ABSTRACT
Located in what is now northern Iraq, ancient Assyria occupied a central position at the crossroads of important trade routes yet was surrounded by enemies. During the Middle Assyrian period (sixteenth to eleventh centuries BCE), kings gradually centralised power and resources and built an army capable of conquering and holding new territory. At this stage, the army was made up of noble-led chariot units and levies armed with hand-held weapons (bows, slings, swords and daggers). After a period of weakness at the end of the second millennium, the state rebounded aggressively, and by the eighth century BCE, during the Neo-Assyrian period, the army could campaign farther and for longer than its rivals, undertake complex siege operations, take on enemy coalitions in battle and hold hostile territory. While the Assyrians did not revolutionise warfare (they used the same methods, arms and armour as everyone else), they waged it more efficiently. Above all, they realised the military’s wider role as a tool of governance and a vital component of the imperial system. Herein lies the Assyrian Army’s primary historical significance.
