After the destruction of Assyria, a new power emerged from Babylon under Nebuchadnezzar, reshaping the political and cultural landscape of the ancient Near East. This chapter follows the wars, ...

Assyria is located in north Mesopotamia and spans four countries: In Syria it extends west to the Euphrates river; in Turkey it extends north to Harran, Edessa, Diyarbakir, and Lake Van; in Iran it ...

In Lord Byron’s 1821 play “Sardanapalus,” the king of the title laments that the glory of his empire will someday fade into oblivion. “Time shall quench full many a people’s records, and a hero’s acts ...

In his new book “Assyria: The Rise and Fall of the World’s First Empire” (Basic Books), Yale professor Eckart Frahm offers a comprehensive history of the ancient civilization (circa 2025 BCE to 609 ...

What we know about Babylonia is mostly derived from clay tablets. Tens of thousands of these cuneiform texts have been found in the last century and for some periods these tell us a great deal about ...

Archaeologists search for Assyrian artifacts that survived the Isis occupation of Mosul. A moving story of a people reclaiming their cultural heritage after an occupying force tried to erase it.

This 8th-century miniature, by the Spanish monk Beatus of Liébana, depicts the Bible story of Babylonian King Nebuchadrezzar eating grass as divine punishment. Photograph by Granger Collection/Age ...