title: Assyria

text: After the Parthian Empire conquered the region in the 2nd century BC, the recovery of Assyria continued, culminating in an unprecedented return to prosperity and revival in the 1st to 3rd centuries AD. The region was resettled and restored so intensely that the population and settlement density reached heights not seen since the Neo-Assyrian Empire. The region was under the Parthians primarily ruled by a group of vassal kingdoms, including Osroene, Adiabene and Hatra. Though in some aspects influenced by Assyrian culture, these states were for the most part not ruled by Assyrian rulers. Assur itself flourished under Parthian rule. From around or shortly after the end of the 2nd century BC, the city may have become the capital of its own small semi-autonomous Assyrian realm, either under the suzerainty of Hatra, or under direct Parthian suzerainty. On account of the resemblance between the stelae by the local rulers and those of the ancient Assyrian kings, they may have seen themselves as the restorers and continuators of the old royal line. The ancient Ashur temple was restored in the 2nd century AD. This last cultural golden age came to an end with the sack of Assur by the Sasanian Empire 240. During the sack, the Ashur temple was destroyed again and the city's population was dispersed.


title: Assyria

text: Starting from the 1st century AD onwards, many of the Assyrians became Christianized, though holdouts of the old ancient Mesopotamian religion continued to survive for centuries. Despite the loss of political power, the Assyrians continued to constitute a significant portion of the population in northern Mesopotamia until religiously-motivated suppression and massacres under the Ilkhanate and the Timurid Empire in the 14th century, which relegated them to a local ethnic and religious minority. The Assyrians lived largely in peace under the rule of the Ottoman Empire, which gained control of Assyria in 16th century. In the late 19th and early 20th century, when the Ottomans grew increasingly nationalistic, further persecutions and massacres were enacted against the Assyrians, most notably the "Sayfo" (Assyrian genocide), which resulted in the deaths of as many as 250,000 Assyrians. Throughout the 20th century and still today, many unsuccessful proposals have been made by the Assyrians for autonomy or independence. Further massacres and persecutions, enacted both by governments and by terrorist groups such as the Islamic State, have resulted in most of the Assyrian people living in diaspora.


title: Assyria

text: In the Assur city-state of the Old Assyrian period, the government was in many respects an oligarchy, where the king was a permanent, albeit not the only prominent, actor. The Old Assyrian kings were not autocrats, with sole power, but rather acted as stewards on behalf of the god Ashur and presided over the meetings of the city assembly, the main Assyrian administrative body during this time. The composition of the city assembly is not known, but it is generally believed to have been made up of members of the most powerful families of the city, many of whom were merchants. The king acted as the main executive officer and chairman of this group of influential individuals and also contributed with legal knowledge and expertise. The Old Assyrian kings were styled as "iššiak Aššur" ("governor [on behalf] of Ashur"), with Ashur being considered the city's formal king. That the populace of Assur in the Old Assyrian period often referred to the king as "rubā’um" ("great one") clearly indicates that the kings, despite their limited executive power, were seen as royal figures and as being "primus inter pares" (first among equals) among the powerful individuals of the city.


title: Assyria

text: Assur first experienced a more autocratic form of kingship under the Amorite conqueror Shamshi-Adad I, the earliest ruler of Assur to use the style "šarrum" (king) and the title 'king of the Universe'. Shamshi-Adad I appears to have based his more absolute form of kingship on the rulers of the Old Babylonian Empire. Under Shamshi-Adad I, Assyrians also swore their oaths by the king, not just by the god. This practice did not survive beyond his death. The influence of the city assembly had disappeared by the beginning of the Middle Assyrian period. Though the traditional "iššiak Aššur" continued to be used at times, the Middle Assyrian kings were autocrats, in terms of power having little in common with the rulers of the Old Assyrian period. As the Assyrian Empire grew, the kings began to employ an increasingly sophisticated array of royal titles. Ashur-uballit I was the first to assume the style "šar māt Aššur" ("king of the land of Ashur") and his grandson Arik-den-ili ( 1317–1306 BC) introduced the style "šarru dannu" ("strong king"). Adad-nirari I's inscriptions required 32 lines to be devoted just to his titles. This development peaked under Tukulti-Ninurta I, who assumed, among other titles, the styles "king of Assyria and Karduniash", "king of Sumer and Akkad", "king of the Upper and the Lower Seas" and "king of all peoples". Royal titles and epithets were often highly reflective of current political developments and the achievements of individual kings; during periods of decline, the royal titles used typically grew more simple again, only to grow grander once more as Assyrian power experienced resurgences.


title: Assyria

text: The kings of the Middle and Neo-Assyrian periods continued to present themselves, and be viewed by their subjects, as the intermediaries between Ashur and mankind. This position and role was used to justify imperial expansion: the Assyrians saw their empire as being the part of the world overseen and administered by Ashur through his human agents. In their ideology, the outer realm outside of Assyria was characterized by chaos and the people there were uncivilized, with unfamiliar cultural practices and strange languages. The mere existence of the "outer realm" was regarded as a threat to the cosmic order within Assyria and as such, it was the king's duty to expand the realm of Ashur and incorporate these strange lands, converting chaos to civilization. Texts describing the coronation of Middle and Neo-Assyrian kings at times include Ashur commanding the king to "broaden the land of Ashur" or "extend the land at his feet". As such, expansion was cast as a moral and necessary duty. Because the rule and actions of the Assyrian king were seen as divinely sanctioned, resistance to Assyrian sovereignty in times of war was regarded to be resistance against divine will, which deserved punishment. Peoples and polities who revolted against Assyria were seen as criminals against the divine world order. Since Ashur was the king of the gods, all other gods were subjected to him and thus the people who followed those gods should be subjected to the representative of Ashur, the Assyrian king.


title: Assyria

text: The kings also had religious and judicial duties. Kings were responsible for performing various rituals in support of the cult of Ashur and the Assyrian priesthood. They were expected, together with the Assyrian people, to provide offerings to not only Ashur but also all the other gods. From the time of Ashur-resh-ishi I onwards, the religious and cultic duties of the king were pushed somewhat into the background, though they were still prominently mentioned in accounts of building and restoring temples. Assyrian titles and epithets in inscriptions from then on generally emphasized the kings as powerful warriors. Developing from their role in the Old Assyrian period, the Middle and Neo-Assyrian kings were the supreme judicial authority in the empire, though they generally appear to have been less concerned with their role as judges than their predecessors in the Old Assyrian period were. The kings were expected to ensure the welfare and prosperity of the Assyria and its people, indicated by multiple inscriptions referring to the kings as "shepherds" ("re’û").


title: Assyria

text: No word for the idea of a capital city existed in Akkadian, the nearest being the idea of a "city of kingship", i.e. an administrative center used by the king, but there are several examples of kingdoms having multiple "cities of kingship". Due to Assyria growing out of the Assur city-state of the Old Assyrian period, and due to the city's religious importance, Assur was the administrative center of Assyria through most of its history. Though the royal administration at times moved elsewhere, the ideological status of Assur was never fully superseded and it remained a ceremonial center in the empire even when it was governed from elsewhere. The transfer of the royal seat of power to other cities was ideologically possible since the king was Ashur's representative on Earth. The king, like the god, embodied Assyria itself, and so the capital of Assyria was in a sense wherever the king happened to have his residence.


title: Assyria

text: The first transfer of administrative power away from Assur occurred under Tukulti-Ninurta I, who 1233 BC inaugurated Kar-Tukulti-Ninurta as capital. Tukulti-Ninurta I's foundation of a new capital was perhaps inspired by developments in Babylonia in the south, where the Kassite dynasty had transferred the administration from the long-established city of Babylon to the newly constructed city of Dur-Kurigalzu, also named after a king. It seems that Tukulti-Ninurta I intended to go further than the Kassites and also establish Kar-Tukulti-Ninurta as the new Assyrian cult center. The city was however not maintained as capital after Tukulti-Ninurta I's death, with subsequent kings once more ruling from Assur.


title: Assyria

text: The Neo-Assyrian Empire underwent several different capitals. There is some evidence that Tukulti-Ninurta II (890–884 BC), perhaps inspired by his predecessor of the same name, made unfulfilled plans to transfer the capital to a city called Nemid Tukulti-Ninurta, either a completely new city or a new name applied to Nineveh, which by this point already rivalled Assur in scale and political importance. The capital was transferred under Tukulti-Ninurta II's son Ashurnasirpal II to Nimrud in 879 BC. An architectural detail separating Nimrud and the other Neo-Assyrian capitals from Assur is that they were designed in a way that emphasized royal power: the royal palaces in Assur were smaller than the temples but the situation was reversed in the new capitals. Sargon II transferred the capital in 706 BC to the city Dur-Sharrukin, which he built himself. Since the location of Dur-Sharrukin had no obvious practical or political merit, this move was probably an ideological statement. Immediately after Sargon II's death in 705 BC, his son Sennacherib transferred the capital to Nineveh, a far more natural seat of power. Though it was not meant as a permanent royal residence, Ashur-uballit II chose Harran as his seat of power after the fall of Nineveh in 612 BC. Harran is typically seen as the short-lived final Assyrian capital. No building projects were conducted during this time, but Harran had been long-established as a major religious center, dedicated to the god Sîn.


title: Assyria

text: Because of the nature of source preservation, more information about the upper classes of ancient Assyria survives than for the lower ones. At the top of Middle and Neo-Assyrian society were members of long-established and large families called "houses". Members of this aristocracy tended to occupy the most important offices within the government and they were likely descendants of the most prominent families of the Old Assyrian period. One of the most influential offices in the Assyrian administration was the position of vizier ("sukkallu"). From at least the time of Shalmaneser I onwards, there were grand viziers ("sukkallu rabi’u"), superior to the ordinary viziers, who at times governed their own lands as appointees of the kings. At least in the Middle Assyrian period, the grand viziers were typically members of the royal family and the position was at this time, like many other offices, hereditary.


