Hartmut Kühne | The Collapse of the Assyrian Empire and the Evidence of Dur-Katlimmu

Hartmut Kühne, University Professor at the Institut für Vorderasiatische Archäologie, presents "The Collapse of the Assyrian Empire and the Evidence of Dur-Katlimmu".
The collapse of the Assyrian Empire was the prelude to the end of the Mesopotamian domination of the Ancient Near East in 539 BC to be followed by the Persian hegemony. The metropolitan core region of Assyria laid waste, as is known from extensive excavations in the Assyrian capitals; neither the Babylonian nor the Median successors cared for a reconstruction program. But how did the Assyrian home provinces survive the collapse? This poorly known chapter of history is now elucidated by the long term excavations at Tell Sheikh Hamad (Syria), the Assyrian provincial centre of Dur-Katlimmu. In historiography long thought to have vanished, the Assyrians prove to have lived on, as the archaeological evidence unmistakably demonstrates.
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[@kenfury2441]

I'm going through these lectures at about a rate of one or two a week. Thank you for putting them up, they are appreciated.

[@kevinbyrne4538]

To save you some time: Archaeologists have claimed that the Assyrian empire collapsed and vanished completely. However, Kühne has been excavating the Assyrian city of Dur-Katlimmu, and he found there cuneiform documents in Assyrian dating to the period after the "collapse" of the Assyrian empire. So the Assyrians did not vanish after the collapse.

[@timedmonds3]

There are Millions of Assyrians living abroad. More than enough to restart as a Nation.

[@nozoto]

No, the Assyrians definitely didn't meet the same fate as the Sumerians. In its time, Ur III's empire not only collapsed, but after that Sumer ceased to exist as civilization as well. I didn't know the Oriental Institute has a youtube channel with lectures on. I am happy I found it, while making research around Nergal-Eresh as a governor of this region.

[@jfk8540]

@@timedmonds3you know the assyrian empire was last around almost 3,000 years ago… the cultural and ethnic heritage of modern people in and from that region is completely removed from the assyrians

[@RamanMikhael]

As we Assyrians have been singing for 2600 years, we did not disappear after the fall of the Assyrian Empire, the first super-power. The evidence will continue to prove that, as this lecture does, by the esteemed Hartmut Kühne. The truth will prevail.

[@bozo5632]

I have never dug anything up from the ancient world, but I can testify that I have met several living people with Assyrian names, who call themselves Assyrians, who speak a language they call Assyrian, and who claim to be the same people as the ancient Assyrians. And fwiw, they physically look like the people in ancient Assyrian statuary. Maybe they did go extinct, I couldn't say; but if so, it seems they're not extinct anymore.

[@John-je1if]

28:20 Assyrians and Assyrian culture did not cease to exist. Assyrians still survive today, despite their empire being overthrown

[@philregaz599]

King of mesopotamia nestorianism is a denomination, not an ethnic identity u halfwit.

[@TheObserversTV]

Even though we have unlimited evidence of Assyrian name/activities hundreds/centuries of years before the Western mission in the middle east.. Also, Assyrians never called the church "Nestorian" that is a label by the Roman empire, just like how they labeled Catholic Assyrians as "Chaldeans" in 1553 under Pope Julius III. The Assyrians called the church "eta d' Madenkha" (Church of the east, Church of Assyria) and the patriarchs were titled as (for example) Assyrian Patriarchs such as Mar Addai, Mar Abdisu, Mar Shimun Sulaqa ..etc.. or even the most known by resarchers/scholars, St Ephrem the Great of 308 AD, when he wrote about how he is a proud Assyrian.

[@TheObserversTV]

Hurrians don't even speak a Semitic language, I believe there might've been potential mixing between Hurrian and Assyrian populace in the northern part of Mesopotamia / Southern Anatolia

[@eddemian]

Any historian in Assyriology that does not make the connection between the ancient Assyrians and today's Assyrian communities in the middle east is worse than just a librarian of sorts, but guilty of Genocyde. The disgraceful behaviour of historians and archeologists in the west, has ignorred the Assyrians and therefore, led to the surrounding Arab and Turkish neghbors to commit Genocyde on the Assyrians.

[@goodmorningdenmark3684]

God bless the Assyrian. We thank Mr. Hartmut Kühne for this lecture

[@myoneblackfriend3151]

Good Morning Denmark now I want to see Good Morning Denmark.

[@pauliewalnuts2007]

Assyrian art was also carried into Persian again as it is evident in the ruins of Persepolis. Winged Bulls aka Lamassu are also seen in Persepolis.

[@pauliewalnuts2007]

We Assyrians are still around. Used to be mainly in Iraq, Iran, Syria, and Southern Turkey. But due religious and political turmoil in the our homelands, most Assyrians are now in diaspora. Most have moved out of our ancestral lands into Europe, USA, and Australia. Still speaking and practicing our culture.

