Assyrians to this day still use the names of ancient Mesopotamian gods and rulers as both first and last names ; Ashur, Hadad, Shamash, Lilitu / Lilith, Sennacherib, Sin ( Shinu ), Sargon, Semiramis, Ishtar and Lamassu for example are still common names, and some months in the Assyrian calendar are named after ancient gods such as Tammuz, and all periods are listed as being blessed by ancient gods.

The Assyrian god Shamash is a counterpart to Shivini.

Aplu, it is suggested, comes from the Akkadian Aplu Enlil, meaning " the son of Enlil ", a title that was given to the god Nergal, who was linked to Shamash, Babylonian god of the sun.

Aplu, meaning the son of, was a title given to the god Nergal, who was linked to the Babylonian god of the sun Shamash.

The city had temples to Nergal ( Babylonian and Akkadian ), Hermes ( Greek ), Atargatis ( Syro-Aramaean ), Allat and Shamiyyah ( Arabian ) and Shamash ( the Mesopotamian sun god ).

How, when or why this occurred is uncertain, but is commonly attributed to a conflation with Babylonian Shamash, who – in addition to being a Sun god – was a judicial figure like Mithra.

" Along these lines, some scholars maintain that later use of the symbol arose from Babylonian mythology in which the juxtaposition of Sin ( moon god, father of time ) and Shamash ( supreme ruling sun god, judge of heaven and earth ) was a metaphor for the cosmic powers given to the Babylonian king to rule.

Shamash ( the Babylonian sun god ) may share some mythological basis with Shamsiel.

It is frequently depicted on cylinder seals and steles, where it is always held by a god – usually either Shamash, Ishtar, and in later Babylonian images also Marduk – and often extended to a king.

Similarly the Sumerian moon god Nanna became the Akkadian Sîn whilst the Sumerian sun god Utu became the Akkadian Shamash.

Version of the ancient star / sun symbol of Shamash

Sippar was the cult site of the sun god ( Sumerian Utu, Akkadian Shamash ) and the home of his temple E-babbara.

Nergal actually seems to be in part a solar deity, sometimes identified with Shamash, but only a representative of a certain phase of the sun.

Balaam, though still a son of Beor, in this narrative is a prophet of Shamash, the Semitic sun god ( The word " shemesh " is still the Hebrew word for " sun ," which in Arabic is " shams ").

There are two public monuments at Al-Dour, a small square fort with round corner towers and a small square temple dedicated to the Semitic sun god Shamash.

Temples to the moon god Sin ( Nanna ) and the sun god Shamash were erected in the 15th century BC.

However, in this context, there is a third element often seen, that being the sun disk of Shamash.

Academic discussion of a star or stars together with crescents in Sumerian representations does not always clearly indicate if they appear in isolation ( the " star and crescent " as such ) or as part of a triad of symbols, " the three celestial emblems, the sun disk of Shamash ( Utu to the Sumerians ), the crescent of Sin ( Nanna ), and the star of Ishtar ( Inanna to the Sumerians )" or " the crescent of Sin ( the moon god ), the star of Ishtar and the ray of Shamash ".

Worship of the sun appears to have been practiced ( see Shamash ).

A carving at the top of the stele portrays Hammurabi receiving the laws from the god Shamash or possibly Marduk, and the preface states that Hammurabi was chosen by the gods of his people to bring the laws to them.

Named for the Sun god Shamash, it opens to the road to Arbil.

The god Shamash sends 13 winds to bind Humbaba, and he is captured.

In other texts Adad / Ishkur is sometimes son of the moon god Nanna / Sin by Ningal and brother of Utu / Shamash and Inana / Ishtar.

If this reflects the god that El refers to in the biblical text concerning Balaam, and the connection between Balaam and Baal Peor is accurate, then Baal Peor can be identified as Shamash.

Dagan, the deity of storms, had an entire temple dedicated to him, as did Ishtar, the goddess of fertility, and Shamash, the Sun god.

Dr. H. V. Hilprecht, Professor of Assyrian at the University of Pennsylvania, dreamed that a Babylonian priest, associated with the king Kurigalzu, ( 1300 B.C. ) escorted him to the treasure chamber of the temple of Bel, gave him six novel points of information about a certain broken relic, and corrected an error in its identification.

