Editing Assyria (section)

== Population and society ==

=== Population and social standing ===
{{See also|Assyrian culture}}

==== Populace ====
[[File:Denis Bourez - British Museum, London (8748213226).jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|A neo-Assyrian relief of Assyrians in a procession]]
The majority of the population of ancient Assyria were farmers who worked land owned by their families.{{Sfn|Bedford|2009|p=36}} Old Assyrian society was divided into two main groups: slaves (''subrum'') and free citizens, referred to as ''awīlum'' ("men") or <small>DUMU</small> ''Aššur'' ("sons of Ashur"). Among the free citizens there was also a division into ''rabi'' ("big") and ''ṣaher'' ("small") members of the city assembly.{{sfn|Michel|2017|pp=81, 83}} Assyrian society grew more complex and hierarchical over time. In the Middle Assyrian Empire, there were several groups among the lower classes, the highest of which were the free men (''a’ılū''), who like the upper classes could receive land in exchange for performing duties for the government, but who could not live on these lands since they were comparably small.{{Sfn|Jakob|2017b|p=156}}

Below the free men were the unfree men{{Sfn|Düring|2020|p=101}} (''šiluhlu̮'').{{Sfn|Jakob|2017b|p=156}} The unfree men had given up their freedom and entered the services of others on their own accord, and were provided with clothes and rations. Many of them probably originated as foreigners. Though similar to slavery, it was possible for an unfree person to regain their freedom by providing a replacement. During their service they were considered the property of the government rather than their employers.{{Sfn|Jakob|2017b|p=156}} Other lower classes of the Middle Assyrian period included the ''ālāyû'' ("village residents"), ''ālik ilke'' (people recruited through the ''ilku'' system) and the ''hupšu'', though what these designations meant in terms of social standing and living standards is not known.{{Sfn|Jakob|2017b|pp=156–157}}

The Middle Assyrian structure of society by and large endured through the subsequent Neo-Assyrian period. Below the higher classes of Neo-Assyrian society were free citizens, semi-free laborers and slaves. It was possible through steady service to the Assyrian state bureaucracy for a family to move up the social ladder. In some cases, stellar work conducted by a single individual enhanced the status of their family for generations to come. In many cases, Assyrian family groups, or "clans", formed large population groups within the empire, referred to as tribes. Such tribes lived together in villages and other settlements near or adjacent to their agricultural lands.{{Sfn|Bedford|2009|p=36}}

Slavery was an intrinsic part of nearly every society in the ancient Near East.{{sfn|de Ridder|2017|p=49}} There were two main types of slaves in ancient Assyria: [[chattel slaves]], primarily foreigners who were kidnapped or who were spoils of war, and [[Debt-slave|debt slaves]], formerly free men and women who had been unable to pay off their debts.{{sfn|de Ridder|2017|p=56}} In some cases, Assyrian children were seized by authorities due to the debts of their parents and sold off into slavery when their parents were unable to pay.{{sfn|Michel|2017|p=84}} Children born to slave women automatically became slaves themselves,{{sfn|de Ridder|2017|p=57}} unless some other arrangement had been agreed to.{{sfn|Michel|2017|p=83}} Though Old Babylonian texts frequently mention the geographical and ethnic origin of slaves, there is only a single known such reference in Old Assyrian texts (whereas there are many describing slaves in a general sense), a slave girl explicitly being referred to as [[Subartu|Subaraean]], indicating that ethnicity was not seen as very important in terms of slavery.{{sfn|de Ridder|2017|p=51}}

The surviving evidence suggests that the number of slaves in Assyria never reached a large share of the population.{{Sfn|Bedford|2009|p=36}} In the [[Akkadian language]], several terms were used for slaves, commonly ''wardum'', though this term could confusingly also be used for (free) official servants, retainers and followers, soldiers and subjects of the king. Because many individuals designated as ''wardum'' in Assyrian texts are described as handling property and carrying out administrative tasks on behalf of their masters, many may have in actuality been free servants and not slaves in the common meaning of the term.{{sfn|de Ridder|2017|p=49}} A number of ''wardum'' are also recorded as being bought and sold.{{sfn|de Ridder|2017|p=50}}

