Editing Assyria (section)

=== Early history ===
{{main|Early Assyrian period|Old Assyrian period}}
[[File:Female head from Assur, Iraq, 2400-2100 BCE. Pergamon Museum.jpg|thumb|The head of a female statue, dating to the [[Akkadian Empire|Akkadian period]] ({{Circa}} 2334–2154 BC). Found at [[Assur]], on display at the [[Pergamon Museum]] in Berlin]]
Agricultural villages in the region that would later become Assyria are known to have existed by the time of the [[Hassuna culture]],{{Sfn|Liverani|2014|p=208}} {{Circa}} 6300–5800 BC.{{Sfn|Liverani|2014|p=48}} Though the sites of some nearby cities that would later be incorporated into the Assyrian heartland, such as [[Nineveh]], are known to have been inhabited since the [[Neolithic]],{{Sfn|Garfinkle|2007|p=61}} the earliest archaeological evidence from [[Assur]] dates to the [[Early Dynastic Period (Mesopotamia)|Early Dynastic Period]], {{Circa}} 2600 BC.{{Sfn|Lewy|1971|p=|pp=729–730}} During this time, the surrounding region was already relatively urbanized.{{Sfn|Liverani|2014|p=208}} There is no evidence that early Assur was an independent settlement,{{Sfn|Roux|1992|p=187}} and it might not have been called Assur at all initially, but rather Baltil or Baltila, used in later times to refer to the city's oldest portion.{{Sfn|Lewy|1971|p=731}}

The name "Assur" is first attested for the site in documents of the [[Akkadian Period|Akkadian period]] in the 24th century BC.{{Sfn|Lewy|1971|p=745}} Through most of the [[Early Assyrian period]] ({{Circa}} 2600–2025 BC), Assur was dominated by states and polities from southern Mesopotamia.{{Sfn|Garfinkle|2007|p=63}} Early on, Assur for a time fell under the loose [[hegemony]] of the Sumerian city of [[Kish (Sumer)|Kish]]{{Sfn|Foster|2016|loc=chapter 3}} and it was later occupied by both the [[Akkadian Empire]] and then the [[Third Dynasty of Ur]].{{Sfn|Roux|1992|p=187}} In {{Circa}} 2025 BC, due to the collapse of the Third Dynasty of Ur, Assur became an independent [[city-state]] under [[Puzur-Ashur I]].{{Sfn|Lewy|1971|p=|pp=739–740}}

[[File:KültepeUnterstadt1.jpg|thumb|upright=1.15|The ruins of the [[Old Assyrian period|Old Assyrian]] trading colony at [[Kültepe]]]]
Under the Puzur-Ashur dynasty, Assur was home to less than 10,000 people and likely held very limited military power; no military institutions at all are known from this time and no political influence was exerted on neighboring cities.{{sfn|Veenhof|2017|p=62}} The city was still influential in other ways; under [[Erishum I]] ({{Reign}}{{circa}} 1974–1934 BC), Assur experimented with [[free trade]], the earliest known such experiment in world history, which left the initiative for trade and large-scale foreign transactions entirely to the populace rather than the state.{{Sfn|Lewy|1971|pp=758–759}}

Royal encouragement of trade led to Assur quickly establishing itself as a prominent trading city in northern Mesopotamia{{sfn|Veenhof|2017|p=61}} and soon thereafter establishing an extensive long-distance trade network,{{Sfn|Düring|2020|p=34}} the first notable impression Assyria left in the historical record.{{Sfn|Garfinkle|2007|p=63}} Among the evidence left from this trade network are large collections of Old Assyrian cuneiform tablets from Assyrian trade colonies, the most notable of which is a set of 22,000 clay tablets found at [[Kültepe]], near the modern city of [[Kayseri]] in Turkey.{{Sfn|Düring|2020|p=34}}

As trade declined, perhaps due to increased warfare and conflict between the growing states of the Near East,{{Sfn|Garfinkle|2007|p=67}} Assur was frequently threatened by larger foreign states and kingdoms.{{Sfn|Radner|2015|p=2}} The original Assur city-state, and the Puzur-Ashur dynasty, came to an end {{Circa}} 1808 BC when the city was conquered by the [[Amorites|Amorite]] ruler of [[Ekallatum]], [[Shamshi-Adad I]].{{sfn|Veenhof|2017|p=65}} Shamshi-Adad's extensive conquests in northern Mesopotamia eventually made him the ruler of the entire region,{{Sfn|Garfinkle|2007|p=67}} founding what some scholars have termed the "[[Old Assyrian period#Kingdom of Upper Mesopotamia|Kingdom of Upper Mesopotamia]]".{{Sfn|Van De Mieroop|2016|p=115}} The survival of this realm relied chiefly on Shamshi-Adad's own strength and charisma and thus collapsed shortly after his death {{Circa}} 1776 BC.{{Sfn|Garfinkle|2007|p=68}}

After Shamshi-Adad's death, the political situation in northern Mesopotamia was highly volatile, with Assur at times coming under the brief control of [[Eshnunna]],{{sfn|Veenhof|2017|p=66}} [[Elam]]{{sfn|Veenhof|Eidem|2008|p=30}}{{sfn|Veenhof|2017|p=68}} and the [[Old Babylonian Empire]].{{sfn|Veenhof|Eidem|2008|p=30}}{{sfn|Veenhof|2017|p=68}} At some point, the city returned to being an independent city-state,{{Sfn|Garfinkle|2007|p=69}} though the politics of Assur itself were volatile as well, with fighting between members of Shamshi-Adad's dynasty, native Assyrians and [[Hurrians]] for control.{{sfn|Yamada|2017|p=112}} The infighting came to an end after the rise of [[Bel-bani]] as king {{Circa}} 1700 BC.{{Sfn|Chen|2020|p=198}}{{Sfn|Bertman|2003|p=81}} Bel-bani founded the [[Adaside dynasty]], which after his reign ruled Assyria for about a thousand years.{{Sfn|Frahm|2017b|p=191}}

Assyria's rise as a territorial state in later times was in large part facilitated by two separate invasions of Mesopotamia by the [[Hittites]]. An invasion by the Hittite king [[Mursili I]] in {{Circa}} 1595 BC destroyed the dominant Old Babylonian Empire, allowing the smaller kingdoms of [[Mitanni]] and [[Kassite Babylonia]] to rise in the north and south, respectively.{{Sfn|Düring|2020|pp=41–42}} Around {{Circa}} 1430 BC, Assur was subjugated by Mitanni, an arrangement that lasted for about 70 years, until {{Circa}} 1360 BC.{{Sfn|Düring|2020|p=42}} Another Hittite invasion by [[Šuppiluliuma I]] in the 14th century BC effectively crippled the Mitanni kingdom. After his invasion, Assyria succeeded in freeing itself from its suzerain, achieving independence once more under [[Ashur-uballit I]] ({{Reign}}{{Circa}} 1363–1328 BC) whose rise to power, independence, and conquests of neighboring territory traditionally marks the rise of the Middle Assyrian Empire ({{Circa}} 1363–912 BC).{{Sfn|Düring|2020|p=43}}