[@pauliewalnuts2007]

Nestorian is the practice of Christianity ( Church of East) , it like saying someone is Shi'a or Sunni, Nestorian is not a term of ethnic or national origin. If you are a true Kurd, you know or at least you should know that is the truth. We are just like Israel/Palestine, lived within same areas for thousand of years. So appreciate the history and truth and embrace it.

[@Gamerteamguy]

Bro Assyria literally stopped existing at the destruction of Ashur. The Assyrian culture is long gone. Infact the ruins of Ashur aren’t even in the make believe country of Syria.

[@pauliewalnuts2007]

@@Gamerteamguy Ruins of Ashur are in Iraq, not Syria. And we are still around ☺️

[@Gamerteamguy]

@@pauliewalnuts2007 that’s what I just said and no. The Assyrians haven’t been a culture or ethnic group since the fall of their empire. They were just one city who conquered an empire in a couple generations and fell in a couple of generations. Most of their armies weren’t made out of “Assyrians”. It wasn’t enough time to even build a sizable ethnic group that could persist to this day. The group has been breed out/ breed into other groups.

[@pauliewalnuts2007]

@@Gamerteamguy you are wrong my friend. The whole northern Iraq was comprised of Assyrians, and south were Babylonian. You are right about the army, the Assyrian army was the first that included subject from countries or cultures that they had captured and subjugated.

[@assyriannahrin]

This was great, simply great 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻Thank you Dr.Kuhne

[@LegionarioPersa]

Is this classes?

[@222mozart]

is there a translation into german ???

[@eddemian]

It's worse in German.

[@victorcollazo3951]

So did anybody get the reason for the downfall.... Was it the invasion or internal problems?

[@DidivsIvlianvs]

There's a red house over yonder...

[@reaganjoseph3436]

612 AD they did not cease to exist but converted to Christianity.

[@eddemian]

Thank you Mr, Kuhne. But your lecture left me with more questions than answers. Much of your information is already known, but what is glaringly lacking is Genome studies and DNA results, which would explain much. Also, there is a whole body of work out there for the Hayassa, Hurrian, Vannic, Urartian kingdoms relations with the Assyrians. The Trojan, Babylonian , Egyptian and Israely history has doinated the field. Time to shift to more diverse regions. Siberia remains relatively untouched. Burma, Tailand, Nepal, .... we barely scratched the surface.

[@claudiosaltara8847]

eddemian p: good point about dna studies. That part of the wold a caldron of people from the mountains around Mesopotamia. Were the leaders that created a political entity all related to other Invading people that assumed power in turn. What stuck in my mind from childhood reading is that the Assyrian were cruel people (as if anybody that came after them were not)

[@pauliewalnuts2007]

Assyrian Cuniform was continued to be used by the Persian as is evident in Persepolis.

[@worldwidemapping9314]

Assyria will rise again

[@VeryCoolJeep]

So funny

[@bobSeigar]

You mean America isn't the Post-Modern-Neo-Assyrian Empire?

[@davidhiggins3012]

Wait. I feel there is a line in here that is wrong. I feel Nabopolassar didn't say he was a "son of nobody," the last king of the Neo-Babylonian empire, Nabonidus said that as he wasn't Chaldean. Nabopolassar could trace his ancestry back to the old dynasty of Babylon during the time of Hammurabi.

[@emilmckellar4932]

Interesting subject, but a classic example how not to make your slides nor how to present

[@joeblow2668]

Wow... The Assyrians were completely defeated by the "Lost Tribes of Israel" whom they had taken captive and displaced, the "Lost Tribes" having joined forces with the Medes... they then travelled through the Caucasus Mountains via a path still known as "The Pass of Israel" and when they came out of those mountains they were known as "Caucasians", to the Greeks they were known as Scythians (from Scutha, (tent dweller) from Sukkot... as in "The Feast of Sukkot). This is hidden from the world... Mostly.

[@siegfriedlechler7412]

No: This have been the Sakka, of Japan.

[@tobystewart4403]

Herr Kuhne quotes German academic after academic, all claiming to know when "Assyrian cuneiform" suddenly ended abruptly. It is telling that these people know so much, and can prove absence from an absence of evidence. There is a strong underlying theological reason for this need to explain Assyrian culture and language as distinct from Babylonian. It has to do with the invention of the modern concept of "semitic". The German academics who invented the term semitic, in the late 1700s, did so under the mistaken assumption that Sargon of Akkad had invaded the region from northern lands, presumably Russia beyond the black sea. They presumed he was a different ethnographic type to Babylonians, and so they made a distinction between "semitic" and non semitic people. Ever since, people who want to fantasise about folks who come from the Kingdom of Judea (or not) have been tying themselves in knots trying to claim and prove a meaningful distinction between Assyria and Babylon. There is none. The language is the same. The differences are stylistic at best. We now know Sargon was a cupbearer of the Babylonian King he replaced, and was of the same ethnicity and culture. Semitism is a myth.

[@puccini4530]

Well said.

[@schechter01]

If "Semitism" is a myth then how do you see Arabs & Jews today?