==== Status of women ====
[[File:Naqi'a crop.png|thumb|[[Naqi'a]], [[Sennacherib]]'s wife, 8th-7th centuries BC, the most documented woman in Assyrian history.{{sfn|Fink|2020}}]]
The main evidence concerning the lives of ordinary women in ancient Assyria is in administrative documents and law codes.{{Sfn|Bain|2017}} There was no legal distinction between men and women in the Old Assyrian period and they had more or less the same rights in society.{{sfn|Michel|2017|p=81}} Since several letters written by women are known from the Old Assyrian period, it is evident that women were free to learn how to read and write.{{sfn|Michel|2017|p=100}} Both men and women paid the same fines, could inherit property, participated in trade, bought, owned, and sold houses and slaves, made their own last wills, and were allowed to divorce their partners.{{sfn|Michel|2017|p=84}}

Records of Old Assyrian marriages confirm that the [[dowry]] to the bride belonged to her, not the husband, and it was inherited by her children after her death.{{sfn|Michel|2017|p=85}} Although they were equal legally, men and women in the Old Assyrian period were raised and socialized differently and had different social expectations and obligations. Typically, girls were raised by their mothers, taught to spin, weave, and help with daily tasks. Boys were taught trades by masters, later often following their fathers on trade expeditions. Sometimes the eldest daughter of a family was consecrated as a priestess. She was not allowed to marry and became economically independent.{{sfn|Michel|2017|pp=88–89}}

Wives were expected to provide their husbands with garments and food. Although marriages were typically [[monogamous]], husbands were allowed to buy a female slave in order to produce an heir if his wife was [[Infertility|infertile]]. The wife was allowed to choose that slave and the slave never gained the status of a second wife.{{sfn|Michel|2017|p=85}} Husbands who were away on long trading journeys were allowed to take a second wife in one of the trading colonies, although with strict rules that must be followed: the second wife was not allowed to accompany him back to Assur and both wives had to be provided with a home to live in, food, and wood.{{sfn|Michel|2017|p=85}}

The status of women decreased in the Middle Assyrian period, as can be gathered from laws concerning them among the [[Middle Assyrian Laws]]. Among these laws were punishments for various crimes, often sexual or marital ones.{{Sfn|Bain|2017}}{{Sfn|Jakob|2017b|p=157}} Although they did not deprive women of all their rights and they were not significantly different from other ancient Near Eastern laws of their time, the Middle Assyrian Laws effectively made women second-class citizens.{{Sfn|Bain|2017}} It is not clear how strongly these laws were enforced.{{Sfn|Jakob|2017b|p=157}}

These laws gave men the right to punish their wives as they wished. Among the harshest punishments written into these laws, for a crime not even committed by the woman, was that a raped woman would be forcibly married to her rapist.{{Sfn|Bain|2017}} These laws also specified that certain women were obliged to wear veils while out on the street, marital status being the determining factor. Some women, such as slave women and ''ḫarımtū'' women, were prohibited from wearing veils and others, such as certain priestesses, were only allowed to wear veils if they were married.{{Sfn|Jakob|2017b|p=157}}

Not all laws were suppressive against women. Women whose husbands died or were taken prisoner in war, and who did not have any sons or relatives to support them, were guaranteed support from the government.{{Sfn|Jakob|2017b|p=158}} The ''ḫarımtū'' women have historically been believed to have been prostitutes, but today, are interpreted as women with an independent social existence, i.e. not tied to a husband, father, or institution. Although most ''ḫarımtū'' appear to have been poor, there were noteworthy exceptions. The term appears with negative connotations in several texts. Their mere existence makes it clear that it was possible for women to live independent lives, despite their lesser social standing during that period.{{Sfn|Bain|2017}}

During the Neo-Assyrian period that followed, royal and upper-class women experienced increased influence.{{Sfn|Svärd|2015|pp=163–166}} Women attached to the Neo-Assyrian royal court sent and received letters, were independently wealthy, and could buy and own lands of their own.{{Sfn|Bain|2017}} The [[queens of the Neo-Assyrian Empire]] are better attested historically than queens of preceding periods of the culture. Under the Sargonid dynasty, they were granted their own military units. Sometimes they are known to have partaken in military campaigns alongside other units.{{Sfn|Svärd|2015|pp=163–166}}

Among the most influential women of the Neo-Assyrian period were [[Shammuramat]], queen of [[Shamshi-Adad V]] ({{reign}}824–811&nbsp;BC), who in the reign of her son [[Adad-nirari III]] ({{reign}}811–783&nbsp;BC) might have been regent and participated in military campaigns.{{Sfn|Kertai|2013|p=113}}{{Sfn|Svärd|2015|p=167}} Another is [[Naqi'a]], who influenced politics in the reigns of Sennacherib, Esarhaddon, and Ashurbanipal.{{Sfn|Fink|2020}}

