, presented a lecture before the
Biblical Archeology Society in London, on Assyrian tablets that
described an ancient flood as part of an epic whose hero was named
Gilgamesh.
(ON, 11/07, p.4)
1873 Mar 2, George Smith, British
Assyriologist, arrived at the ruins of Nineveh outside Mosul (Iraq).
Over the next few weeks he found tablets referring to more pieces of
the Gilgamesh story, a record of kings in the Babylonian dynasties, as
well as lists of cuneiform symbols.
(ON, 11/07, p.5)
1874 George Smith (1850-1876),
British Assyriologist, returned to England from Mesopotamia and
completed the translation of the Epic of Gilgamesh.
(ON, 11/07, p.6)
1876 Aug 19, George Smith
(b.1840), British Assyriologist, died of dysentery in Syria. He was on
his way home from a 3rd trip to Mesopotamia. Smith had completed the
translation of the complete Epic of Gilgamesh in 1874.
(ON, 11/07,
p.6)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Smith_(assyriologist))
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