Assyrian Continuity
Assyrians claim that they are the descendants of the peoples that created the great Semitic civilisations of ancient Mesopotamia that absorbed the early Sumerian civilisation, in particular Assyria, Akkad, Babylonia and Adiabene. This claim has numerous supporters amongst modern scholars, for example Robert D. Biggs, as well as those that doubt it or think there was only limited or insignificant continuity. Certainly, there is strong evidence of linguistic continuity. The genetic evidence suggests that modern Assyrians are a homogenous group with a relatively distinctive genetic profile and that it is a probability that they are descendants of their ancient namesakes.
Other historians supporting the view that Assyrians are the descendants of their namesakes include prominent Assyriologists such as Simo Parpola, Richard N. Frye, H.W.F. Saggs, Robert D. Biggs, Giorgi Tsereteli, George Percy Badger, Eden Naby, J.A. Brinkman and Geoffrey Khan. Nineteenth century orientalists such as Austen Henry Layard, Horatio Southgate and Hormuzd Rassam (himself an Assyrian) also supported this view. Geneticists such as Cavalli-Sforza also clearly endorse this position.
Read more about this topic: Syriac Culture, History
Famous quotes containing the words assyrian and/or continuity:
“The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold,
And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold:”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)
“Every generation rewrites the past. In easy times history is more or less of an ornamental art, but in times of danger we are driven to the written record by a pressing need to find answers to the riddles of today.... In times of change and danger when there is a quicksand of fear under men’s reasoning, a sense of continuity with generations gone before can stretch like a lifeline across the scary present and get us past that idiot delusion of the exceptional Now that blocks good thinking.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)