### q1 timeline of Mesopotamian empires > The history of ancient Assyrian urban states is usually divided up into the Old Assyrian, Middle Assyrian, and Neo-Assyrian periods. The Old Assyrian states are notable for their trade colonies in Anatolia and the importance of their merchants. Assyria was subjugated by the kings of Akkad, and when they fell the kingdom spent another couple of centuries before engaging on campaigns of conquest beginning in the reign of Shamshi-Adad I (19th-18th centuries BCE), conquering the then-powerful state of Mari which was centred in Syria and extending its power into Anatolia. Soon after this, however, Assyria was subjugated by Hammurabi's dynasty of Babylon. The centuries after this are quite poorly known, but when the Mitanni entered Mesopotamia and Syria they seem to have made the Assyrian kings their tributaries from the 15th-14th centuries BCE until Assyria successfully rebelled and restored their own independence. > > Having broken the power of the Mitanni, the new Middle Assyrian empire was able to seize much of their former territory and more. King Tiglath-Pileser I (12th-11th centuries BCE) was able to reach the Mediterranean and subjugate many of the cities of Phoenicia. The Middle Assyrian Empire waned a little after this high watermark but is considered to have transitioned into a new phase, the Neo-Assyrian Empire, with the accession of Adad-nirari II. Exacavations of cities like Nineveh and Nimrud in the 19th century, with their impressive bas-reliefs, monumental sculpture, and cuneiform libraries, triggered the founding of the field of Assyriology in Europe. These are also the Assyrians who appear in the Hebrew Bible, such as Sennacherib seizing the cities of Judah in Isaiah 36 and Tiglath-Pileser III in 2 Kings. Their role in destroying cities and deporting populations as the rod of God's wrath left them with a violent and terrifying legacy in the Abrahamic imagination. - [[Assyrian imperialism#q1 timeline of Mesopotamian empires|View in Vault]]