title: Assyria

text: The elite of the Neo-Assyrian Empire was expanded and included several different offices. The Neo-Assyrian inner elite is typically divided by modern scholars into the "magnates", a set of high-ranking offices, and the "scholars" ("ummânī"), tasked with advising and guiding the kings through interpreting omens. The magnates included the offices "masennu" (treasurer), "nāgir ekalli" (palace herald), "rab šāqê" (chief cupbearer), "rab ša-rēši" (chief officer/eunuch), "sartinnu" (chief judge), "sukkallu" (grand vizier) and "turtanu" (commander-in-chief), which at times continued to be occupied by royal family members. Some of the magnates also acted as governors of important provinces and all of them were deeply involved with the Assyrian military, controlling significant forces. They also owned large tax-free estates, scattered throughout the empire. In the late Neo-Assyrian Empire, there was a growing disconnect between the traditional Assyrian elite and the kings due to eunuchs growing unprecedently powerful. The highest offices both in the civil administration and the army began to be occupied by eunuchs with deliberately obscure and lowly origins since this ensured that they would be loyal to the king. Eunuchs were trusted since they were believed to not be able to have any dynastic aspirations of their own.""


title: Assyria

text: From the time of Erishum I in the early Old Assyrian period onwards, a yearly office-holder, a "limmu" official, was elected from the influential men of Assyria. The "limmu" official gave their name to the year, meaning that their name appeared in all administrative documents signed that year. Kings were typically the "limmu" officials in their first regnal years. In the Old Assyrian period, the "limmu" officials also held substantial executive power, though this aspect of the office had disappeared by the time of the rise of the Middle Assyrian Empire.


title: Assyria

text: The success of Assyria was not only due to energetic kings who expanded its borders but more importantly due to its ability to efficiently incorporate and govern conquered lands. From the rise of Assyria as a territorial state at the beginning of the Middle Assyrian period onwards, Assyrian territory was divided into a set of provinces or districts ("pāḫutu"). The total number and size of these provinces varied and changed as Assyria expanded and contracted. Every province was headed by a provincial governor ("bel pāḫete"," bēl pīhāti" or "šaknu") who was responsible for handling local order, public safety and economy. Governors also stored and distributed the goods produced in their province, which were inspected and collected by royal representatives once a year. Through these inspections, the central government could keep track of current stocks and production throughout the country. Governors had to pay both taxes and offer gifts to the god Ashur, though such gifts were usually small and mainly symbolic. The channeling of taxes and gifts were not only a method of collecting profit but also served to connect the elite of the entire empire to the Assyrian heartland. In the Neo-Assyrian period, an extensive hierarchy within the provincial administration is attested. At the bottom of this hierarchy were lower officials, such as village managers ("rab ālāni") who oversaw one or more villages, collecting taxes in the form of labor and goods and keeping the administration informed of the conditions of their settlements, and corvée officers ("ša bēt-kūdini") who kept tallies on the labor performed by forced laborers and the remaining time owed. Individual cities had their own administrations, headed by mayors ("ḫazi’ānu"), responsible for the local economy and production.


title: Assyria

text: Some regions of the Assyrian Empire were not incorporated into the provincial system but were still subjected to the rule of the Assyrian kings. Such vassal states could be ruled indirectly through allowing established local lines of kings to continue ruling in exchange for tribute or through the Assyrian kings appointing their own vassal rulers. Through the "ilku" system, the Assyrian kings could also grant arable lands to individuals in exchange for goods and military service.


title: Assyria

text: To overcome the challenges of governing a large empire, the Neo-Assyrian Empire developed a sophisticated state communication system, which included various innovative techniques and relay stations. Per estimates by Karen Radner, an official message sent in the Neo-Assyrian period from the western border province Quwê to the Assyrian heartland, a distance of 700 kilometers (430 miles) over a stretch of lands featuring many rivers without any bridges, could take less than five days to arrive. Such communication speed was unprecedented before the rise of the Neo-Assyrian Empire and was not surpassed in the Middle East until the telegraph was introduced by the Ottoman Empire in 1865, nearly two and a half thousand years after the Neo-Assyrian Empire's fall.


title: Assyria

text: The Assyrian army was throughout its history mostly composed of levies, mobilized only when they were needed (such as in the time of campaigns). Through regulations, obligations and sophisticated government systems, large amounts of soldiers could be recruited and mobilized already in the early Middle Assyrian period. A small central standing army unit was established in the Neo-Assyrian Empire, dubbed the "kiṣir šarri" ("king's unit"). Some professional (though not standing) troops are also attested in the Middle Assyrian period, dubbed "ḫurādu" or "ṣābū ḫurādātu", though what their role was is not clear due to the scarcity of sources. Perhaps this category included archers and charioteers, who needed more extensive training than normal foot soldiers.


title: Assyria

text: The Assyrian army developed and evolved over time. In the Middle Assyrian period, foot soldiers were divided into the "sạ bū ša kakkē" ("weapon troops") and the "sạ bū ša arâtē" ("shield-bearing troops") but surviving records are not detailed enough to determine what the differences were. It is possible that the "sạ bū ša kakkē" included ranged troops, such as slingers ("ṣābū ša ušpe") and archers ("ṣābū ša qalte"). The chariots in the army composed a unit of their own. Based on surviving depictions, chariots were crewed by two soldiers: an archer who commanded the chariot ("māru damqu") and a driver ("ša mugerre"). Chariots first entered extensive military use under Tiglath-Pileser I in the 12th–11th centuries BC and were in the later Neo-Assyrian period gradually phased out in favor of cavalry ("ša petḫalle"). In the Middle Assyrian period, cavalry was mainly used for escorting or message deliveries.


title: Assyria

text: Under the Neo-Assyrian Empire, important new developments in the military were the large-scale introduction of cavalry, the adoption of iron for armor and weapons, and the development of new and innovative siege warfare techniques. At the height of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, the Assyrian army was the strongest army yet assembled in world history. The number of soldiers in the Neo-Assyrian army was likely several hundred thousand. The Neo-Assyrian army was subdivided into "kiṣru", composed of perhaps 1,000 soldiers, most of whom would have been infantry soldiers ("zūk", "zukkû" or "raksūte"). The infantry was divided into three types: light, medium and heavy, with varying weapons, level of armor and responsibilities. While on campaign, the Assyrian army made heavy use of both interpreters/translators ("targumannu") and guides ("rādi kibsi"), both probably being drawn from foreigners resettled in Assyra.


title: Assyria

text: The majority of the population of ancient Assyria were farmers who worked land owned by their families. Old Assyrian society was divided into two main groups: slaves ("subrum") and free citizens, referred to as "awīlum" ("men") or "Aššur" ("sons of Ashur"). Among the free citizens there was also a division into "rabi" ("big") and "ṣaher" ("small") members of the city assembly. Assyrian society grew more complex and hierarchical over time. In the Middle Assyrian Empire, there were several groups among the lower classes, the highest of which were the free men ("a’ılū"), who like the upper classes could receive land in exchange for performing duties for the government, but who could not live on these lands since they were comparably small. Below the free men were the unfree men ("šiluhlu̮"). The unfree men had given up their freedom and entered the services of others on their own accord, and were in turn provided with clothes and rations. Many of them probably originated as foreigners. Though similar to slavery, it was possible for an unfree person to regain their freedom by providing a replacement and they were during their service considered the property of the government rather than their employers. Other lower classes of the Middle Assyrian period included the "ālāyû" ("village residents"), "ālik ilke" (people recruited through the "ilku" system) and the "hupšu", though what these designations meant in terms of social standing and living standards is not known.


title: Assyria

text: The Middle Assyrian structure of society by and large endured through the subsequent Neo-Assyrian period. Below the higher classes of Neo-Assyrian society were free citizens, semi-free laborers and slaves. It was possible through steady service to the Assyrian state bureaucracy for a family to move up the social ladder; in some cases stellar work conducted by a single individual enhanced the status of their family for generations to come. In many cases, Assyrian family groups, or "clans", formed large population groups within the empire referred to as tribes. Such tribes lived together in villages and other settlements near or adjacent to their agricultural lands.


title: Assyria

text: Slavery was an intrinsic part of nearly every society in the ancient Near East. There were two main types of slaves in ancient Assyria: chattel slaves, primarily foreigners who were kidnapped or who were spoils of war, and debt slaves, formerly free men and women who had been unable to pay off their debts. In some cases, Assyrian children were seized by authorities due to the debts of their parents and sold off into slavery when their parents were unable to pay. Children born to slave women automatically became slaves themselves, unless some other arrangement had been agreed to. Though Old Babylonian texts frequently mention the geographical and ethnic origin of slaves, there is only a single known such reference in Old Assyrian texts (whereas there are many describing slaves in a general sense), a slave girl explicitly being referred to as Subaraean, indicating that ethnicity was not seen as very important in terms of slavery. The surviving evidence suggests that the number of slaves in Assyria never reached a large share of the population. In the Akkadian language, several terms were used for slaves, commonly "wardum", though this term could confusingly also be used for (free) official servants, retainers and followers, soldiers and subjects of the king. Because many individuals designated as "wardum" in Assyrian texts are described as handling property and carrying out administrative tasks on behalf of their masters, many may have in actuality been free servants and not slaves in the common meaning of the term. A number of "wardum" are however also recorded as being bought and sold.


title: Assyria

text: Little evidence survives concerning the lives of ordinary women in ancient Assyria, the main evidence being administrative documents and law codes. There was no legal distinction between men and women in the Old Assyrian period and they had more or less the same rights in society. Both men and women paid the same fines, could inherit property, participated in trade, bought, owned and sold houses and slaves, made their own last wills and were allowed to divorce their partners. Records of Old Assyrian marriages confirm that the dowry to the bride belonged to her, not the husband, and was inherited by their children after her death. Though they were equal legally, men and women in the Old Assyrian period were raised differently and had different social expectations and obligations. Girls were typically raised by their mothers, taught to spin, weave and help with daily tasks, whereas boys were taught by masters to read and write, later often following their fathers on trade expeditions. The eldest daughter of a family was sometimes consecrated as a priestess, which meant that she was no longer allowed to marry but also that she became economically independent. Wives were also expected to provide their husbands with garments and food. Though marriages were typically monogamous, husbands were allowed to buy a female slave in order to produce an heir in case his wife was infertile. His wife was allowed to choose the slave and the slave never gained the status of a second wife. Husbands who were away on long trading journeys were allowed to take a second wife in one of the trading colonies, though with strict rules: the second wife was not allowed to accompany him back to Assur and both wives had to be provided with a home to live in, food and wood. Since several letters written by women are known from the Old Assyrian period, it is evident that women were free to learn how to read and write.


