page_title: Achaemenid Assyria
section_title: Kalhu
hierarchical_section_title: Achaemenid Assyria / Athura as part of the Achaemenid Empire / Archaeological findings / Kalhu
caption_attribution_description: English: Xerxes I tomb Assyrian soldier circa 470 BCE
context_page_description: Athura, also called Assyria, was a geographical area within the Achaemenid Empire in Upper Mesopotamia from 539 to 330 BCE as a military protectorate state. Although sometimes regarded as a satrapy, Achaemenid royal inscriptions list it as a dahyu, a concept generally interpreted as meaning either a group of people or both a country and its people, without any administrative implication.
  It mostly incorporated the territories of Neo-Assyrian Empire corresponding to what is now northern Iraq in the upper Tigris, the middle and upper Euphrates, parts of modern-day northwestern Iran, modern-day northeastern Syria and part of southeast Anatolia. However, Egypt and the Sinai Peninsula were separate Achaemenid territories. The Neo-Assyrian Empire collapsed after a period of violent civil wars, followed by an invasion by a coalition of some of its former subject peoples, the Iranian peoples, Babylonians and Cimmerians in the late seventh century BCE, culminating in the Battle of Nineveh, and Assyria had fallen completely by 609 BCE.
  Between 609 and 559 BCE, former Assyrian territories were divided between the Median Empire to the east and the Neo-Babylonian Empire to the west.
context_section_description: Kalhu (Nimrud)'s buildings were dramatically destroyed during the sacking of 614–612 BCE. However, evidence of reoccupation during the "post-Assyrian period" (612–539 BCE) is noted in various areas, including the Palace of Adad-nirari III, the North-West Palace, the Burnt Palace and Nabu Temple complex, Fort Shalmaneser, and the Town-Wall Houses.
  Xenophon passed by Nimrud (which he called Larissa) in 401 BCE along with 10,000 Greek soldiers and described the city as
  a large deserted city… Its wall was twenty-five feet in breadth and a hundred in height, and the whole circuit of the wall was two parasangs. It was built of clay bricks, and rested upon a stone foundation twenty feet high… Near by this city was a pyramid of stone, a plethrum in breadth and two plethra in height; and upon this pyramid were many barbarians (Assyrians) who had fled away from the neighbouring villages.
  Despite Xenephon's description of the city as being abandoned, archaeological evidence seems to show that there was some Achaemenid-period occupation. Phase 3 or H in the Nabu Temple complex and Burnt Palace is described as Achaemenid occupation. They include traces of kilns on the south side of Room 47 in the Burnt Palace, together with red glass ingots and slag, which after a radiocarbon analysis yielded a date of 425 +/- 50 BCE. In the Nabu Temple, a pipe lamp and a group of seven pottery vessels are considered to be "ascribed to the Achaemenid period." There was also some Achaemenid occupation in the South-East Palace: a deep footed bowl, a hemispherical bowl (which is compared with pottery from the Achaemenid village at Susa), and three pottery vessels. Also in the South-East Palace were two "eye of Horus" amulets, often regarded as hallmarks of Achaemenid period material culture. Another eye of Horus amulet has been found in the Town Hall Houses. In the palace of Adad-nirari III, three bronze kohl sticks with castellated heads having been identified as Achaemenid period.
caption: Assyrian soldier in the Achaemenid army circa 470 BCE, Xerxes I tomb, Naqsh-e Rustam .
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