The territory of Assyria has long been thought to have been inhabited only sparsely after the Babylonian and Median devastation of 614-612; the picture Xenophon paints of it in the Anabasis appears to confirm this impression. This paper re-examines the evidence for Assyria in the sixth to fourth centuries, building on recent work and new discoveries. It concludes that the evidence does not bear out this negative impression and that a serious reappraisal of the Assyrian region in the Neo-Babylonian and Achaemenid periods is needed.
The Neo-Assyrian empire (c. 900-612) has bequeathed some of the most magnificent archaeological and textual remains known from the Ancient Near East. That evidence, combined with potent passages in the Old Testament, gives us an impression of a very powerful and wealthy empire, wielding strong control over a prolonged period, which had a profound impact on most regions of the Near East