title: Assyria

text: The status of women decreased in the Middle Assyrian period, as can be gathered from laws concerning them among the Middle Assyrian Laws. Among these laws were punishments for various crimes, often sexual or marital ones. The Middle Assyrian Laws, though they did not deprive women of all their rights and they were not significantly different from other ancient Near Eastern laws of their time, effectively made women second-class citizens. It is however not clear how strongly these laws were enforced. The laws gave men the right to punish their wives as they wished. Among the harshest punishments written into law, for a crime not even committed by the woman herself, was that a raped woman would be forcibly married to her rapist. The laws also specified that most women while out in the street were obliged to wear veils. Some women, such as slave women and "ḫarımtū" women, were however prohibited from wearing veils and others, such as certain priestesses, were only allowed to wear veils if they were married. Not all laws were suppressive against women; women whose husbands died or were taken prisoner in war, and who did not have any sons or relatives to support them, were guaranteed support from the government. The "ḫarımtū" women have historically been believed to have been prostitutes but are today interpreted as women with an independent social existence, i.e. not tied to a husband, father, or institution. Though most "ḫarımtū" appear to have been poor (there were however noteworthy exceptions) and the term appears with negative connotations in several texts, their mere existence makes it clear that it was possible for women to live independent lives, despite their lesser social standing.


title: Assyria

text: Royal and upper-class women experienced increased influence during the Neo-Assyrian period. Women attached to the Neo-Assyrian royal court sent and received letters, were independently wealthy and could buy and own lands of their own. The queens of the Neo-Assyrian Empire are better historically attested than queens of preceding periods. Under the Sargonid dynasty, they were granted their own military units, sometimes known to have partaken alongside other units in military campaigns. Among the most influential women of the Neo-Assyrian period were Shammuramat, queen of Shamshi-Adad V (824–811 BC), who in the reign of her son Adad-nirari III (811–783 BC) might have been regent and participated in military campaigns, and Naqi'a, who influenced politics in the reigns of Sennacherib, Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal.


title: Assyria

text: In the Old Assyrian period, a major portion of Assur's population was involved in the city's international trade. As can be gathered from hiring contracts and other records, the trade involved people of many different occupations, including porters, guides, donkey drivers, agents, traders, bakers and bankers. Because of the extensive cuneiform records known from the period, details of the trade are relatively well-known. It has been estimated that just in the period 1950–1836 BC, twenty-five tons of Anatolian silver was transported to Assur, and that approximately one hundred tons of tin and 100,000 textiles were transported to Anatolia in return. The Assyrians also sold livestock, processed goods and reed products. In many cases, the materials sold by Assyrian colonists came from far-away places; the textiles sold by Assyrians in Anatolia were imported from southern Mesopotamia and the tin came from the east in the Zagros Mountains.


title: Assyria

text: After international trade declined in the 19th century BC, the Assyrian economy became increasingly oriented towards the state. In the Neo-Assyrian period, the wealth generated through private investments was dwarfed by the wealth of the state, which was by far the largest employer in the empire and had a monopoly on agriculture, manufacturing and exploitation of minerals. The imperial economy advantaged mainly the elite, since it was structured in a way that ensured that surplus wealth flowed to the government and was then used for the maintenance of the state throughout the empire. Though all means of production were owned by the state, there also continued to be a vibrant private economic sector within the empire, with property rights of individuals ensured by the government.


title: Assyria

text: Ethnicity and culture are largely based in self-perception and self-designation. A distinct Assyrian identity seems to have formed already in the Old Assyrian period, when distinctly Assyrian burial practices, foods and dress codes are attested and Assyrian documents appear to consider the inhabitants of Assur to be a distinct cultural group. A wider Assyrian identity appears to have spread across northern Mesopotamia under the Middle Assyrian Empire, since later writings concerning the reconquests of the early Neo-Assyrian kings refer to some of their wars as liberating the Assyrian people of the cities they reconquered.


title: Assyria

text: Surviving evidence suggests that the ancient Assyrians had a relatively open definition of what it meant to be Assyrian. Modern ideas such as a person's ethnic background, or the Roman idea of legal citizenship, do not appear to have been reflected in ancient Assyria. Although Assyrian accounts and artwork of warfare frequently describe and depict foreign enemies, they are not depicted with different physical features, but rather with different clothing and equipment. Assyrian accounts describe enemies as barbaric only in terms of their behavior, as lacking correct religious practices, and as doing wrongdoings against Assyria. All things considered, there does not appear to have been any well-developed concepts of ethnicity or race in ancient Assyria. What mattered for a person to be seen by others as Assyrian was mainly fulfillment of obligations (such as military service), being affiliated with the Assyrian Empire politically and maintaining loyalty to the Assyrian king. One of the inscriptions that attest to this view, as well as royal Assyrian policies enacted to encourage assimilation and cultural mixture, is Sargon II's account of the construction of Dur-Sharrukin. One of the passages of the inscription reads:


title: Assyria

text: Although the text clearly differentiates the new settlers from those that had been "born Assyrians", the aim of Sargon's policy was also clearly to transform the new settlers into Assyrians through appointing supervisors and guides to teach them. Though the expansion of the Assyrian Empire, in combination with resettlements and deportations, changed the ethno-cultural make-up of the Assyrian heartland, there is no evidence to suggest that the more ancient Assyrian inhabitants of the land ever disappeared or became restricted to a small elite, nor that the ethnic and cultural identity of the new settlers was anything other than "Assyrian" after one or two generations.


title: Assyria

text: Though the use of the term "Assyrian" by the modern Assyrian people has historically been the target of misunderstanding and controversy, both politically and academically, Assyrian continuity is generally scholarly accepted based on both historical and genetic evidence in the sense that the modern Assyrians are regarded to be descendants of the population of the ancient Assyrian Empire. Though the ancient Akkadian language and cuneiform script did not survive for long in Assyria after the empire was destroyed in 609 BC, Assyrian culture clearly did; the old Assyrian religion continued to be practised at Assur until the 3rd century AD, and at other sites for centuries thereafter, gradually losing ground to Christianity. At Mardin, believers in the old religion are known from as late as the 18th century. Individuals with names harkening back to ancient Mesopotamia are also attested at Assur until it was sacked for the last time in AD 240 and at other sites as late as the 13th century. Though many foreign states ruled over Assyria in the millennia following the empire's fall, there is no evidence of any large scale influx of immigrants that replaced the original population, which instead continued to make up a significant portion of the region's people until the Mongol and Timurid massacres in the late 14th century.


title: Assyria

text: In pre-modern Syriac-language (the type of Aramaic used in Christian Mesopotamian writings) sources, the typical self-designations used are "ʾārāmāyā" ("Aramean") and "suryāyā", with the term "ʾāthorāyā" ("Assyrian") rarely being used as a self-designation. The terms Assyria ("ʾāthor") and Assyrian ("ʾāthorāyā") were however used in several senses in pre-modern times; most notably being used for the ancient Assyrians and for the land surrounding Nineveh (and for the city of Mosul, built next to Nineveh's ruins). In Syriac translations of the Bible, the term "ʾāthor" is also used to refer to the ancient Assyrian Empire. In the sense of a citizen of Mosul, the designation "ʾāthorāyā" were used for some individuals in the pre-modern period. The reluctance of Christians to use "ʾāthorāyā" as a self-designation could perhaps be explained by the Assyrians described in the Bible being prominent enemies of Israel; the term "ʾāthorāyā" was sometimes employed in Syriac writings as a term for enemies of Christians. In this context, the term was sometimes applied to the Persians of the Sasanian Empire; the 4th-century Syriac writer Ephrem the Syrian for instance referred to the Sasanian Empire as "filthy "ʾāthor", mother of corruption". In a similar fashion, the term was also sometimes applied to the later Muslim rulers.


title: Assyria

text: The self-designation "suryāyā", "suryāyē" or "sūrōyē", sometimes translated as "Syrian", is believed to be derived from the Akkadian term "assūrāyu" ("Assyrian"), which was sometimes even in ancient times rendered in the shorter form "sūrāyu". Some medieval Syriac Christian documents used "āsūrāyē" and "sūrāyē", rather than "āthōrāyē", also for the ancient Assyrians. Medieval and modern Armenian sources also connected "assūrāyu" and "suryāyā", consistently referring to the Aramaic-speaking Christians of Mesopotamia and Syria as "Asori".


title: Assyria

text: Despite the complex issue of self-designations, pre-modern Syriac-language sources at times identified positively with the ancient Assyrians and drew connections between the ancient empire and themselves. Most prominently, ancient Assyrian kings and figures long appeared in local folklore and literary tradition and claims of descent from ancient Assyrian royalty were forwarded both for figures in folklore and by actual living high-ranking members of society in northern Mesopotamia. Visits by missionaries from various western churches to the Assyrian heartland in the 18th century likely contributed to the Assyrian people more strongly relating their self-designation and identity to ancient Assyria; in the context of interactions with westerners who connected them to the ancient Assyrians, and due to an increasing number of atrocities and massacres directed against them, the Assyrian people experienced a cultural "awakening" or "renaissance" towards the end of the 19th century, which led to the development of a national ideology more strongly rooted in their descent from ancient Assyria and a re-adoption of self-designations such as "ʾāthorāyā" and "ʾāsurāyā". Today, "sūryōyō" or "sūrāyā" are the predominant self-designations used by Assyrians in their native language, though they are typically translated as "Assyrian" rather than "Syrian".


