Introduction

Assyria was one of the great civilizations of the ancient world. Assyrian history is subdivided into three periods, Old Assyrian, Middle Assyrian, and Neo-Assyrian. Assyrian civilization did not unfold in isolation. Throughout its history, it absorbed influences from other regions, which in turn adopted elements of Assyrian culture. From early on, Hurrian culture exerted a strong influence on Assyria. In the first millennium BCE, Aramaean culture made a strong impact on Assyria. The Assyrians interacted also with other people, among them Hittites, Luwians, Urartians, and Elamites, and adopted elements of their cultures. Assyria made no attempt to actively promote its language, religion, and literature outside its core area. The cultural changes effected by Assyrian rule in conquered regions were, as a rule, incidental rather than symptoms of deliberate cultural domination. In the Neo-Assyrian period, Assyria expanded even further, morphing into an empire that dominated much of Western Asia.