[@Holy_hand-grenade]

I'm interested in the subject matter, but for whatever reason I just find this speaker to be horribly dull.

[@rollandlong1941]

great material, german delivery, haha

[@gunnarkaestle9405]

@@rollandlong1941 Paper on a Poster or Paper on Slides: often too much text

[@eddemian]

I was not going to mentionthat, but really; a High School level production.

[@claudiosaltara8847]

Holy_Hand_Grenade-of-Antioch : it is his English that detracts from the presentation. I know because English is a 2nd language for me. I fell asleep while listening to him. It was no lack of interest by my part because I have been reading bout the subject since I was child. Public speaking is a gift either you have or you don’t.

[@siegfriedlechler7412]

Assyria was a multi-nation state. After the destruction of Nineveh the spiritual center of Sakkar-tar belief, in Nineveh, was destroyed. What had united Assyria was gone. Scythians who helped destroy Nineveh invaded Assyria and mixed with the Assyrians. The Assyrians became part of the Scythians Tyragetae, Massagetae, Teutosak, etc.

[@Iambrendanjames]

Probably a lot of people either knew their identities after being enslaved or forced to resettle. That plus when the place is invaded and conquered, there aren't going to be many people wanting to identify as Assyrian. Especially if it was a genocidal conquest.

[@user-uo6ds4ty7i]

Ну вообще товарищ немного бьется в открытую дверь, доказывая, что Ассирия не была уничтожена под ноль. Вавилоняне уничтожили правящую верхушку Ассирии, но скопировали ее институты и активно ими пользовались.

[@siegfriedlechler7412]

Не следует забывать, что не только вавилоняне, но и ассиро-скифы, жители Ассирии в Сабуре, предали Ассирию и присоединились к Вавилону. Ее звали Сакка, что сегодня означает Япония. Имя Сак... до сих пор широко распространено в Японии.

[@zeebooboo578]

Ashur is the God* the land is Ashur *the people is Ashur *the language is Ashur * Ashur ***Greater

[@YawehthedragondogofEL]

From what I have read it appears that the Assyrians were an extremely cruel and vicious people who worshiped a God of war and brutality. Their art and literature glorified violence and cruelty like none before or since. When their enemies got the upper hand against them they exacted an extreme act of revenge upon their former conquerors, practically wiping them out. Yet reading through the comments it would appear that an Assyrian sense of nationalism remains. Fascinating.

[@philregaz599]

what do u mean? :/

[@atourinabarkho]

It sounds like you've read a lot of propaganda. There has been a lot written about my people to dehumanize us and justify genocide.

[@maryshamon7704]

For a second there I thought she was speaking of the Roman Empire 🤣😂. ((Very similar, don't you think?))

[@claudiosaltara7003]

Atourina Charles , it is strange that I read this in my 3rd elementary class in 1949, I am 80 years old now and I stil remember. It would be revealing to hear from the descendants of the Assyrian how they classify themselves. As an Italian I think I am a Roman, but the Romans were S-O-Bs, thruthfully.

[@fightfannerd2078]

are assyrians white?

[@maryshamon7704]

Semitic people. Not so white.

[@raymondfrye5017]

@@maryshamon7704 They are called: Dark White in Physical Anthropology.Black beards,green or gray eyes. You get the picture.

[@arnelcaballero9938]

catholic bible was telling the truth..

[@moorek1967]

+arnel caballero Which Catholic Bible? Are you referring to the Roman Rite? Please study church history and learn that the Roman Rite is merely only one branch of Catholicism.

[@moorek1967]

juan vasquez You don't know the Roman rite? It is the catechism of the Roman Catholic church. Douay Rheims, Latin Vulgate, New American Standard, the Bishops Bible....just a few. So which Bible are you referring to?

[@juanvasquez5491]

moorek1967 The bible that god put into my hands. I've never heard of any of those.

[@moorek1967]

juan vasquez Oh, then you didn't know that the Bible put into your hands is an evolved book.

[@juanvasquez5491]

moorek1967 I'm fully aware of that fact. I also choose to believe God was fully aware of how the bible would be altered and he looked towards the future when giving down his laws.

[@schechter01]

Let's MAGA! ...that is, _Make Assyria Great Again!_ (You know someone had to say it...)

[@lechandler4041]

Unfortunately more of a professor than a communicator. Needs to take a good speaking course.

[@germansurdey6525]

the day you can make the same speech in German as he did in english, I will clap hands for you ! so please refrain from criticizing something which you could not duplicate ! By the way, english is not my language. I am a french-speaking Swiss.

[@einmannundseinhut7700]

I studied under Professor Kühne, and I can affirm, when he is speaking his german mother tongue he is an excellent narrator. I enjoyed to hear his lectures.

[@theantichrist6524]

The jews are the Assyrians

[@cilliangonzalez8108]

Some of them are.

[@schechter01]

Most of us aren't Assyrian, actually

[@Rhombohedral]

the speaker speaks like a schoolboy doing his first speech practice he got a D for his attempt. the lecture is not fluid at all