title: Assyria

text: The ancient Assyrians primarily spoke and wrote the Assyrian language, a Semitic language (i.e. related to modern Hebrew and Arabic) closely related to Babylonian, spoken in southern Mesopotamia. Both Assyrian and Babylonian are generally regarded by modern scholars to be dialects of the Akkadian language. This is a modern convention since contemporary ancient authors considered Assyrian and Babylonian to be two separate languages; only Babylonian was referred to as "akkadûm", with Assyrian being referred to as "aššurû" or "aššurāyu". Though both were written with cuneiform script, the signs look quite different and can be distinguished relatively easily. Given the vast timespan covered by ancient Assyria, the Assyrian language developed and evolved over time. Modern scholars broadly categorize it into three different periods, roughly (though far from precisely) corresponding to the periods used to divide Assyrian history: the Old Assyrian language (2000–1500 BC), Middle Assyrian language (1500–1000 BC) and Neo-Assyrian language (1000–500 BC). Because the record of Assyrian tablets and documents is still somewhat spotty, many of the stages of the language remain poorly known and documented.


title: Assyria

text: The signs used in Old Assyrian texts are for the most part less complex than those used during the succeeding Middle and Neo-Assyrian periods and they were fewer in number, amounting to no more than 150–200 unique signs, most of which were syllabic signs (representing syllables). Due to the limited number of signs used, Old Assyrian is relatively easier to decipher for modern researchers than later forms of the language, though the limited number of signs also means that there are in cases several possible alternative phonetic values and readings. This means that while it is easy to decipher the signs, many researchers remain uncomfortable with the language itself. Though it was a more archaic variant of the later Assyrian language, Old Assyrian also contains several words that are not attested in later periods, some being peculiar early forms of words and others being names for commercial terms or various textile and food products from Anatolia.


title: Assyria

text: In the Middle and Neo-Assyrian empires, the later versions of the Assyrian language were not the only versions of Akkadian used. Though Assyrian was typically used in letters, legal documents, administrative documents, and as a vernacular, Standard Babylonian was also used in an official capacity. Standard Babylonian was a highly codified version of ancient Babylonian, as used around 1500 BC, and was used as a language of high culture, for nearly all scholarly documents, literature, poetry and royal inscriptions. The culture of the Assyrian elite was strongly influenced by Babylonia in the south; in a vein similar to how Greek civilization was respected in, and influenced, ancient Rome, the Assyrians had much respect for Babylon and its ancient culture.


title: Assyria

text: Because of the multilingual nature of the vast empire, many loan words are attested as entering the Assyrian language during the Neo-Assyrian period. The number of surviving documents written in cuneiform grow considerably fewer in the late reign of Ashurbanipal, which suggests that the language was declining since it is probably attributable to an increased use of Aramaic, often written on perishable materials like leather scrolls or papyrus. The ancient Assyrian language did not disappear completely until around the end of the 6th century BC, well into the subsequent post-imperial period.


title: Assyria

text: Because the Assyrians never imposed their language on foreign peoples whose lands they conquered outside of the Assyrian heartland, there were no mechanisms in place to stop the spread of languages other than Akkadian. Beginning with the migrations of Arameans into Assyrian territory during the Middle Assyrian period, this lack of linguistic policies facilitated the spread of the Aramaic language. As the most widely spoken and mutually understandable of the Semitic languages (the language group containing many of the languages spoken through the empire), Aramaic grew in importance throughout the Neo-Assyrian period and increasingly replaced the Neo-Assyrian language even within the Assyrian heartland itself. From the 9th century BC onwards, Aramaic became the "de facto" lingua franca of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, with Neo-Assyrian and other forms of Akkadian becoming relegated to a language of the political elite.


title: Assyria

text: From the time of Shalmaneser III, in the 9th century BC, Aramaic was used in state-related contexts alongside Akkadian and by the time of Tiglath-Pileser III, the kings employed both Akkadian and Aramaic-language royal scribes, confirming the rise of Aramaic to a position of an official language used by the imperial administration. During the time after the fall of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, the old Assyrian language was completely abandoned in Mesopotamia in favor of Aramaic. By 500 BC, Akkadian was probably no longer a spoken language.


title: Assyria

text: Modern Assyrian people refer to their language as "Assyrian" ("Sūrayt" or "Sūreth"). Though it has little in common with the Assyrian dialect of the Akkadian language, it is a modern version of the ancient Mesopotamian Aramaic. The language retains some influence of ancient Akkadian, particularly in the form of loanwords. Modern Assyrian varieties of Aramaic are often referred to by scholars as Neo-Aramaic or Neo-Syriac. As a liturgical language, many Assyrians also speak Syriac, a codified version of classical Aramaic as spoken at Edessa during the Christianization of Assyria.


title: Assyria

text: Another language sometimes used in ancient Assyria as a language of scholarship and culture, though only in written form, was the ancient Sumerian language. At the height of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, various other local languages were also spoken within the imperial borders, though none achieved the same level of official recognition as Aramaic.


title: Assyria

text: There are three surviving forms of primary evidence for the architecture of ancient Assyria. The most important form is the surviving buildings themselves, found through archaeological excavations, but important evidence can also be gathered from both contemporary documentation, such as letters and administrative documents that describe buildings that might not have been preserved, as well as documentation by later kings concerning the building works of previous kings. Assyrian buildings and construction works were almost always constructed out of mudbrick. Limestone was also used, though primarily only in works such as aqueducts and river walls, exposed to running water, and defensive fortifications.


title: Assyria

text: In order to support large buildings, they were often built on top of foundation platforms or on mud brick foundations. Floors were typically made of rammed earth, covered in important rooms with carpets or reed mats. Floors in locations that were exposed to the elements, such as outside on terraces or in courtyards, were paved with stone slabs or backed bricks. Roofs, particularly in larger rooms, were supported through the use of wooden beams.


title: Assyria

text: The ancient Assyrians accomplished several technologically complex construction projects, including constructions of whole new capital cities, which indicates sophisticated technical knowledge. Though in large part following previous Mesopotamian architecture, there are several characteristic features of ancient Assyrian architecture. Some examples of features of ancient Assyrian architecture include stepped merlons, vaulted roofs, and palaces to a large degree often being made up of sets of self-contained suites.


title: Assyria

text: A relatively large number of statues and figurines have been recovered from the ruins of temples in Assur dating to the Early Assyrian period. Most of the surviving artwork from this time was clearly influenced by the artwork of foreign powers. For instance, a set of 87 alabaster figures of male and female worshippers from Assur before the rise of the Akkadian Empire greatly resembles Early Dynastic Sumerian figures. Because of variation in artwork elsewhere, the artwork of early Assur was also highly variable depending on the time period, ranging from highly stylized to highly naturalistic. Among the most unique finds from the Early period is the head of a female figure, of which the eyes, eyebrows and elaborate hair covering were originally inlaid. This head is typical of the art style of the Akkadian period, with an overall naturalistic style, smooth and soft curves and a full mouth. Another unique art piece from the early period is an ivory figurine of a nude woman, and fragments of at least five additional similar figurines. The ivory used might have come from Indian elephants, which would indicate trade between early Assur and the early tribes and states of Iran. Among other artwork known from the early period are a handful of large stone statues of rulers (governors and foreign kings), figures of animals and stone statues of naked women.


title: Assyria

text: The artwork known from the Old Assyrian period, other than a few objects such as a partial stone statue perhaps depicting Erishum I, is largely limited to seals and impressions of seals on cuneiform documents. Royal seals from the Puzur-Ashur dynasty of kings, prior to the rise of Shamshi-Adad I, are very similar to the seals of the kings of the Third Dynasty of Ur. In the Middle Assyrian period, from Ashur-uballit I onwards, seals looked quite different and appear to emphasize royal power, rather than the theological and cosmic sources of the king's right to rule. Among non-royal seals of the Middle Assyrian period a wide assortment of different motifs are known, including both religious scenes and peaceful scenes of animals and trees. From the time of Tukulti-Ninurta I onwards, seals also sometimes featured contests and struggles between humans, various animals, and mythological creatures.


title: Assyria

text: Several other new artistic innovations were also made in the Middle Assyrian period. In the temple dedicated to Ishtar in Assur, four cult pedestals (or "altars") from the time of Tukulti-Ninurta I have been discovered. These altars were decorated with various motifs, common inclusions being the king (sometimes multiple times) and protective divine figures and standards. One of the pedestals preserves along the lower step of its base a relief image which is the earliest known narrative image in Assyrian art history. This relief, which is not very well-preserved, appears to depict rows of prisoners before the Assyrian king. The earliest known Assyrian wall paintings are also from the time of Tukulti-Ninurta I, from his palace in Kar-Tukulti-Ninurta. Motifs included plant-based patterns (rosettes and palmettes), trees and bird-headed genies. The colors used to paint the walls included black, red, blue and white. An unusual limestone statue of a nude female figure is known from Nineveh from the time of Ashur-bel-kala (1074–1056 BC). An entirely new type of monument introduced in the 11th century BC were obelisks; four-sided stone stelae decorated all around with both pictures and text. Obelisks saw continued usage until at least the 9th century BC.


title: Assyria

text: Compared to other periods, a larger amount of artwork survives from the Neo-Assyrian period, particularly monumental art made under the patronage of the kings. The most well-known form of Neo-Assyrian monumental art are wall reliefs, carved stone artwork that lined the internal and external walls of temples and palaces. Another well-known form of Neo-Assyrian art are colossi, often human-headed lions or bulls ("lamassu"), that were placed at the gates of temples, palaces and cities. The earliest known examples of both wall reliefs and colossi are from the reign of Ashurnasirpal II, who might have been inspired by the Hittite monumental art that he saw on his campaigns to the Mediterranean. Wall paintings like those made under Tukulti-Ninurta I in the Middle Assyrian period also continued to be used, sometimes to supplement wall reliefs and sometimes instead of them. Interior walls could be decorated by covering the mudbrick used in construction with painted mud plaster and exterior walls were at times decorated with glazed and painted tiles or bricks. The most extensive known surviving sets of wall reliefs are from the reign of Sennacherib. In terms of Neo-Assyrian artwork, modern scholars have paid particular attention to the reliefs produced under Ashurbanipal, which have been described as possessing a distinct "epic quality" unlike the art under his predecessors.


