Editing Assyria (section)

=== Later history ===
{{main|Post-imperial Assyria}}
[[File:Detail._Parthian_stele_from_Ashur,_Iraq._1st_century_BCE_to_1st_century_CE._Museum_of_Archaeology,_Istanbul,_Turkey.jpg|thumb|Detail of a stele in the style of the Neo-Assyrian royal steles, erected in Assur in the 2nd century AD under [[Parthian Empire|Parthian]] rule, by the local ruler [[Rʻuth-Assor]]{{Sfn|Radner|2015|p=20}}<!--The name given in the Wikimedia Commons description, Re'n-tayar, is either erroneous or an alternate transliteration; Radner identifies this figure R'uth-Assor.-->]]

Despite the violent downfall of the Assyrian Empire, Assyrian culture continued to survive through the subsequent [[Post-imperial Assyria|post-imperial period]] (609 BC – {{Circa}} AD 240) and beyond.{{sfn|Hauser|2017|p=229}} The Assyrian heartland experienced a dramatic decrease in the size and number of inhabited settlements during the rule of the [[Neo-Babylonian Empire]] founded by Nabopolassar; the former Assyrian capital cities Assur, Nimrud and Nineveh were nearly completely abandoned.{{sfn|Hauser|2017|p=232}} Throughout the time of the Neo-Babylonian and later [[Achaemenid Empire]], Assyria remained a marginal and sparsely populated region.{{sfn|Hauser|2017|p=236}} Toward the end of the 6th century BC, the Assyrian dialect of the [[Akkadian language]] went extinct, having toward the end of the Neo-Assyrian Empire already largely been replaced by Aramaic as a [[vernacular]] language.{{sfn|Luukko|Van Buylaere|2017|p=314}}

Under the empires succeeding the Neo-Babylonians, from the late 6th century BC onward, Assyria began to experience a recovery. Under the Achaemenids, most of the territory was organized into the province{{efn|Though often referred to as a [[satrapy]] by modern historians,{{sfn|Parpola|2004|p=18}} Assyria appears in Achaemenid royal inscriptions as a ''dahyu''; a term of uncertain implications used to refer to both peoples and geographical locations (not necessarily synonymous with the formal satrapies of the empire).{{sfn|Waters|2014|p=97}}}} [[Achaemenid Assyria|Athura]] (''Aθūrā'').{{sfn|Parpola|2004|p=18}} The organization into a single large province,{{sfn|Parpola|2004|p=19}} the lack of interference of the Achaemenid rulers in local affairs,{{sfn|Parpola|2004|p=18}} and the return of the cult statue of Ashur to Assur soon after the Achaemenids conquered Babylon facilitated the survival of Assyrian culture.{{sfn|Hauser|2017|p=230}} Under the [[Seleucid Empire]], which controlled Mesopotamia from the late 4th to mid-2nd century BC, Assyrian sites such as Assur, Nimrud and Nineveh were resettled and a large number of villages were rebuilt and expanded.{{sfn|Hauser|2017|p=238}}

After the [[Parthian Empire]] conquered the region in the 2nd century BC, the recovery of Assyria continued, culminating in an unprecedented return to prosperity and revival in the 1st to 3rd centuries AD. The region was resettled and restored so intensely that the population and settlement density reached heights not seen since the Neo-Assyrian Empire.{{sfn|Hauser|2017|p=238}} The region was under the Parthians primarily ruled by a group of vassal kingdoms, including [[Osroene]], [[Adiabene]] and [[Hatra]]. Though in some aspects influenced by Assyrian culture, these states were for the most part not ruled by Assyrian rulers.{{Sfn|Parpola|2004|p=20}}{{sfn|Drower|Gray|Sherwin-White|2012}}

Assur itself flourished under Parthian rule.{{Sfn|Parpola|2004|p=20}}{{Sfn|Harper|Klengel-Brandt|Aruz|Benzel|1995|p=18}} From around or shortly after the end of the 2nd century BC,{{Sfn|Schippmann|2012|pp=816–817}} the city may have become the capital of its own small semi-autonomous Assyrian realm,{{Sfn|Parpola|2004|p=20}} either under the suzerainty of Hatra,{{sfn|Radner|2015|p=19}} or under direct Parthian suzerainty.{{Sfn|Harper|Klengel-Brandt|Aruz|Benzel|1995|p=18}} On account of the resemblance between the stelae by the local rulers and those of the ancient Assyrian kings,{{Sfn|Parpola|2004|p=20}} they may have seen themselves as the restorers and continuators of the old royal line.{{Sfn|Radner|2015|pp=19–20}} The ancient Ashur temple was restored in the 2nd century AD.{{Sfn|Parpola|2004|p=20}}{{Sfn|Harper|Klengel-Brandt|Aruz|Benzel|1995|p=18}} This last cultural golden age came to an end with the sack of Assur by the [[Sasanian Empire]] {{circa}} 240.{{Sfn|Radner|2015|p=7}} During the sack, the Ashur temple was destroyed again and the city's population was dispersed.{{Sfn|Radner|2015|p=19}}

Starting from the 1st century AD onward, many of the Assyrians became [[Christianized]],{{Sfn|Donabed|2019|p=118}} though holdouts of the old [[ancient Mesopotamian religion]] continued to survive for centuries.{{sfn|Parpola|2004|p=21}} Despite the loss of political power, the Assyrians continued to constitute a significant portion of the population in northern Mesopotamia until religiously motivated suppression and massacres under the [[Ilkhanate]] and the [[Timurid Empire]] in the 14th century, which relegated them to a local ethnic and religious minority.{{sfn|Jacobsen|2021|p=141}} The Assyrians lived largely in peace under the rule of the [[Ottoman Empire]], which gained control of Assyria in 16th century.{{sfn|Murre-van den Berg|2021|pp=27–28}}{{sfn|Yapp|1988|p=139}}{{sfn|Mack|2017|loc=From the Millet to the Sword}}

In the late 19th and early 20th century, when the Ottomans grew increasingly nationalistic, further persecutions and massacres were enacted against the Assyrians, most notably the ''[[Sayfo]]'' (Assyrian genocide),{{Sfn|Donabed|2019|p=119}} which resulted in the deaths of as many as 250,000 Assyrians.{{sfn|Gaunt|Atto|Barthoma|2017|p=10}}{{efn|The precise number is far from certain since the massacres were poorly documented by the Ottoman government. The Assyrian population prior to the genocide amounted to about 500,000–600,000 people and the generally accepted estimate is that about 50 % of the Assyrian people were killed.{{sfn|Gaunt|Atto|Barthoma|2017|p=10}}|name=gen}} Throughout the 20th century, many unsuccessful [[Proposals for Assyrian autonomy in Iraq|proposals]] have been made by the Assyrians for autonomy or independence.{{Sfn|Donabed|2019|pp=119–120}} Further massacres and persecutions, enacted both by governments and by terrorist groups such as the [[Islamic State]], have resulted in most of the Assyrian people living in [[Assyrian–Chaldean–Syriac diaspora|diaspora]].{{sfn|Parpola|2004|p=22}}