III.

Culture and Customs

Assyrian culture resembled that of Babylonia in most respects. Except for the royal annals, for example, Assyrian literature was practically identical with its Babylonian counterpart, and the more cultured Assyrian kings, notably Ashurbanipal, boasted of stocking their libraries with copies of Babylonian literary documents. Social or family life, marriage customs, and property laws all resembled those of Babylonia. The three Assyrian law collections that have been found thus far all have a marked similarity to Sumerian and Babylonian law; the penalties provided for offenders under Assyrian law, however, were often more brutal and barbaric. Assyrian religious practices and beliefs were almost identical with those of Babylonia, except that the Assyrian national god, Ashur, was substituted for the Babylonian god Marduk. The major cultural contribution of the Assyrians lay in the field of art and architecture.

In the 3rd millennium bc, Assyria, like most of the Middle East, came under the influence of the Sumerian civilization to the south. A temple of this period, excavated in the city of Ashur, contained statues remarkably similar in style and appearance to those found in the temples of Sumer. Beginning about 2300 bc, Assyria formed part of the empire of Sumer and Akkad. Following the collapse of that empire about 2000 bc, the Amorites, a nomadic Semitic people from the Arabian Desert, infiltrated and conquered much of Mesopotamia, including Assyria. By 1850 bc Assyrian merchants had colonized parts of central Anatolia (Asia Minor), where they carried on a thriving trade in copper, silver, gold, tin, and textiles.