The Assyrian Empire

The Assyrian EmpireThis teacher’s pack has been created to encourage and enable teachers of children at KeyStage 2 to choose the Assyrian Empire for their World History Study.The Assyrian Empire dominated the world from Egypt to Iran in the ninth to seventhcenturies BCE. Best remembered for its mighty armies, cities and kings, Assyria also producedinnovative art and the world’s first great library.With the materials in this teachers’ pack—particularly the five prepared lessons—even anewcomer to the subject of the Assyrian Empire can start teaching it and the children willenjoy learning it. The materials can be downloaded in full from roduction. 1Who were the Assyrians and what did they do for us?. 1List of prepared lessons. 2Suggested further lessons. 3Cross-curricular links. 3Web links. 3Bibliography . 3ICT requirements. 4Feedback. 4Map. 5The Enheduanna Society. 6This teachers’ pack was produced as part of the Discover Mespotamia through Storytellingproject 2009-2012, funded mainly by the Heritage Lottery Fund. It was devised by SimonClemenson, a class-room teacher at Elmgrove School in Harrow who studiedthe Sumerian and Akkadian languages and cuneiform script at Birkbeck Collegein the University of London. It was edited by FranHazelton. The design and layout are by InterOfficeCommunications. It is published by the EnheduannaSociety, an education charity with a special interestin Mesopotamia (ancient Iraq).

The Assyrian EmpireIntroductionThe British Museum has one of the greatest collectionsof Assyrian narrative friezes. A great deal can bediscussed and deduced from them. It is stronglyrecommended that any teacher who wishes to teachthe Assyrian Empire visits the British Museum to seethese narrative friezes for themselves. If this is notpossible they can order the British Museum DVD onthe narrative friezes, although there is no substitutefor seeing them first hand.This pack is intended to help teachers plan a sequenceof lessons on the Assyrian Empire. As a means togetting started, five lesson plans are included, withaccompanying resources and Smart Notebook (SNB)files. The lessons can be downloaded from www.zipang.org.uk/teachers/teachers.htmThese five lessons give a taster of the sorts of lessonsthat can be developed about the Assyrian Empireand the Assyrians. Suggestions are given for furtherlessons and on how to make links with other subjectsin the National Curriculum. We hope that whateverextra research you may choose to undertake you willfind both enjoyable and inspiring.More information about the Assyrians can be foundin the thousands of their clay tablets uncovered byenthusiasts and archaeologists. The Assyrians wrotein cuneiform, the earliest known script, originallydeveloped by the Sumerians. The Assyrian languageis a dialect of Akkadian, a Semitic language relatedto Hebrew and Arabic. This became dominant duringthe reign of Sargon the Great, king of the city Akkad.The Assyrian clay tablets are mostly administrative,although we also have literary works.Who were the Assyrians and what didthey do for us?As conquerors of Egypt, the Assyrians are relativelywell known inhabitants of the land between the Tigrisand Euphrates that was named Mesopotamia by theancient Greeks. The boundaries of Mesopotamia areroughly those of modern Iraq and part of easternSyria.The ancient Assyrians started exerting theirauthority over northern Mesopotamia with theirfirst great king Shamshi-Adad I (1813-1781 BCE). Thelast of the Assyrian kings was Assur-uballit (611-609BCE). In 609 he was probably killed during the siegeof Harran, the city he fled to after Nineveh was takenby a combined force of Babylonians and Medes.The power and influence the Assyrians had over othersis symbolised by the colossal human-headed wingedbulls and lions known as lamassu. Pairs of lamassu canbe seen in museums across the globe. They originallystood at the entrances to Assyrian palaces.Much of what we know about the Assyrians comesfrom the narrative friezes that decorated theirpalaces in Nineveh and Nimrud. Many of these arenow in the British Museum. They show the Assyriansconqueroring their enemies and the sheer size oftheir armies. In the ancient world the Assyrian warmachine was well developed and extremely wellorganised. It is believed the Assyrians went to war tocontrol the lucrative trade routes of the area as well asto secure valuable raw materials.Lamassu1