=== Economy ===
[[File:Cuneiform tablet case impressed with four cylinder seals Old Assyrian.png|thumb|upright=1.35|An old Assyrian cuneiform tablet from Kültepe recording the repayment of a loan, impressed with four different [[cylinder seal]]s]]
In the Old Assyrian period, a major portion of Assur's population was involved in the city's international trade.{{sfn|Michel|2017|p=80}} As can be gathered from hiring contracts and other records, the trade involved people of many different occupations, including porters, guides, donkey drivers, agents, traders, bakers and bankers.{{sfn|Michel|2017|p=83}} Because of the extensive cuneiform records known from the period, details of the trade are relatively well-known. It has been estimated that just in the period {{Circa}} 1950–1836 BC, twenty-five tons of Anatolian silver was transported to Assur, and that approximately one hundred tons of tin and 100,000 textiles were transported to Anatolia in return.{{Sfn|Düring|2020|p=34}} The Assyrians also sold livestock, processed goods and reed products.{{Sfn|Garfinkle|2007|p=64}} In many cases, the materials sold by Assyrian colonists came from far-away places; the textiles sold by Assyrians in Anatolia were imported from southern Mesopotamia and the tin came from the east in the [[Zagros Mountains]].{{Sfn|Garfinkle|2007|p=66}}

After international trade declined in the 19th century BC,{{Sfn|Garfinkle|2007|p=67}} the Assyrian economy became increasingly oriented toward the state. In the Neo-Assyrian period, the wealth generated through private investments was dwarfed by the wealth of the state, which was by far the largest employer in the empire and had a [[monopoly]] on agriculture, manufacturing and exploitation of minerals. The imperial economy advantaged mainly the elite, since it was structured in a way that ensured that surplus wealth flowed to the government and was then used for the maintenance of the state throughout the empire. Though all [[means of production]] were owned by the state, there continued to be a vibrant private economic sector within the empire, with property rights of individuals ensured by the government.{{Sfn|Bedford|2009|pp=36, 38}}

=== Personal identity and continuity ===
{{Main|Assyrian people|Assyrian continuity}}
[[File:Ashurbanipal wall relief, 7th century BC, from Nineveh, the British Museum.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35 |A 7th-century BC relief depicting [[Ashurbanipal]] ({{reign}}669–631&nbsp;BC) and two royal attendants]]
[[Ethnicity]] and [[culture]] are largely based in self-perception and self-designation.{{sfn|Novák|2016|p=132}} A distinct Assyrian identity seems to have formed already in the Old Assyrian period, when distinctly Assyrian burial practices, foods and dress codes are attested{{Sfn|Düring|2020|p=39}} and Assyrian documents appear to consider the inhabitants of Assur to be a distinct cultural group.{{sfn|Michel|2017|p=81}} A wider Assyrian identity appears to have spread across northern Mesopotamia under the Middle Assyrian Empire, since later writings concerning the reconquests of the early Neo-Assyrian kings refer to some of their wars as liberating the Assyrian people of the cities they reconquered.{{Sfn|Düring|2020|p=145}}

Surviving evidence suggests that the ancient Assyrians had a relatively open definition of what it meant to be Assyrian. Modern ideas such as a person's ethnic background, or the Roman idea of legal citizenship, do not appear to have been reflected in ancient Assyria.{{sfn|Novák|2016|p=132}} Although Assyrian accounts and artwork of warfare frequently describe and depict foreign enemies, they are not depicted with different physical features,{{Efn|The only example of ancient Assyrian art depicting foreigners with different physical features than the Assyrians themselves is the reliefs made in the reign of Ashurbanipal. Possibly influenced by Egyptian art, which did depict foreigners differently, Ashurbanipal's reliefs show Elamites and Urartians as stockier, Urartians with larger noses, and Arabs with long straight hair (in contrast to the curly hair of the Assyrians). Inscriptions and annals from Ashurbanipal's time however offer no evidence that foreigners were seen as racially or ethnically different in terms of biology or [[physiognomy]].{{sfn|Bahrani|2006|p=57}}}} but rather with different clothing and equipment. Assyrian accounts describe enemies as [[Barbarian|barbaric]] only in terms of their behavior, as lacking correct religious practices, and as doing wrongdoings against Assyria.{{Sfn|Bahrani|2006|pp=56–57}}

