Scientists have finally read a letter penned 4,000 years ago. Why was there such a long wait? They had to view it without cracking its secure clay envelope. When scientists handle cuneiform documents from Ancient Assyrian and Babylonian times, extra care must be taken to preserve all parts of the artifact from the seal on the outside of the labeled clay envelope to the document within.
Sorya, Iraq -- The modern history of the Assyrians is overshadowed by massacres and genocides. After the Turkish Genocide of 1915 and the Simmele Massacre, the Assyrian people were subjected to another massacre on 16 September 1969, in the remote village of Sorya, in the Zakho district of Nohadra (Duhok) Governorate, in what is now the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.
A woman sat across from me, describing the life she left behind in a few careful sentences. I recognized something in her story from the one my family has been telling me over the course of my life. This recognition is the reason I am fascinated by immigration. We live in tumultuous times, where the topic of immigration is highly controversial.
Each year, as Greek, Armenian and Assyrian communities gather to commemorate the genocides of the late Ottoman period, familiar symbolism appears. Those lost are remembered not only as victims, but as martyrs. This understanding of martyrdom has become one of the most powerful symbols connecting Greek, Armenian and Assyrian communities to their traumatic past.
Baghdede (Qaraqosh), North Iraq -- The sixth Baghdede Youth Festival opened with more than 700 young people taking part in a day of prayer, reflection and communal activities under the theme "Following in the Footsteps of Saint Francis." Held under the patronage of the Syriac Catholic Archdiocese of Mosul and its Dependencies, the festival was attended by Archbishop Mar Benedictus Younan Hanno.
(AINA) -- The Ishtar Gate, currently housed at the Pergamon Museum in Germany, was a monumental gate to the inner city of ancient Babylon. It was built circa 575 BC by King Nebuchadnezzar II and was dedicated to the goddess Ishtar. The gate is famous for its bright blue glazed bricks and its symbolic animal designs.
Liege, Belgium -- The European Syriac Union (ESU) will hold the fourth edition of its Sayfo exhibition in Liege this month. The exhibition titled Sayfo 1915: Le peuple syriaque, histoire d'un génocide oublié (Sayfo 1915: The Assyrian People -- The Story of a Forgotten Genocide) is scheduled to open this Saturday, 12 September, at the local Church of Sainte-Marie des Anges.
Syria's Minister of Social Affairs and Labor Hind Kabawat said the country's new constitution must guarantee equality before the law for all Syrians and ensure the participation of religious and ethnic groups in political life. She said such provisions would be crucial to rebuilding trust in state institutions and curbing emigration, particularly among Christians.
Damascus, Syria -- Gabriel Mushe, member of Syria's People's Assembly and political official of the Assyrian Democratic Organization (ADO), has called for legislation recognizing the Assyrian language and safeguarding the cultural and linguistic rights of Syriacs (Arameans-Assyrians-Chaldeans) in Syria.
Rijsen, Netherlands -- The first thing heard on a Sunday morning at the Syriac Orthodox Church of St. Ignatius Nurono is not Dutch. It is Syriac, part of the Aramaic language family. This ancient language rises with the incense, carried through the church in hymns whose words have been sung by generations of Christians long before the community's families ever arrived in the Netherlands.
What the world knows about the Assyrian empire, it mostly knows from kings. The palace reliefs and the royal inscriptions that shaped that picture came out of one raised mound inside a city called Nimrud, where Austen Henry Layard put his first trenches in 1845. Around that mound lies a walled town of about 340 hectares, roughly the ground area of New York's Central Park.
Ankara -- The exclusion of Sabro, an Assyrian newspaper published in Merde (Mardin), from a financial support programme for minority newspapers run by Turkey's Press Advertising Agency (BIK) remains unexplained on legal or administrative grounds.
(AINA) -- The Ishtar Gate, currently housed at the Pergamon Museum in Germany, was a monumental gate to the inner city of ancient Babylon. It was built circa 575 BC by King Nebuchadnezzar II and was dedicated to the goddess Ishtar. The gate is famous for its bright blue glazed bricks and its symbolic animal designs.
(AINA) -- The historical relationship between the designations Assyria, Syria, and Syriac has long occupied a central place in discussions of Near Eastern history, historical linguistics, and communal identity.
(AINA) -- The Assyrian Arts Institute (AAI) is an organization founded by Nora Betyousef Lacey in 2017 and claims to support Assyrian arts. AAI has sponsored a few events since its founding, including an Assyrian women's choir.
(AINA) -- On July 12 Iraqi president Abdul Latif Rashid repealed the decree recognizing the appointment of Cardinal Louis Raphael Sako as head of the Chaldean Catholic Church and which appointed him to the office of the waqf (وقف), the endowment which oversees all church property. The details of the events leading up to this action are exhaustively covered in this report by MEMRI.
(AINA) -- For decades, the world has heard repeated claims that northern Iraq is a region of stability, security, and coexistence. However, many Assyrians living in their ancestral homeland continue to express serious concerns about intimidation, restrictions on their freedoms, and growing pressures that threaten their ability to preserve their identity, voice, and presence in the land of their...
(AINA) -- Referring to Assyrians solely as "Christians" does not accurately represent an indigenous people with a distinct history, culture, language, and national identity. Christianity is an important part of Assyrian heritage and has played a significant role in Assyrian history, but it does not replace, define, or erase the Assyrian identity.
Stockholm -- The history of the ancient civilizations and peoples of Beth Nahrin (Mesopotamia), whom the Suroyo (Syriac--Aramean--Assyrian--Chaldean) people today regard as their ancestors, successors and continuation, extends far beyond science, inventions, economics, trade, language, and military affairs.
Alongside those early accounting systems, the Mesopotamians developed the world's first spreadsheets, as well as sophisticated banking systems. They also invented the concept of credit -- and, with it, interest-bearing loans.