When were they powerful and where
Beginning of Assyria (2000 BC) The ancient Sumerian city of Assur came under Assyrian control by about
2000 BC, serving as the capital of the Assyrian Kingdom.
Timeline
About 3500 B.C.E the Sumerians settled in a small part of southern Mesopotamia (now Iraq) between
the Euphrates and Tigres Rivers. First people on Earth to live in cities were the Sumerians.
Their cities occupied a region called Mesopotamia (between the Tigris and Euphrates
rivers), formerly only known through biblical names, can be identified on a map of
modern Iraq. The use of the name "Sumer," the “land of Shinar," probably dates from
about the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC. Their history has been reconstructed
mainly from fragments on clay tablets and other evidence uncovered and interpreted by
modern archaeology. After the fall of the last dynasty around 1900 BC, Sumerian scribes
wrote chronicles of their long past. Lists of their kings and accounts edited into later
Babylonian chronicles are all that survive. These claim that their kings go back more
than 240,000 years before and 30,000 years after the Flood. Such figures suggest that
Sumer could be as old as fabled Atlantis and Lemuria. A possible link is that Sumerian,
as one of the few agglutinative languages, does resemble Polynesian. Over five millennia
ago their advanced architecture, using vaults and arches, indicated a long development.
Ancient Mesopotamia (Pre-2000 BC)
The history of Mesopotamia describes the history of the area known as Mesopotamia, roughly
coinciding with the Tigris–Euphrates basin, from the earliest human occupation in the Lower Pal
eolithic period up to the Muslim conquests in the 7th century AD. This history is pieced together from
evidence retrieved from archaeological excavations and, after the introduction of writing in the late
4th millennium BC, an increasing amount of historical sources. While in the Pal eolithic and early
Neolithic period’s only parts of Upper Mesopotamia were occupied, the southern alluvium was settled
during the late Neolithic period. Mesopotamia has been home to many of the oldest major
civilizations, entering history from the Early Bronze Age, for which reason it is often dubbed the cradle
of civilization. The rise of the first cities in southern Mesopotamia dates to the Chalcolithic (Uruk
period), from ca. 5300 BC; its regional independence ended with the Achaemenid conquest in 539 BC,
although a few native neo Assyrian kingdoms existed at different times, namely Adiabene, Osroene
and Hatra.
Beginning of Assyrian empire in 2000 BC Beginning of Assyria (~ 2000 BC): The ancient Sumerian city of
Assur came under Assyrian control by about 2000 BC, serving as the capital of the Assyrian Kingdom.
Babylon Gains Independence from Assyrian Empire (627 BC)
As barbaric tribes from the north and east invaded Assyria, Babylon capitalized upon Assyria's weakened
state, by gaining independence. The ruling Chaldeans (a Semitic people) also proceeded to conquer the
rest of Southern Mesopotamia.