All things considered, there does not appear to have been any well-developed concepts of ethnicity or [[Race (human categorization)|race]] in ancient Assyria.{{Sfn|Bahrani|2006|pp=56–57}} What mattered for a person to be seen by others as Assyrian was mainly fulfillment of obligations, such as military service, being affiliated with the Assyrian Empire politically, and maintaining loyalty to the Assyrian king. One of the inscriptions that attest to this view, as well as royal Assyrian policies enacted to encourage assimilation and cultural mixture, is Sargon II's account of the construction of Dur-Sharrukin.{{sfn|Novák|2016|p=132}} One of the passages of the inscription reads:{{sfn|Novák|2016|p=132}}

{{Blockquote| quote = Subjects of (all) four (parts of the world), of foreign tongues, with different languages without similarity, people from mountainous regions and plains, so many (different people) as the light of the gods,{{efn|Referring to the sun god [[Shamash]].{{sfn|Novák|2016|p=132}}}} lord above all, supervises, I let dwell inside [my new city] on the command of Ashur my lord [...]. Born Assyrians, experienced in all professions, I set above them as supervisors and guides to teach them how to work properly and respect the gods and the king.{{sfn|Novák|2016|p=132}}}}

Although the text clearly differentiates the new settlers from those that had been "born Assyrians", the aim of Sargon's policy was also clearly to transform the new settlers into Assyrians through appointing supervisors and guides to teach them.{{sfn|Novák|2016|p=132}} Though the expansion of the Assyrian Empire, in combination with resettlements and deportations, changed the ethno-cultural make-up of the Assyrian heartland, there is no evidence to suggest that the more ancient Assyrian inhabitants of the land ever disappeared or became restricted to a small elite, nor that the ethnic and cultural identity of the new settlers was anything other than "Assyrian" after one or two generations.{{sfn|Novák|2016|p=132}}

{{Multiple image
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| footer = The [[Akitu]] festival being celebrated in [[Duhok]] in 2008, and an Assyrian woman celebrating Akitu in 2019
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Although the use of the term "Assyrian" by the modern [[Assyrian people]] has historically been the target of misunderstanding and controversy, both politically and academically,{{Sfn|Butts|2017|p=599}} Assyrian continuity is generally scholarly accepted{{sfn|Novák|2016|p=132}}{{sfn|Benjamen|2022|p=2}}{{Sfn|Parpola|2004|pp=16–17}}{{sfn|Saggs|1984|p=290}}{{sfn|Biggs|2005|p=10}}{{sfn|Travis|2010|p=149}}{{sfn|Jupp|2001|p=175}}{{sfn|Odisho|1988|p=10}} based on both historical{{sfn|Hauser|2017|p=241}} and genetic evidence{{sfn|Travis|2010|p=149}} in the sense that the modern Assyrians are regarded to be descendants of the population of the ancient Assyrian Empire.{{sfn|Benjamen|2022|p=2}}<!-- I.e. they are generally regarded to be the descendants of people who lived under the rule of the Assyrian Empire; Assyrian inscriptions suggest that all people under Assyrian rule who adopted Assyrian culture were officially seen as Assyrians. --> Though the ancient Akkadian language and cuneiform script did not survive for long in Assyria after the empire was destroyed in 609 BC, Assyrian culture clearly did.{{sfn|Novák|2016|p=132}} The old Assyrian religion continued to be practised at Assur until the 3rd century AD, and at other sites for centuries thereafter, gradually losing ground to [[Christianity]]. At [[Mardin]], believers in the old religion are known from as late as the 18th century.{{sfn|Parpola|2004|p=21}}

Individuals with names harkening back to ancient Mesopotamia are also attested at Assur until it was sacked for the last time in AD 240{{Sfn|Livingstone|2009|p=154}} and at other sites as late as the 13th century.{{sfn|Jackson|2020|loc=Chapter 1}} Though many foreign states ruled over Assyria in the millennia following the empire's fall, there is no evidence of any large scale influx of immigrants that replaced the original population,{{sfn|Novák|2016|p=132}} which instead continued to make up a significant portion of the region's people until the Mongol and Timurid massacres in the late 14th century.{{sfn|Filoni|2017|p=37}}

