Large cuneiform foundation prism
referring to Sargon II, Khorsabad,
720-704 BC - source National
Museum of Iraq, Baghdad

As before, the history of the region is based significantly on the libraries of clay tablets usually found in the palaces of the great Mesopotamian rulers. A large eight-sided cuneiform prism 10“ high has been dated to the reign of Sargon II; another six-sided prism dated to 691 BC describes the first eight campaigns of Sennacherib and refers to 200,000 people being deported from Judah. The library of the Assyrian king, Ashurbanipal, at Nineveh had as many as 20,000 clay tablets, written in the Assyrian language using cuneiform script, dealing with most aspects of contemporary life. It includes the story of Gilgamesh, an account of the creation, and another of the great flood.

As previously mentioned, around 750 BC some of the tribes of Indo-Aryan Cimmerian horsemen from the Russian Steppes were displaced south via the Caucasus by related Asiatic Scythians. They travelled through Urartu around 715 BC, and then via Phrygia (Anatolia) and onwards to the Aegean by 650 BC. The Assyrians stopped the Cimmerians entering their borders in 680 BC. The Scythians then followed the same route, and the Levantine coastal area was spared by Egypt paying tribute to the Scythians. However, in mid 7^th Century BC, there were constant attacks on Assyria by the Scythians and the developing Medes Empire. Elam revolted again, this time in coalition with Ashurbanipal’s brother who was the semi-independent ruler of Babylonia and this combination sapped the power of the Assyrian Empire. After the death of Ashurbanipal in 627 BC, a Chaldaean called Nabopolassar seized the Babylonian throne and fought off the Assyrians. Babylonian power started to grow and Assyrian power waned further. In 614 BC Median troops took Ashur and signed a treaty with the Babylonians and Scythians. Support from Egypt did not prevent Nineveh and Nimrud falling in 612 BC. In 610 BC Necho II became the new Pharaoh, with Egypt and Babylonia now adversaries. In 605 BC Nabopolassar’s son Nebuchadnezzar II led the combined armies of Babylonia and Media that destroyed the combined forces of Assyria and Egypt, finally ending the Assyrian Empire. In 604 BC Nabopolassar died and Nebuchadnezzar II took over as king of Babylonia.

9.43 The Second or Neo-Babylonian Empire (605-539 BC)

Nebuchadnezzar’s name carved in
stone - courtesy Collector-Antiquities

After taking control of Babylon in 604 BC, Nebuchadnezzar II (which is an Akkadian name) rebuilt the Babylonian Empire. It went on to absorb much of the former Assyrian Empire, including Palestine where Nebuchadnezzar II destroyed Jerusalem after 2 years of siege in 587 BC.  He consolidated his position by marrying the daughter of Cyaxares, the king of Media. Nebuchadnezzar was an aggressive and ruthless king who expanded the Babylonian Empire so it stretched from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean by the time of his death, after a reign of 43 years, in 562 BC.

In this period the tradition of decorating buildings with large panels of glazed, decorated brickwork and tiles reached its peak in Babylon. There the famous processional way and 12m tall Ishtar gate were lined with these large panels depicting more than 700 lions, bulls and dragons. These had been carved and moulded then glazed in colours ranging from white and yellow to dark brown, with a blue/green background.

Neo Babylonian glazed brick panels, dragon
and lion 604-562 BC - source
Archaeological Museum, Istanbul