The Assyrian empire collapsed due to a bitter series of civil wars followed by a combined attack by Medes, Persians, Scythians and their own Babylonian relations.

Another Semitic etymology compares Assyrian barīrītu, the name of a female demon found in Middle Babylonian and Late Babylonian texts.

In later Assyrian and Babylonian texts, the name Akkad, together with Sumer, appears as part of the royal title, as in the Sumerian LUGAL KI. EN. GIR < sup > KI </ sup > URU < sup > KI </ sup > or Akkadian Šar māt Šumeri u Akkadi, translating to " king of Sumer and Akkad ".

These alleged refugees claimed the ancestry of Sargon of Akkad ( whose dynasty died out some 15 centuries before the fall of Assyria ), they also contradictionally claimed ancestry from Nabopolassar, a Babylonian king of Chaldean extraction who played a major part in the destruction of the Assyrian Empire.

In addition, there is no evidence whatsoever in Assyrian, Babylonian, Median, Persian, Greek or Egyptian records of the time mentioning deportations of Assyrians from their homelands

It also remained the spoken tongue of the indigenous Assyrian / Babylonian citizens of all Mesopotamia under Persian, Greek and Roman rule, and indeed well into the Arab period it was still the language of the majority, particularly in the north of Mesopotamia, surviving to this day among the Assyrian Christians.

* Grayson, Albert Kirk ( 1975 ): Assyrian and Babylonian Chronicles ( ABC ), Locust Valley, N. Y., Augustin ; reed.

Other depictions can be seen in Assyrian, Babylonian ( Today Iraq ) and Hittite art.

Frank Gaebelein observes that " Greek mercenaries and slaves served in the Babylonian and Assyrian periods, some of whom were undoubtedly versed in Greek music and musical instruments.

The Ancient Near Eastern collection also had its beginnings in 1825 with the purchase of Assyrian and Babylonian antiquities from the widow of Claudius James Rich.

A collection of immense importance, the holdings of Assyrian, Babylonian and Sumerian antiquities are among the most comprehensive in the world with entire suites of rooms panelled in alabaster bas-reliefs from highly important sites between the rivers Euphrates and Tigris and include the biblical cities of Nimrud, Nineveh and Khorsabad.

The language used by the Chaldeans was the Babylonian dialect of Akkadian, the same Semitic language, save for slight peculiarities in sound and in characters, as Assyrian Akkadian.

In late periods both the Babylonian and Assyrian dialects of Akkadian ceased to be spoken, and Aramaic took its place across Mesopotamia, and remains the mother tongue of the Assyrian ( AKA Chaldo-Assyrian ) Christians of Iraq and its surrounds to this day.

Babylon was then ruled by a native Babylonian puppet of the Assyrians Bel-ibni, who was replaced by Ashur-nadin-shumi, an Assyrian prince who was murdered by the Elamites and replaced with a native Babylonian puppet Nergal-ushezib.

Bitter fighting continued in the Babylonian heartlands from 620 to 616 BC, with Assyrian forces encamped in the region in an attempt to eject Nabopolassar.

The chariot was quickly adopted by settled peoples both as a military technology and an object of ceremonial status, especially by the Pharaohs of the New Kingdom of Egypt as well as Assyrian army and Babylonian royalty.

While traditionally accepted as the genuine words of Moses delivered on the eve of the occupation of Canaan, a broad consensus of modern scholars now see its origins in traditions from Israel ( the northern kingdom ) brought south to the Kingdom of Judah in the wake of the Assyrian destruction of Samaria ( 8th century BCE ) and then adapted to a program of nationalist reform in the time of King Josiah ( late 7th century ), with the final form of the modern book emerging in the milieu of the return from the Babylonian exile during the late 6th century.

His chief temple at Nippur was known as Ekur, signifying ' House of the mountain ', and such was the sanctity acquired by this edifice that Babylonian and Assyrian rulers, down to the latest days, vied with one another in embellishing and restoring Enlil's seat of worship, and the name Ekur became the designation of a temple in general.

In the Babylonian tale, Enlil's role is taken by Marduk, Enki's son, and in the Assyrian version it is Asshur.

Priestesses held dominion over aspects of Incan, Assyrian, Babylonian, Slavonic, Roman, Greek, Indian, and Iroquoian religions in the millennia prior to the inception of Patriarchal religion.