In pre-modern Syriac-language (the type of Aramaic used in Christian Mesopotamian writings) sources, the typical self-designations used are ''ʾārāmāyā'' ("Aramean")<!-- this is not denial of continuity - as is made expressly clear in the rest of the section continuity is supported and suryāyā is regarded to derive from "Assyrian"; this does not mean that the multiple names used in pre-modern sources should not be mentioned  --> and ''suryāyā'', with the term ''ʾāthorāyā'' ("Assyrian") rarely being used as a self-designation. The terms Assyria (''ʾāthor'') and Assyrian (''ʾāthorāyā'') were however used in several senses in pre-modern times; most notably being used for the ancient Assyrians and for the land surrounding Nineveh, and for the city of [[Mosul]], built next to Nineveh's ruins. In Syriac translations of the Bible, the term ''ʾāthor'' is also used to refer to the ancient Assyrian Empire. In the sense of a citizen of Mosul, the designation ''ʾāthorāyā'' were used for some individuals in the pre-modern period.{{Sfn|Butts|2017|p=600}}

The reluctance of Christians to use ''ʾāthorāyā'' as a self-designation could perhaps be explained by the Assyrians described in the Bible being prominent enemies of Israel;{{Efn|This phenomenon does not only apply to the Assyrians; the Christian Greek populace of the [[Byzantine Empire]] in the Middle Ages overwhelmingly self-identified as Romans (''Rhōmaîoi'') rather than Greeks since the term "Greek" was associated with the ancient Pagan Greeks.{{sfn|Cameron|2009|p=7}}}} the term ''ʾāthorāyā'' was sometimes employed in Syriac writings as a term for enemies of Christians.{{Sfn|Butts|2017|p=600}} In this context, the term was sometimes applied to the Persians of the Sasanian Empire. The 4th-century Syriac writer [[Ephrem the Syrian]] for instance referred to the Sasanian Empire as "filthy ''ʾāthor'', mother of corruption". In a similar fashion, the term was sometimes applied to the later Muslim rulers.{{Sfn|Butts|2017|p=601}}

The self-designation ''suryāyā'', ''suryāyē'' or ''sūrōyē'',{{sfn|Benjamen|2022|p=2}} sometimes translated as "Syrian",{{Sfn|Butts|2017|p=601}} is believed to be derived from the Akkadian term ''assūrāyu'' ("Assyrian"), which was sometimes even in ancient times rendered in the shorter form ''sūrāyu''.{{sfn|Benjamen|2022|p=2}}{{Sfn|Parpola|2004|pp=16–17}} Some medieval Syriac Christian documents used ''āsūrāyē'' and ''sūrāyē'', rather than ''āthōrāyē'', also for the ancient Assyrians.{{Sfn|acsya.org|}} Medieval and modern [[Armenian language|Armenian]] sources also connected ''assūrāyu'' and ''suryāyā'', consistently referring to the Aramaic-speaking Christians of Mesopotamia and Syria as ''Asori''.{{sfn|Becker|2015|p=328}}{{Sfn|Butts|2017|p=602}}

Despite the complex issue of self-designations, pre-modern Syriac-language sources at times identified positively with the ancient Assyrians{{sfn|Hauser|2017|p=241}} and drew connections between the ancient empire and themselves.{{Sfn|Butts|2017|p=601}} Most prominently, ancient Assyrian kings and figures long appeared in local folklore and literary tradition{{Sfn|Kalimi|Richardson|2014|p=5}} and claims of descent from ancient Assyrian royalty were forwarded both for figures in folklore and by actual living high-ranking members of society in northern Mesopotamia.{{sfn|Payne|2012|p=|pp=205, 217}} Visits by missionaries from western churches to the Assyrian heartland in the 18th century likely contributed to the Assyrian people more strongly relating their self-designation and identity to ancient Assyria.{{Sfn|Butts|2017|p=602}}

In the context of interactions with westerners who connected them to the ancient Assyrians, and due to an increasing number of atrocities and massacres directed against them, the Assyrian people experienced a cultural "awakening" or "renaissance" toward the end of the 19th century, which led to the development of a national ideology more strongly rooted in their descent from ancient Assyria and a re-adoption of self-designations such as ''ʾāthorāyā'' and ''ʾāsurāyā''.{{Sfn|Butts|2017|p=603}} Today, ''sūryōyō'' or ''sūrāyā'' are the predominant self-designations used by Assyrians in their native language, though they are typically translated as "Assyrian" rather than "Syrian".{{Sfn|Parpola|2004|p=11}}{{Efn|For alternate names and the name debate in the Syriac Christian community, see [[terms for Syriac Christians]]}}