title: Assyria

text: Ancient Assyrian literature drew heavily on Babylonian literary traditions. Both the Old and Middle Assyrian periods are limited in terms of surviving literary texts. The most important surviving Old Assyrian literary work is "Sargon, Lord of Lies", a text found in a well-preserved version on a cuneiform tablet from Kültepe. Once thought to have been a parody, the tale is a first-person narrative of the reign of Sargon of Akkad, the founder of the Akkadian Empire. The text follows Sargon as he gains strength from the god Adad, swears by Ishtar, the "lady of combat", and speaks with the gods. Surviving Middle Assyrian literature is only slightly more diverse. A distinct Assyrian scholarship tradition, though still drawing on Babylonian tradition, is conventionally placed as beginning around the time of the beginning of the Middle Assyrian period. The rising status of scholarship at this time might be connected to the kings beginning to regard amassing knowledge as a way to strengthen their power. Known Middle Assyrian works include the "Tukulti-Ninurta Epic" (a narrative of the reign of Tukulti-Ninurta I and his exploits), fragments of other royal epics, "The Hunter" (a short martial poem) and some royal hymns.


title: Assyria

text: The clear majority of surviving ancient Assyrian literature is from the Neo-Assyrian period. The kings of the Neo-Assyrian Empire began to see preserving knowledge as one of their responsibilities, and not (as previous kings had) a responsibility of private individuals and temples. This development might have originated with the kings no longer viewing the divination performed by their diviners as enough and wished to have access to the relevant texts themselves. The office of chief scholar is first attested in the reign of the Neo-Assyrian king Tukulti-Ninurta II.


title: Assyria

text: Most of the surviving ancient Assyrian literature comes from the Neo-Assyrian Library of Ashurbanipal, which included more than 30,000 documents. Libraries were built in the Neo-Assyrian period to preserve knowledge of the past and maintain scribal culture. Neo-Assyrian texts fall into a wide array of genres, including divinatory texts, divination reports, treatments for the sick (either medical or magical), ritual texts, incantations, prayers and hymns, school texts and literary texts. An innovation of the Neo-Assyrian period were the annals, a genre of texts recording the events of the reigns of a king, particularly military exploits. Annals were disseminated throughout the empire and probably served propagandistic purposes, supporting the legitimacy of the king's rule. Various purely literary works, previously aligned by scholars with propaganda, are known from the Neo-Assyrian period. Such works include, among others, the "Underworld Vision of an Assyrian Crown Prince", the "Sin of Sargon" and the "Marduk Ordeal". In addition to their own works, the Assyrians also copied and preserved earlier Mesopotamian literature. The inclusion of texts such as the "Epic of Gilgamesh", the "Enûma Eliš" (the Babylonian creation myth), "Erra", the "Myth of Etana" and the "Epic of Anzu" in the Library of Ashurbanipal is the primary reason for how such texts have survived to the present day.


title: Assyria

text: Knowledge of the ancient polytheistic Assyrian religion, referred to as "Ashurism" by some modern Assyrians, is mostly limited to state cults given that little can be ascertained of the personal religious beliefs and practices of the common people of ancient Assyria. The Assyrians worshipped the same pantheon of gods as the Babylonians in southern Mesopotamia. The chief Assyrian deity was the national deity Ashur. Though the deity and the ancient capital city are commonly distinguished by modern historians through calling the god Ashur and the city Assur, both were inscribed in the exact same way in ancient times ("Aššur"). In documents from the preceding Old Assyrian period, the city and god are often not clearly differentiated, which suggests that Ashur originated sometime in the Early Assyrian period as a deified personification of the city itself. Below Ashur, the other Mesopotamian deities were organized in a hierarchy, with each having their own assigned roles (the sun-god Shamash was for instance regarded as a god of justice and Ishtar was seen as a goddess of love and war) and their own primary seats of worship (Ninurta was for instance primarily worshipped at Nimrud and Ishtar primarily at Arbela). Quintessentially Babylonian deities like Enlil, Marduk and Nabu were worshipped in Assyria just as much as in Babylonia, and several traditionally Babylonian rituals, such as the "akitu" festival, were borrowed in the north.


title: Assyria

text: Ashur's role as the chief deity was flexible and changed with the changing culture and politics of the Assyrians themselves. In the Old Assyrian period, Ashur was mainly regarded as a god of death and revival, related to agriculture. Under the Middle and Neo-Assyrian Empire, Ashur's role was expanded and thoroughly altered. Possibly originating as a reaction to the period of suzerainty under the Mittani kingdom, Middle Assyrian theology presented Ashur as a god of war, who bestowed the Assyrian kings not only with divine legitimacy, something retained from the Old Assyrian period, but also commanded the kings to enlarge Assyria ("the land of Ashur") with Ashur's "just scepter", i.e. expand the Assyrian Empire through military conquest. This militarization of Ashur might also have derived from the Amorite conqueror Shamshi-Adad I equating Ashur with the southern Enlil during his rule over northern Mesopotamia in the 18th and 17th centuries BC. In the Middle Assyrian period, Ashur is attested with the title "king of the gods", a role previous civilizations in both northern and southern Mesopotamia ascribed to Enlil. The development of equating Ashur with Enlil, or at least transferring Enlil's role to Ashur, was paralleled in Babylon, where the previously unimportant local god Marduk was elevated in the reign of Hammurabi (18th century BC) to the head of the pantheon, modelled after Enlil.


title: Assyria

text: Assyrian religion was centered in temples, monumental structures that included a central shrine which housed the cult statue of the temple's god, and several subordinate chapels with space for statues of other deities. Temples were typically self-contained communities; they had their own economic resources, chiefly in the form of land holdings, and their own hierarchically organized personnel. In later times, temples became increasingly dependent on royal benefits, in the shape of specific taxes, offerings and donations of booty and tribute. The head of a temple was titled as the "chief administrator" and was responsible to the Assyrian king since the king was regarded to be Ashur's representative in the mortal world. Records from temples showcase that divination in the form of astrology and extispicy (studying the entrails of dead animals) were important parts of the Assyrian religion since they were believed to be means through which deities communicated with the mortal world.


title: Assyria

text: Unlike many other ancient empires, the Neo-Assyrian Empire did at its height not impose its culture and religion on conquered regions; there were no significant temples built for Ashur outside of northern Mesopotamia. In the post-imperial period, after the fall of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, the Assyrians continued to venerate Ashur and the rest of the pantheon, though without the Assyrian state, religious beliefs in many parts of the Assyrian heartland diverged and developed in different directions. From the time of Seleucid rule over the region (4th to 2nd century BC) onwards, there was a strong influence of the ancient Greek religion, with many Greek deities becoming syncretized with Mesopotamian deities. There was also some influence of Judaism, given that the kings of Adiabene, a vassal kingdom covering much of the old Assyrian heartland, converted to Judaism in the 1st century AD. In the 1st century BC onwards, as a frontier region between the Roman and the Parthian empires, Assyria was likely highly religiously complex and diverse. Under Parthian rule, both old and new gods were worshipped at Assur. As late as the time of the city's second destruction in the 3rd century AD, the most important deity was still Ashur, known during this time as "Assor" or "Asor". Worship of Ashur during this time was carried out in the same way as it had been in ancient times, per a cultic calendar effectively identical to that used under the Neo-Assyrian Empire 800 years prior. The ancient Mesopotamian religion persisted in some places for centuries after the end of the post-imperial period, such as at Harran until at least the 10th century (the "Sabians" of Harran) and at Mardin until as late as the 18th century (the "Shamsīyah").


title: Assyria

text: The Church of the East developed early in Christian history. Though tradition holds that Christianity was first spread to Mesopotamia by Thomas the Apostle, the exact timespan when the Assyrians were first Christianized is unknown. The city of Arbela was an important early Christian center; according to the later "Chronicle of Arbela", Arbela became the seat of a bishop already in AD 100, but the reliability of this document is questioned among scholars. It is however known that both Arbela and Kirkuk later served as important Christian centers in the Sasanian and later Islamic periods. According to some traditions, Christianity took hold in Assyria when Saint Thaddeus of Edessa converted King Abgar V of Osroene in the mid-1st century AD. From the 3rd century AD onwards, it is clear that Christianity was becoming the major religion of the region, with the Christian god replacing the old Mesopotamian deities. Assyrians had by this time already intellectually contributed to Christian thought; in the 1st century AD, the Christian Assyrian writer Tatian composed the influential " Diatessaron", a synoptic rendition of the gospels.


title: Assyria

text: Though Christianity is today an intrinsic part of Assyrian identity, Assyrian Christians have over the centuries splintered into a number of different Christian denominations. Though the prominent Assyrian Church of the East, the followers of which have often been termed "Nestorians", continues to exist, other prominent eastern churches include the Chaldean Catholic Church, which split off in the 16th century, the Syriac Orthodox Church, the Syriac Catholic Church, and the Ancient Church of the East, which branched off from the Assyrian Church of the East in 1968.


title: Assyria

text: Though these churches have been distinct for centuries, they still follow much of the same liturgical, spiritual and theological foundation. There are also Assyrian followers of various denominations of Protestantism, chiefly due to missions by American missionaries of the Presbyterian Church.


title: Assyria

text: Because the Assyrian Church of the East remains dismissed as "Nestorian" and heretical by many other branches of Christianity, it has not been admitted into the Middle East Council of Churches and it does not take part in the Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue Between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church. This does not mean that efforts to approach ecumenism have not been undertaken. In 1994, Pope John Paul II and Patriarch Dinkha IV signed the Common Christological Declaration Between the Catholic Church and the Assyrian Church of the East, with some further efforts also having been made in the years since. Historically, the main obstacle in the way of ecumenism has been the ancient text "Liturgy of Addai and Mari", used in the Assyrian churches, wherein the anaphora does not contain the Words of Institution, seen as indispensable by the Catholic Church. This obstacle was removed in 2001, when the Catholic Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith determined that the text could be considered valid in Catholicism as well, despite the absence of the words. Some efforts have also been made to approach reunification of the Assyrian and Chaldean churches. In 1996, Dinkha IV and Patriarch Raphael I Bidawid of the Chaldean Church signed a list of common proposals to move towards unity, approved by synods of both churches in 1997.


