Neo-Assyrian Empire -- 911 BC to 609 BC
Posted on 11/09/2014 1:06:55 PM PST by SunkenCiv
In the 9th century BC, the Assyrian Empire of northern Iraq relentlessly started to expand into most of the ancient Near East. It reached its height in the early 7th century BC, becoming the largest of its kind in the Near East up to that time. The Assyrian Empire's subsequent quick decline by the end of the 7th century has puzzled scholars ever since. Most ascribe it to civil wars, political unrest, and the destruction of the Assyrian capital, Nineveh, by a coalition of Babylonian and Median forces in 612 BC....
Recently published paleoclimate data show that conditions in the Near East became more arid during the latter half of the 7th century BC. During this time, the region also experienced significant population growth when people from conquered lands were forcibly resettled there. The authors contend that this substantially reduced the state's ability to withstand a severe drought such as the one that hit the Near East in 657 BC. They also note that within five years of this drought, the political and economic stability of the Assyrian state had eroded, resulting in a series of civil wars that fatally weakened it...
Schneider and Adalı further draw parallels between the collapse of the Assyrian Empire and some of the potential economic and political consequences of climate change in the same area today... On a more global scale, they conclude, modern societies can take note of what happened when short-term economic and political policies were prioritized rather than ones that support long-term economic security and risk mitigation.
...adds Selim Adalı. "We, however, have no such excuses, and we also possess the additional benefit of hindsight. This allows us to piece together from the past what can go wrong if we choose not to enact policies that promote longer-term sustainability."
(Excerpt) Read more at phys.org ...
Neo-Assyrian Empire -- 911 BC to 609 BC
Are we sure it wasn’t Bush’s fault?
Salting the earth can have deleterious effects too.
Assyrian SUVs?
I guess all the gas guzzling SUV’s pumping out CO2 back then was a real problem. /sarcasm
Did it happen since the beginning of time up to now? Was it bad, especially for protected minorities? Bush’s fault!
Since the Joooozzz were slaves in the area due to the Babylon Captivity, I suppose we could blame them!
AND Bush, of course! That goes without sayin’.
A bad drought causing a famine is likely to lead to unrest, too.
The Assyrians were the original terrorists. After all the killing, rape, pillage, plunder you run out of things to steal to keep the barbarians afloat.
Thought I would add to the mix with the below:
When and how was Nineveh destroyed? Read more: http://www.gotquestions.org/Nineveh-destroyed.html#ixzz3Ic4wtmSK
Question: “When and how was Nineveh destroyed?”
Answer: Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, was destroyed in 612 B.C. by the Medes. This was in fulfillment of the prophet Nahum’s prediction that God would completely destroy the city (Nahum 1). A number of factors combine to determine both the date and manner of Nineveh’s destruction.
During the prophet Jonah’s day, Nineveh was spared by God’s compassion in response to their repentance (Jonah 3). This happened in 760 B.C.
The book of Nahum was written after the destruction of the Egyptian city of Thebes (Nahum 3:8). That event took place in 663 B.C. when it was conquered by the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal. Therefore, Nineveh was still standing at that time. There is some evidence that Nahum wrote shortly after the destruction of Thebes, because Judah was still under Assyrian control during the time of his writing. This was the situation during the reign of Manasseh (697-642 B.C.) but not during the reign of Josiah (640-609 B.C.). In addition, the city of Thebes returned to power in 654 B.C., meaning that Nahum likely wrote before then. So, Nahum can be dated between 663 and 654 B.C. Therefore, Nineveh must have been destroyed after 654 B.C. but no later than 612, when the Medes are mentioned as the conquerors of the city.
An ancient account called The Fall of Nineveh Chronicle reveals an account of this time period, providing firsthand, extra-biblical documentation. The translation (with some missing text) reads as follows:
“The king of Akkad mustered his army and marched to Assyria. The king of the Medes marched towards the king of Akkad and they met one another at [...]u. The king of Akkad and his army crossed the Tigris; Cyaxares had to cross the Radanu, and they marched along the bank of the Tigris. In the month Simanu [May/June], the Nth day, they encamped against Nineveh.
“From the month Simanu until the month Âbu [July/August] -for three months- they subjected the city to a heavy siege. On the Nth day of the month Âbu they inflicted a major defeat upon a great people. At that time Sin-šar-iškun, king of Assyria, died. They carried off the vast booty of the city and the temple and turned the city into a ruin heap The [lacuna] of Assyria escaped from the enemy and, to save his life, seized the feet of the king of Akkad.
“On the twentieth day of the month Ulûlu [14 September 612] Cyaxares and his army went home.” (From http://www.livius.org/ne-nn/nineveh/nineveh02.html#Fall.)
Based on this account, it is clear that the siege of Nineveh came at the hands of the king of Akkad and the king of Media during the summer of 612 B.C. Three months later, the city fell. The king of Assyria died, and the city was plundered until September 14 when the invading army departed. By 605 B.C. the Assyrian Kingdom officially ended, and Babylonia was on the rise.
Despite Nineveh’s great power, the city fell just as Nahum had prophesied. It would not be until the 1800s that archaeologists would excavate portions of the ancient city. Nineveh had indeed been “hidden,” as Nahum predicted long ago (Nahum 3:11).
A drought.
Too many campfires?
This is before the Babylonian Captivity. Nineveh fell in 612. King Josiah of Judah was killed in the battle of Megiddo in 609. The rest of the Assyrian Empire was gone by 605. The Babylonian capture of Jerusalem followed in 587/6.
OK...you KNOW I was being sarcastic, right?
Everyone hated the Assyrians so if the Jews had caused the fall of the Assyrian Empire that would be something to boast about.
And a good boast too!
It might fall upon them to do something similarly “Boastable” in the near future.
Of course not. Must have been "climate change."
they elected a socialist I bet
/bingo
That’s the way it always goes. One day you’re doing great then the next one you lose your As.
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