Empire of Iron: Unveiling the Brutal Strength of the Ancient Assyrians

The Iron Age was the cultural stage in which civilizations replaced bronze with iron – and it began in the Middle East and Europe about 1,200 BC to 1,000 BC.

It is speculated that the Mesopotamian empire of the Hittites developed iron-working technology, helping to initiate the Iron Age. However, Mesopotamian civilizations had smelted iron sporadically throughout the Bronze Age… But, it wasn’t exploited in a way iron could supplant bronze in the production of tools and weapons.

Thus, the Iron Age did not start with the appearance of iron tools and weapons. It started with the massive usage of iron in daily life and warfare!

The start of a new age

Even after iron weapons were common on the battlefields, not all civilizations instantly switched to iron. Bronze weapons were still in use for centuries after introducing iron because it was initially expensive and difficult to produce because of its higher melting point. So, armies usually had a mixture of bronze and iron weapons.

Only the richer city-states could produce enough iron to substitute their bronze weapons – and the first empire to make this transition was the Assyrian Empire.

The Assyrian Empire was one of the major regional power in Mesopotamia – and one of the world’s earliest empires. They ruled over Mesopotamia from 900 BC to 600 BC and it was located in the northern part of Mesopotamia (currently Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, Syria, and Turkey).

There’s no question that the ancient Assyrians were fierce and powerful people. They conquered vast swathes of territory, and their empire was feared by many.

The Assyrian empire used iron weapons, which were superior to bronze weapons and it was a huge advantage for the Assyrian army.

Their skill at ironworking made them proficient at making weapons cheaply, so more soldiers could use them on the battlefields. This revolutionized warfare!

Iron weapons were sharper and stronger than earlier bronze or stone weapons… And weapons such as swords, spears, and arrows made of iron could pierce through the bronze shields of their enemies effectively.

… But, it took violence to a new level

Iron allowed Assyrians to conquer more lands and create one of the world’s first professional armies.

Even if the Assyrians were excellent negotiators, they were exceptionally cruel at war. The way they treated the citizens of a conquered city-state depended on the choice made by the city’s rulers.

If a city surrendered without resistance, the treatment was less severe and they only had to pay a tribute to the capital of the Assyrian empire, Ashur. The population would keep their life and no one should be harmed.

In case the city ruler fought and defend the city from the Assyrians. The Assyrian army would assault the city.

At first, they tried to cross the walls by escalating, advancing with long ladders against different parts of the walls, distracting and dividing the enemy’s attention, and seeking to find a weak point in the walls. Meanwhile from below, constant discharges of arrows and stones by bowmen and slingers kept the enemy busy.

_{Photo by Hulki Okan Tabak from Pixabay}

The besieged defenders desperately tried to break the ladders and kill Assyrians by hurling down large stones and by discharging their bows and slings. If they were unable to protect the city, the besieged army used to fight man to man with their swords and spears.

In case the escalade failed, Assyrians tried the effect of the battering ram and they could even use seven battering rams in a single siege. All of them were covered with a framework of wood and skins for better protection of soldiers. But of course, battering rams could fail and the besieged army could destroy them with fire, throwing torches at the ram and burning the soldiers inside.

When, at last, the city was taken, the work of demolition began. The complete destruction of the city-state would occur if the city forces a prolonged siege for days or months… And Assyrians showed no mercy at all!

How did they kill their enemies?

In short, they didn’t mess around! They were known for using extreme violence – and their methods of execution were designed to instill terror in those who witnessed them.

Generally, the place was set on fire, all the trees were cut with hatchets, and fruit trees were occasionally taken up by the roots, removed carefully, and planted in the gardens of Ashur.

Meanwhile, there was a general plundering of the city. The Assyrians could do whatever they wanted. They went house to house to loot any valuables, plunder the marketplaces, burn buildings and kill anyone they see. The temples were seized and the images of their gods were broken. If the statues of the gods were made of gold and silver, they were carried off in triumph to show that the gods of the Assyrians were superior.

Everything of value was taken and counted in the presence of royal scribes, who took an exact inventory of the city before it was carried away to Ashur.

On the other hand, the leaders of the captured city were treated with severity. The hands of the responsible for the resistance were manacled, either before them or behind their backs, and they were brought into the presence of the Assyrian king.

Seated on his throne and surrounded by his attendants, he received them, one by one, and pronounced their doom as a spectacle to the Assyrian population. Some of them were sentenced to slavery and some others were executed.

Assyrians employed various ways of executing the captives who were fighting against them. The most common method was impalement. Assyrian soldiers would tie their captives to large wooden stakes and leave them to die slow, agonizing deaths.

Assyrians put a pointed stake in the stomach of the condemned, having fixed the other end of the stake firmly into the ground – and made it enter the body just below the breast-bone until they were completely impaled… And then, the stake was placed vertically to let the condemned slowly die. But, this method of execution was reserved for those who were considered the worst rebels!

Another popular way of executing rebels was by beating their heads with a mace. In this case, the victims knelt and their hands were placed before them, upon a block. Behind them stood two executioners. One of the executioners held the condemned with a cord around his neck, while the second executioner struck him with a furious blow in the head with a mace, smashing the head of the condemned and killing him immediately.

However, sometimes the punishment awarded to the captives was mutilation instead of death. It usually consisted of cutting off their ears close to the head, blinding their eyes with burning irons, or cutting off their nose.

All this was the typical psychological warfare of the Assyrians because they knew it would terrify other cities that might resist an invasion.

In the end, the Iron Age meant the intensification of war and the consolidation of empires to dominate smaller nations with new weapons… And empires like the Assyrians took advantage of iron weapons to conquer almost all of Mesopotamia and establish a new standard in warfare.

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_{Featured image: Assyrian lamassu gate guardian. Public domain.}