title: Sam Levinson

text: Samuel Levinson (born January 8, 1985) is an American actor and filmmaker. He is the son of Academy Award-winning director Barry Levinson. In 2010, he received his first writing credit as a co-writer for the action comedy film "". The following year, he made his directorial film debut with "Another Happy Day" (2011), which premiered at Sundance Film Festival. He then received a writing credit on his father's HBO television film "The Wizard of Lies" (2017). He continued writing and directing for the feature films "Assassination Nation" (2018) and "Malcolm & Marie" (2021).


title: Sam Levinson

text: In 2019, Levinson created the HBO teen drama series "Euphoria" which was adapted from the Israeli series of the same name. The series has become popular with audiences, while gaining significant criticism for its explicit content involving teens, particularly its portrayal of teenage sexuality. Levinson was nominated for a BAFTA TV Award and two Primetime Emmy Awards for the series.


title: Sam Levinson

text: Levinson was born on January 8, 1985, and is the son of Diana Rhodes, a production designer for TV commercials, and filmmaker Barry Levinson. His father is from a Russian-Jewish family. Levinson studied method acting for four years. He has a brother, Jack Levinson, who is also an actor, and two half-siblings, Michelle and Patrick, from his mother's first marriage.


title: Sam Levinson

text: Levinson made his film debut as an actor in the 1992 fantasy comedy "Toys", alongside his brother Jack. He later appeared in the comedy-drama film "Bandits" (2001) and the satirical comedy film "What Just Happened" (2008). In 2009, he co-starred as Peter Thompson in the arthouse drama film "Stoic". In 2011, Levinson won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at the Sundance Film Festival for his directorial debut film, "Another Happy Day", which starred Ellen Barkin.


title: Sam Levinson

text: Levinson co-wrote the 2017 television film "The Wizard of Lies", which was directed by his father Barry Levinson. The film focuses on Bernie Madoff, who is played by Robert De Niro. Levinson wrote and directed the film "Assassination Nation" which premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival to mixed reviews from critics, who praised its "frenetic and visually stylish" action but criticized the thinly-written characters. In June 2019, Levinson created the HBO television drama series "Euphoria", based on the Israeli series of the same name "(Hebrew: אופוריה)". The series has received both praise and criticism for its direction, writing, and acting. It is infamous for its raw and graphic portrayal of teenagers wrestling with drug addiction and sexuality.


title: Sam Levinson

text: In 2020, Levinson wrote and directed the film "Malcolm & Marie", reuniting him with "Euphoria" star Zendaya. The film was distributed by Netflix in February 2021. He also executive produced the drama film "Pieces of a Woman". Levinson co-wrote the screenplay for the psychological erotic thriller "Deep Water" (2022), based on the 1957 novel of the same name by Patricia Highsmith. On June 29, 2021, Levinson announced that he will be co-creating, writing and executive producing another HBO television drama series "The Idol", alongside recording artist Abel 'The Weeknd' Tesfaye and his producing partner Reza Fahim.


title: Sam Levinson

text: From 2008 to 2011, Levinson dated actress Ellen Barkin. Levinson is married to Ashley Lent Levinson. The couple has a son.


title: Shetland (TV series)

text: Shetland is a Scottish crime drama series made by ITV Studios for BBC Scotland and first broadcast on BBC One on 10 March 2013. Based upon the novels of Ann Cleeves and adapted for television by David Kane, who has remained a principal writer throughout, it stars Douglas Henshall as DI Jimmy Pérez. Also starring are Alison O'Donnell as DS Alison "Tosh" McIntosh, Steven Robertson as DC Sandy Wilson and Mark Bonnar as Duncan Hunter. Lewis Howden, Erin Armstrong, Julie Graham and Anne Kidd are also principal members of the cast. Henshall won the 2016 BAFTA Scotland award for best actor and the series received the award for Best TV Drama. From Series 8 (2023), Ashley Jensen stars as DI Ruth Calder, replacing Henshall.


title: Shetland (TV series)

text: The stories take place largely on the eponymous archipelago, although some of the filming takes place on the Scottish mainland. Most, but not all, exterior location filming takes place in Shetland; in 2021, filming of series 6 and 7 took place in Shetland in two segments, each of about six weeks’ duration. Interiors may be filmed in either Shetland or in west central Scotland.


title: Shetland (TV series)

text: On 2 December 2019, BBC One announced that two further series were intended for 2020 and 2021 with Henshall and O’Donnell returning in their roles. Production had to be postponed due to COVID-19. Series 6 broadcast began on 20 October 2021 and series 7 on 10 August 2022.


title: Shetland (TV series)

text: On 20 July 2022, it was announced that "Shetland" would return in 2023 for an eighth series, however without Henshall.


title: Shetland (TV series)

text: The first series consists of two episodes, a single two-part story based on the novel "Red Bones " by Ann Cleeves. This series was broadcast across two nights on 10 and 11 March 2013 and was produced by Sue de Beauvoir. Subsequently, a second series was commissioned by the BBC. Series two was extended to contain six episodes. These were filmed in 2013 and screened in 2014. This series features three two-part stories based on Cleeves' novels "Raven Black", "Dead Water", and "Blue Lightning". This series was produced by Peter Gallagher.


title: Shetland (TV series)

text: Filming began in April 2015 for a third series, which began screening in January 2016. This series saw a change in format; with all six episodes covering a single story, written exclusively for television. This was the first series not to adapt any of Cleeves' novels. Ciarán Hinds and Anna Chancellor were among the new cast members for this series. A fourth series was announced by the BBC in July 2016. Again, this series is a single story played out across six episodes and written exclusively for television. Stephen Walters and Neve McIntosh were among the new cast members announced for the series. It was broadcast on BBC One beginning on 13 February 2018. Series 5 was broadcast on BBC1 from 12 February 2019.


title: Shetland (TV series)

text: During filming, the cast and crew are usually based in Glasgow and other areas of mainland Scotland. Filming often takes place in areas with landscape or buildings reminiscent of those in the Shetland Islands, such as Kilbarchan in Renfrewshire, Barrhead, where Henshall was born and grew up, Ayr and Irvine, North Ayrshire. "My character’s house is actually in Kilbarchan, the interior of a couple of crofts are here [in Irvine, Ayrshire] and the police station is in Barrhead", Henshall said in a 2019 interview.


title: Shetland (TV series)

text: Filming locations on or near Shetland have included Lerwick, the NorthLink ferry and the village of Wester Quarff, south of Lerwick. Some filming was on Fair Isle for series 2. The Hillswick wildlife sanctuary featured in series 4.


title: Shetland (TV series)

text: Shortly before series 7 premiered, Henshall announced that the series would be his last. He was replaced by Ashley Jensen from Series 8 onwards.


title: Shetland (TV series)

text: The broadcast of Episode 6 was delayed due to coverage of an FA Cup replay being broadcast. In contrast to Season 2 (3, 2-part episodes), Season 3 is one 6-part story.


title: Shetland (TV series)

text: Released on DVD in Australia, Shetland, Series 1 consists of the pilot "Red Bones" and the Series 2 episodes "Raven Black", "Dead Water" and "Blue Lightning". Series 2 contains the Series 3 episodes, Series 3 contains the Series 4 episodes, and Series 4 contains the Season 5 episodes.


title: Shetland (TV series)

text: On Australian Region 4 DVD, The Pilot episode is stated as being Pilot and not Series 1, with the Series 2 episodes being stated as Series 1. Quote from the DVD "This DVD set includes the Pilot "Red Bones" and all episodes from series one "Raven Black", "Dead Water" and "Blue Lightning"". However, the UK releases are Series 1 through 7 rather than Series 1 through 6 in Australia.


Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 is a 2010 fantasy film directed by David Yates and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. It is the first of two cinematic parts based on J. K. Rowling's 2007 novel of the same name and the seventh instalment in the "Harry Potter" film series. It was written by Steve Kloves and produced by David Heyman, David Barron, and Rowling and features an ensemble cast.


title: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1

text: The film stars Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter, with Rupert Grint and Emma Watson, respectively, reprising roles as Harry's best friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. It is the sequel to "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" (2009) and is followed by the concluding entry, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2" (2011).


text: The story follows Harry Potter, who has been asked by Dumbledore to find and destroy Lord Voldemort's secret to immortality – the Horcruxes. Filming began on and was completed on . "Part 1" was released in 2D cinemas and IMAX formats worldwide on 19 November 2010. The film received positive reviews with critics praising its performances, cinematography, visual effects and musical score.


text: In the film's worldwide opening weekend, "Part 1" grossed $330 million, the third-highest in the series, and the highest opening of 2010, as well as the eighth-highest of all time. With a worldwide gross of $977 million, "Part 1" is the third-highest-grossing film of 2010, behind "Toy Story 3" and "Alice in Wonderland", and the third-highest-grossing "Harry Potter" film in terms of worldwide totals, behind "Deathly Hallows – Part 2" and "Philosopher's Stone" (2001). Additionally, it received two nominations at the 83rd Academy Awards: Best Art Direction and Best Visual Effects.


text: At Malfoy Manor, Severus Snape meets with Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters. He reports that the Order of the Phoenix will move Harry Potter, no longer under his mother's protective spell, to a safe location. Voldemort confiscates Lucius Malfoy's wand; his own is powerless against Harry because it and Harry's wand are "brothers" by sharing the same phoenix feather core. During the move, Harry survives Voldemort's attack but Mad-Eye Moody and Hedwig are killed.


text: During preparations for Bill Weasley and Fleur Delacour's wedding, the new Minister for Magic arrives. He informs Harry, Ron, and Hermione that Albus Dumbledore left each a bequest: Ron a Deluminator, Hermione a copy of "The Tales of Beedle the Bard", and Harry the Golden Snitch he caught in his first Quidditch match. Dumbledore had also bequeathed the Sword of Gryffindor to Harry, but it has gone missing.


