PERIOD GUIDE · Mesopotamia
The Met's timeline dates the Neo-Assyrian empire about 911-612 BCE. Beside it, the timeline lists a separate Babylonian sequence, which the site does not copy onto this page.
Approximately 911-612 BCEMove through the periods
The whole scheme with this period marked; the periods before and after are its neighbours in the row. Boundaries follow the sources and are not to scale.
Objects
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Object · ca. 9th-8th century BCE
An ivory furniture plaque excavated in 1962 at Fort Shalmaneser, Nimrud: two sphinxes flanking a cartouche. The record attributes the style to the Phoenician and notes that none of the inlays survived.
Dated to this period by its source record.
Open the objectTrails · Museums
Trails that pass through an object of this period, and the museums that display its objects according to the records. Every chain is documented and labelled as such.
Trails through the period
Reading trail
What attests to trade and what only looks like it: a jar from the Levant, two vessels from Cyprus, ivory from Nimrud and ivories from Jerusalem. Six steps, each with what its record knows and what it does not.
Passes through Ivory plaque from Nimrud with two sphinxes.
The Met's timeline page for Mesopotamia, 1000 BCE-1 CE, dates the "Neo-Assyrian empire" about 911-612 BCE. The page's events follow its capitals: in 879 BCE Ashurnasirpal II, who according to the page reigned 883-859 BCE, moved the capital from Ashur to Nimrud, ancient Kalhu; Sargon II, about 722/721-705 BCE, built a new capital at Khorsabad, ancient Dur Sharrukin, which took seven years to build; and his son Sennacherib, about 704-681 BCE, rebuilt Nineveh as his capital. Source 1.
In the same list, with no north or south headings, a separate Babylonian sequence appears beside the Neo-Assyrian empire: the "Neo-Babylonian period", about 1000-539 BCE, and within it "Assyrian rule", about 750-625 BCE, followed by the "Neo-Babylonian kingdom", about 625-612 BCE, and the "Neo-Babylonian empire", 612-539 BCE. Assyrian rule thus appears as a chapter within the Babylonian sequence, and the Neo-Babylonian kingdom begins before the end of the Neo-Assyrian empire. The site does not copy the Assyrian frame onto the south: the Babylonian sequence belongs to its own Neo-Babylonian period. Source 1.
Three articles and one object are placed in this period. "Kalhu (Nimrud): the palace of Ashurnasirpal II" looks at the move of the capital in 879 BCE and at how the palace reliefs and inscription present the king. "Dur Sharrukin (Khorsabad): Sargon II's new capital" looks at a capital built over seven years, and at what the source does not say about why it was built. "Ashur: a first capital across six centuries" explains why Ashur's time as capital, which UNESCO dates from the 14th to the 9th centuries BC, is placed only here: it is the only phase the sources date within a single period. The object is the "Ivory plaque from Nimrud with two sphinxes", which the museum dates ca. 9th-8th century BCE and assigns to the "Neo-Assyrian" period. Sources 1, 2, 3.
Source
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The Metropolitan Museum of Art · Checked
UNESCO World Heritage Centre · Checked
The Metropolitan Museum of Art · Checked
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Every card comes from a documented relation or an editorial link. The reason line explains the connection.
The Met's timeline separates a Neo-Babylonian kingdom, ca. 625-612 BCE, from the Neo-Babylonian empire, 612-539 BCE, and UNESCO counts Babylon as capital from 626. The start is therefore double, 626/612, and it overlaps the end of Assyria.
The period that followed.
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