Ashurbanipal: 668-627 BCETaking over from his father Esarhaddon, Ashurbanipal defeated the Egyptians, looting and destroyingthe city of Thebes which never recovered. In about655 BCE Egypt again declared its independence fromAssyria. Because the Assyrian army was busy fightingthe Elamites in the east Ashurbanipal abandoned theattempt to dominate Egypt.The Assyrian king Ashurbanipal had a huge libraryconstructed at Nineveh. It held copies of The Epic ofGilgamesh and the Babylonian creation myth knownby its first two Akkadian words, Enuma elish (When on high ). Discovered by British and Iraqiarchaeologists in 1853, most of the clay tablets fromthis royal library are now in the British Museum.Ashurbanipal was proud of his scribal education andhis great gift to posterity was the royal library inNineveh. When he died there was a power strugglefor an empire that would soon collapse completely,after centuries of being a super-power.The Flood TabletThe Assyrian KingsThree related men are among the best-known of theAssyrian kings. By focussing on these three kings,continuity of events and time can be presented for animportant period of ancient Assyrian history. Sennacherib: 705-681 BCEWhen Sennacherib came to power he moved thecapital of the Assyrian empire back to Nineveh.During his reign Nineveh grew into a huge city. Hebuilt a new palace on the remains of an older oneand it became known as “The Palace without a Rival”.During his ongoing military campaigns he attackedthe rebellious kingdom of Judah and its capitalJerusalem. An account of this attack appears in theBible. His reign ended when he died violently, eitherfrom a stab-wound inflicted by one of his sons, orbecause he was crushed by a falling lamassu.An Assyrian King and his chief Minister Esarhaddon: 681-669 BCESennacherib named his youngest son, Esarhaddon,as his heir. Esarhaddon’s jealous brothers gathered anarmy to defeat him but according to his annals theirarmy deserted them to support him. Esarhaddon’sfirst act as king was to rebuild the city of Babylondestroyed by his father. His greatest militaryachievement was the capture of Memphis anddefeat of the Pharoah Taharqa who fled south. Twoyears after this defeat, Pharoah Taharqa returned toreclaim his throne. Esarhaddon was on his way backto Egypt to confront Pharoah Taharqa when he fellsick and died in Harran. 2010 University of South FloridaPrepared lessons Lesson 1—HistoryComprises lesson plan, SNB file, 2 worksheetswww.zipang.org.uk/teachers/Assyria1.zip Lesson 2—ArchaeologyComprises lesson plan, SNB file, worksheetwww.zipang.org.uk/teachers/Assyria2.zip Lesson 3—Cuneiform writingComprises lesson plan, SNB filewww.zipang.org.uk/teachers/Assyria3.zip2

Bibliography Lesson 4—MythologyComprises lesson plan, SNB file, syrian Activity Book; Lorna Oakes; British MuseumPress. Useful activities for children including a brieflook at understanding cuneiform. Lesson 5—FightingComprises lesson plan, SNB file, 3 worksheets,handout featuring Assyrian rian Palace Sculptures; Paul Collins; BritishMuseum Press. An excellent introduction to theAssyrian Reliefs including the famous lion huntreliefs.Suggested further lessons Assyrian Sculpture; Julian Reade; British MuseumPress. Illustrated text describes how they were foundand what they meant to those that found them.Life of King SennacheribDaily life in the Assyrian EmpireAssyria and King Esarhaddon’s BabylonConquest of EgyptAncient Near Eastern Art; Dominique Collon; BritishMuseum Press. Extensive and full of plenty ofphotographs of art from Mesopotamia.Cross-curricular linksAvoid being an Assyrian Soldier! Rupert Matthews;Book House. A humorous look at life as an Assyriansoldier, perfect for children.Art: Monochrome drawings of Assyrian reliefs can bemade using charcoal. Outlines could be provided toassist those less able. Simple drawings can be madeby younger children of cylinder seals from the period.Cultural Atlas of Mesopotamia; Michael Roaf;Andromeda, Oxford. Full of colourful maps andphotographs of ancient art from the region.Literacy: Diplomatic letters from the period werewritten in the language of the Assyrians, Akkadian.How would the children write a letter to an Assyrianking? Examples of Assyrian phrases can be given tothe children to assist them in this; ‘to my brother,Thus speaks ’ etc.Ishtar and Tammuz: A Babylonian Myth of the Seasons;Christopher Moore; Frances Lincoln. Colourful bookretelling a Mesopotamian myth.Mesopotamia; Julian Reade; British Museum Press. Ageneral introduction to the history of the area.Maths: Children could use the cuneiform system ofnumbers to write their own sums. This could helpchildren to understand why we use place value.Myths from Mesopotamia: Creation, The Flood, Gilgamesh,and Others; Stephanie Dalley; Oxford World’s Classics.Myths passed down to the Assyrians.RE: Sennacherib the Assyrian king marchedagainst Judah and Hezekiah and he sent an armyto Jerusalem. Evidence of this has been found fromthe Assyrian side and in the Bible. How are the twoaccounts different?Pocket Timeline of Ancient Mesopotamia; KatharineWiltshire; British Museum Press: An excellent briefintroduction to the area’s history with an excellentcolourful fold-out timeline perfect for school use.Geography: This speaks for itself. With the Euphratesand the Tigris, Mesopotamia is an excellent examplefor looking at rivers and the importance of water ineveryday life.Stories from Ancient Iraq and Three Kings of Warka byFran Hazelton; The Enheduanna Society. Both bookscontain stories retold from cuneiform texts found inKing Ashurbanipal’s library in Nineveh.Web linksThe Ancient Assyrians; Mark Healy; Osprey Publishing.Contains artist’s impressions of the Assyrian world,excellent for helping visualisation.www.mesopotamia.co.uk An excellent, well-designedsite run by the British Museum for teachersThe Bible in the British Museum; T. C. Mitchell; TheBritish Museum Press. Contains the evidence of thesiege of Jerusalem in 597 BCE. This book is perfectfor background information in R.E. lessons.www.bmimages.com Website showing an extensivecollection of objects from the British Museumknp.prs.heacademy.ac.uk/ A unique source of infor mation about knowledge and power in the NeoAssyrian EmpireThe Hero King Gilgamesh; Irvine Finkel; NTC. A greatbook retelling the Gilgamesh epic for children.The Oldest Cuisine in the World; Jean Bottero;University of Chicago Press. A book that looks atcooking in ancient Mesopotamia.www.zipang.org.uk Zipang are the EnheduannaSociety’s Mesopotamian Storytellers.3