Abstract
Ancient Assyria was one of many states flourishing in the Middle East in the millennia before the beginning of the common era, but the long-lived kingdom was one of the most influential. ‘Introducing Assyria’ looks back at an eventful history that begins in the city of Aššur, founded early in the third millennium bc. It shows that the state emerged in the 9th century bc as the first world empire. Decisions made in the imperial capital cities in present-day northern Iraq influenced lives from the Nile to the Caspian Sea while its political, administrative, and infrastructural heritage profoundly shaped the subsequent history of the wider Mediterranean region and the Middle East.