text: News arrives during the wedding that the Ministry has fallen and the Minister is dead. Death Eaters attack and Harry, Ron, and Hermione escape to Number 12, Grimmauld Place. While there, Ron realizes that Sirius' brother, Regulus Black, is the R.A.B. who stole Salazar Slytherin's locket from Voldemort. Local thief Mundungus Fletcher later sold it to Dolores Umbridge. Harry, Ron and Hermione infiltrate the Ministry and recover the locket but they are chased by Death Eaters in a chaotic exit. Hermione disapparates them to a forest. Meanwhile, Ron is injured. The trio decide to start their journey to discover and destroy all of Lord Voldemort's Horcruxes, starting from the locket.


text: Attempts to destroy the locket fail. Hermione deduces that Gryffindor's sword can destroy Horcruxes because it is impregnated with basilisk venom. Ron, affected by the dark locket, is frustrated with their slow progress and irrationally jealous of Harry and Hermione. He argues with Harry, then disapparates, leaving Harry and Hermione to continue their journey. When Harry touches the Snitch to his lips, it reveals a cryptic message: "I open at the close." Hermione notices a strange symbol drawn in "Beedle the Bard" that is identical to one Luna Lovegood's father Xenophilius wears.


text: Harry and Hermione search for the sword in Godric's Hollow and encounter the same strange symbol in a cemetery. Elderly historian Bathilda Bagshot invites them in her cottage, where they find a photo of the young man in Harry's dream who stole a wand from wandmaker Gregorovitch. Bathilda morphs into Voldemort's snake Nagini and attacks Harry. Hermione disapparates them to safety, but her rebounding spell accidentally destroys Harry's wand. Hermione identifies the man in the photo as dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald. That night, a doe patronus leads Harry to a frozen pond where Gryffindor's sword lies on the bottom. Harry dives into the frigid water, but the locket around his neck tightens, strangling him. Ron appears, retrieves the sword, and saves Harry. They destroy the locket Horcrux with the sword. Ron explains that the Deluminator led him to their location.


text: Harry, Ron and Hermione visits Xenophilius Lovegood and learn the symbol represents the Deathly Hallows. Many years before, three brothers each received a prize that evades Death: the Resurrection Stone, the Cloak of Invisibility, and the Elder Wand, the most powerful wand known. Possessing all three makes one the Master of Death. Xenophilius secretly summons the Death Eaters, hoping to exchange Harry for a kidnapped Luna. The three escape, but Snatchers capture them. During a vision, Harry sees an elderly Grindelwald telling Voldemort that the Elder Wand is buried with Dumbledore.


text: At Malfoy Manor, Bellatrix Lestrange sees a Snatcher has Gryffindor's sword that she believed was in her Gringotts vault. Harry and Ron are locked into the cellar where they encounter Luna, Ollivander, and Griphook. Upstairs, Bellatrix tortures Hermione. Harry begs for help using a mirror shard in which he believes he glimpsed Dumbledore; Dobby appears in response and helps save everyone while Harry grabs their captured wands from Draco Malfoy. As they disapparate, Bellatrix throws a knife, killing Dobby. Harry buries him near Bill and Fleur's seaside cottage, an Order safe house. Meanwhile, Voldemort retrieves the Elder Wand from Dumbledore's tomb.


text: "Part 1" was filmed back-to-back with "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2" from 19 February 2009 to 12 June 2010. Director David Yates, who shot the film alongside director of photography Eduardo Serra, described Part 1 as "quite real"; a "road movie" that's "almost like a vérité documentary".


text: Originally set for a single theatrical release, the idea to split the book into two parts was suggested by executive producer Lionel Wigram due to what David Heyman called "creative imperative". Heyman initially responded negatively to the idea, but Wigram asked, "No, David. How are we going to do it?". After rereading the book and discussing it with screenwriter Steve Kloves, he agreed with the division.


text: The production filmed at the Dartford Crossing for the dramatic chase where Harry and Hagrid are being ambushed by Death Eaters.


text: Stuart Craig, set designer for all of the previous "Harry Potter" films, returned for the final two parts. He said, "We made a very different kind of film, which was shot a great deal on location. We travelled quite far, we built sets, and they spend a lot of time in a forest," he explained. "We built forest sets and integrated them into the real forests, so there were challenges there, as you might imagine." Craig was ultimately nominated for an Academy Award for his work on "Part 1".


text: On the wedding tent for Bill and Fleur's wedding in "Part 1", Craig commented on his aim to "rather than make it an extension of the house, which is rather eccentric, homemade, we decided to make it rather elegant . . . It's lined with silk and beautiful, floating candelabra. So it's a nice contrast with the house." For the Ministry of Magic set, he noted, "This is an underground world; this is a ministry, so we went to the real ministries, the Muggle ministries – Whitehall, in London – and decided that our magical ministry was kind of a parallel universe to these real ministries."


text: Craig also commented on his design of Malfoy Manor, saying that it is "a very strong architectural set. The exterior is based on an Elizabethan house here in this country called Hardwick Hall and it has massive windows, and these windows are kind of blinded out. The shutters are drawn so they are like blind windows and they have a real kind of presence, an ominous presence, so that gave us the basis for a good exterior. There's an extraordinary magical roof that's added and surrounded by forest which isn't there in reality, but again is one of the devices to make it more threatening and mysterious."


text: The costumes for "Part 1" were designed by Jany Temime, who has been the costume designer on "Harry Potter" productions since "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" (2004). Temime was involved in a controversy regarding her work on Fleur Delacour's wedding dress. She was accused of copying the design from a similar dress from Alexander McQueen's Fall 2008 collection. Temime spoke about the dress, saying that she "wanted it to be a witch wedding dress but not a Halloween dress. The dress is white but it needed to have something fantastic to it. So there is the phoenix [motif], the bird, which is a symbol of love in a way because there is rebirth, love never dies, it is born again."


text: After working on every film since "Prisoner of Azkaban", Double Negative was asked to provide visual effects for the final instalments of the story, in "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Parts 1" and "2". Working closely with the film's VFX Supervisor, Tim Burke, the team was led by VFX Supervisor, David Vickery and VFX Producer Charlotte Loughlane. The main team also included 3D Supervisor, Rick Leary and 2D Supervisor, Sean Stranks.


text: Double Negative's work for "Part 1" included the corroding Warner Brothers logo and extensive environment extensions of the Burrows and its surrounds. Additional environment work was completed on Xenophilius Lovegood's home, extending it in 3D and culminating in the Death Eaters' attack. Double Negative also advanced the Death Eaters' smoke effects, with the introduction of the 'flayed man' stage in between their smokey, fluid, flying state and their live-action presence upon landing. Other work included the Patronus charm that interrupts the wedding party to inform the guests that Voldemort has taken over the Ministry of Magic.


text: The visual-effects company Framestore produced most of the creature CGI, as in previous films, as well as the animated "Tale of the Three Brothers" sequence, which was directed and designed by Ben Hibon.


text: Composer Nicholas Hooper, who scored "Order of the Phoenix" and "Half-Blood Prince", did not return for "Deathly Hallows". Instead, Alexandre Desplat was hired to compose the score for "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1". The film also featured the song "O Children" by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds.


text: The first official picture from the first film was released on , showing Harry, Ron and Hermione in a London street. A clip was officially released on with the release of "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" on Blu-ray and DVD. At the 2010 ShoWest convention, Alan F. Horn premiered unfinished footage from both films. The 2010 MTV Movie Awards premiered more footage from "Deathly Hallows". Following this was the release of the official teaser poster, which shows the release date of both "Part 1" and "Part 2" and a destroyed Hogwarts castle. ABC Family broadcast interviews and additional scenes from both parts during their "Harry Potter" weekend, which began on 8 July 2010. A two-minute trailer for the film was released worldwide on 22 September 2010.


text: On 29 September 2010, three character posters for "Part 1" of Harry, Ron, and Hermione were released by Yahoo! Movies. The following day, a "Part 1" cinema poster was released featuring the trio on the run in a forest. The theatrical poster has the tagline "Nowhere is safe", and another version with no credits has the tagline "The end begins". Various other character posters for Part 1 were released on 6 October 2010, featuring Harry, Ron, Hermione, Lord Voldemort, Bellatrix Lestrange, Severus Snape and Fenrir Greyback. On 12 October, four new character posters were released. The posters are set to the theme of "Trust no one" and "The hunt begins".


text: On 15 October 2010, tickets began selling on Fandango for the US release of "Part 1", and on 19 October, a 50-second clip featuring never-before-seen footage was aired at the 2010 Scream Awards. On 16 October, the second TV spot was released on Cartoon Network during a premiere of "Scooby-Doo! Curse of the Lake Monster". On 25 October 2010, Yahoo! Movies released an exclusive featurette of the film. On 30 October 2010, "Entertainment Weekly" released two new featurettes titled "Horcruxes" and "The Story", featuring a large amount of never-before-seen footage. On the same day, the Warner Bros. "Harry Potter" website was updated to reveal twelve miniature clips from the film.


text: On 3 November 2010, the "Los Angeles Times" released an extended clip of Harry leaving the Burrow to find the Horcruxes, titled "No One Else Is Going to Die for Me". On 4 November, a new clip was released from the "Harry Potter" Facebook page, titled "The Seven Potters". Two more clips were released over the next two days, including a scene depicting a café attack and another taking place in Malfoy Manor.


text: On 26 August 2010, director David Yates, producers David Heyman and David Barron, and with Warner Bros. president Alan F. Horn attended a test screening for "Deathly Hallows – Part 1" in Chicago. The unfinished film gained rave reviews from test screeners, some of whom labelled it "amazing and dark" and "the most perfect "Harry Potter" film". Others expressed that the film faithfully adapted the novel, which led to an inheritance of the "book's own problems".


text: Warner Bros. Pictures was originally going to release Part 1 of "Deathly Hallows" in 2D and 3D formats. On 8 October 2010, it was announced that plans for a 3D version of "Part 1" had been scrapped. "Warner Bros. Pictures has made the decision to release "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1" in 2D, in both conventional and IMAX cinemas [because] we will not have a completed 3D version of the film within our release date window. Despite everyone's best efforts, we were unable to convert the film in its entirety and meet the highest standards of quality." Part 1 of "Deathly Hallows" was released on Blu-ray 3D as a Best Buy Exclusive. Part 2 was still released in 2D, 3D, and IMAX formats.


text: The world premiere for "Deathly Hallows – Part 1" was held in Leicester Square in London on 11 November 2010, with fans from across the world turning up – some of whom had camped for days in the square. This was followed by the Belgian premiere on 12 November and the US premiere in New York City on 15 November.


text: Just 48 hours prior to the official North American launch of "Part 1", the first 36 minutes of the film were leaked on the internet. Even before the leak, the film was already the fifth-biggest generator of advance ticket sales in history, after selling out 1,000 cinemas across the United States. Despite widely circulating rumours that the leaked footage was a marketing ploy to generate hype for the movie release date, no screener discs had been created by Warner Bros., and executives called it "a serious breach of copyright violation and theft of Warner Bros. property".


text: In Australia, the film had its premiere on 13 November at Warner Bros. Movie World, located on the Gold Coast, Queensland. Three hundred people attended the viewing, which was the second official showing in the world, behind the UK premiere. The film premiered in Kuwait on 16 November. In Israel, Estonia, and New Zealand, the film was released on 18 November.


text: "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1" was released on a single and double disc DVD and 3-disc Blu-ray combo pack on 11 April 2011 in the UK and on 15 April 2011 in the US.


text: On 28 January 2011, it was announced by Emma Watson on the Harry Potter UK Facebook page that the page's fans will get to vote for their preferred cover for the "Part 1" Blu-ray. The cover with the most votes will be the cover for the disc. Voting started that same day. The DVD and Blu-ray include eight deleted scenes, with the Blu-ray Combo Pack containing an opening scene from "Part 2" featuring Harry and Ollivander discussing the Deathly Hallows. "Deathly Hallows – Part 1" performed well in DVD sales, selling 7,237,437 DVD units and adding $86,932,256 to the gross revenue of the film, bringing the total to $1,043,331,967.


text: "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1" grossed $24 million in North America during its midnight showing, beating the record for the highest midnight gross of the series, previously held by "Half Blood Prince", at $22.2 million. The film also had the third-highest midnight gross of all time, behind "" and "", which grossed $30 million and $26.3 million, respectively. The film broke the record for the highest midnight gross in IMAX, with $1.4 million in box office sales, surpassing "Eclipse", which grossed $1 million. All of these records were later topped in 2011 by the film's sequel, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2".


text: In North America, the film grossed $61.7 million on its opening day, marking the sixth highest single day gross ever at the time. It became the highest opening day for a "Harry Potter" film in the series, a record previously held by "Half-Blood Prince" with $58.2 million, until it was broken by "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2" with $92.1 million. The film grossed a total of $125 million in its opening weekend, marking the largest opening for the franchise, previously held by "Goblet of Fire" and later topped by its sequel "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2". It also was the second biggest November opening ever at the time, behind "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" $142.8 million, the ninth biggest weekend opening for a film of all time at the North American box office, and the second biggest opening weekend for a 2010 film in the United States and Canada behind "Iron Man 2"s $128.1 million. The film stayed at the top of the box office for two weeks, grossing $75 million over the five-day Thanksgiving weekend, bringing its total to $219.1 million.


text: In the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Malta, the film broke records for the highest Friday gross (£5.9 million), Saturday gross (£6.6 million), and Sunday gross (£5.7 million). Additionally, the film set the largest single day gross (£6.6 million) and the largest opening three-day gross (£18,319,721), a record previously held by "Quantum of Solace", which grossed £15.4 million. , "Part 1" has grossed £52,404,464 ($86,020,929), becoming the second highest-grossing 2010 release in the country, behind "Toy Story 3" (£73,405,113).


text: Outside North America, the film grossed an estimated $205 million in its opening weekend, becoming the sixth highest of all time, the highest for a 2010 release, and the second highest for a "Harry Potter" movie, behind only "Half-Blood Prince". Globally, the film grossed $330 million in its opening weekend, ranking seventh on the all-time chart.


text: It was the highest grossing 2010 film in Indonesia ($6,149,448), Singapore ($4,546,240), Thailand ($4,933,136), Belgium and Luxembourg ($8,944,329), France and the Maghreb region ($51,104,397), Germany ($61,430,098), the Netherlands ($13,790,585), Norway ($7,144,020), Sweden ($11,209,387), and Australia ($41,350,865). In total overseas earnings, it surpassed "Philosopher's Stone" ($657.2 million) to become the highest grossing "Harry Potter" film overseas.


text: "Part 1" ended its run with $296.4 million in the United States and Canada, making it the fifth highest-grossing film of 2010 in these regions, and $680.7 million from other countries around the world, for a worldwide total of $977.1 million, making it the third highest-grossing film of 2010 worldwide behind "Toy Story 3" and "Alice in Wonderland", as well as the third highest grossing "Harry Potter" film in the series behind "The Deathly Hallows – Part 2" and "The Philosopher's Stone".


text: Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an approval rating of based on reviews, with an average rating of . The site's critics consensus reads, "It can't help but feel like the prelude it is, but "Deathly Hallows: Part I" is a beautifully filmed, emotionally satisfying penultimate installment for the Harry Potter series." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 65 out of 100, based on 42 critics, indicating "generally favourable reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.


text: The UK's "Daily Telegraph" also gave the film a positive review, remarking, "For the most part the action romps along, spurred by some impressive special effects," adding, "It's just slightly disappointing that, with the momentum having been established so effectively, we now have to wait until next year to enjoy the rest of the ride." Roger Ebert awarded the first part three out of four stars, praising the cast and calling it "a handsome and sometimes harrowing film . . . completely unintelligible for anyone coming to the series for the first time". Scott Bowles of "USA Today" called it, "Menacing and meditative, "Hallows" is arguably the best instalment of the planned eight-film franchise, though audiences who haven't kept up with previous chapters will be hopelessly lost", while Lisa Schwarzbaum of "Entertainment Weekly" likewise praised the film as "the most cinematically rewarding chapter yet." In a review for the "Orlando Sentinel", Roger Moore proclaimed Part I as "Alternately funny and touching, it's the best film in the series, an "Empire Strikes Back" for these wizards and their wizarding world. And those effects? They're so special you don't notice them." Ramin Setoodeh of "Newsweek" gave a negative review, writing, "They've taken one of the most enchanting series in contemporary fiction and sucked out all the magic . . . while Rowling's stories are endlessly inventive, "Potter" onscreen just gives you a headache." Lou Lumenick of "The New York Post" found the film to be "Beautifully shot but a soulless cash machine... [that] delivers no dramatic payoff, no resolution and not much fun."


text: Keith Uhlich of "Time Out New York" named "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1" the seventh-best film of 2010, calling it an "elatingly downbeat blockbuster".


text: "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1" was nominated for Best Art Direction and Best Visual Effects at the 83rd Academy Awards. It is the second film in the "Harry Potter" film series to be nominated for a Visual Effects Oscar (the previous one being "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban"). The film was long-listed for eight different categories, including Best Cinematography, Production Design, and Original Score, at the 64th BAFTA awards, and ultimately was nominated for Best Special Visual Effects and Make-up.


title: Common (rapper)

text: Lonnie Rashid Lynn (born March 13, 1972), known by his stage name Common (formerly known as Common Sense), is an American rapper and actor. He debuted in 1992 with the album "Can I Borrow a Dollar?," and gained critical acclaim with his 1994 album "Resurrection." He maintained an underground following into the late 1990s. He achieved mainstream success through his work with the Soulquarians.


title: Common (rapper)

text: His first major-label album, "Like Water for Chocolate" (2000), received commercial success. In 2003, he won the Grammy Award for Best R&B Song for the Erykah Badu single "Love of My Life". His 2005 album "Be" was also successful and was nominated for Best Rap Album at the 2006 Grammy Awards. He received his second Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group for "Southside" (featuring Kanye West), from his 2007 album "Finding Forever". His best-of album, "", was released in late 2007. In 2011, he launched Think Common Entertainment, his own record label imprint, having previously released music under various other labels including Relativity, Geffen and GOOD Music.


title: Common (rapper)

text: Common won the 2015 Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song and the Academy Award for Best Original Song for "Glory", which he co-wrote and performed with John Legend, from the 2014 film "Selma", in which he also co-starred as civil rights movement leader James Bevel. Common has also acted in films including "Smokin' Aces", "Street Kings", "American Gangster", "Wanted", "Terminator Salvation", "Date Night", "Just Wright", "Happy Feet Two", "New Year's Eve", "Run All Night", "", "Smallfoot" and "Hunter Killer". He starred as Elam Ferguson from 2011 to 2014 on the AMC western TV series "Hell on Wheels".


title: Common (rapper)

text: Common was born on March 13 1972 at the Chicago Osteopathic Hospital in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. He is the son of educator and former principal of John Hope College Preparatory High School, Mahalia Ann Hines, and former ABA basketball player turned youth counselor Lonnie Lynn. He was raised in the Calumet Heights neighborhood. Lynn's parents divorced when he was six years old, resulting in his father moving to Denver, Colorado. This left Lynn to be raised by his mother; however, his father remained active in his life, and was able to get him a job with the Chicago Bulls as a teenager. Lynn attended Florida A&M University for two years under a scholarship and majored in business administration.


title: Common (rapper)

text: Lynn began rapping in the late 1980s, while a student at Luther High School South in Chicago, when he, along with two of his friends, formed C.D.R., a rap trio that opened for acts such as N.W.A and Big Daddy Kane. When C.D.R dissolved by 1991, Lynn began a solo career under the stage name of Common Sense. After being featured in the Unsigned Hype column of "The Source" magazine, he debuted as a solo artist in 1992 with the single "Take It EZ", followed by the album "Can I Borrow a Dollar?".


title: Common (rapper)

text: With the 1994 release of "Resurrection", Common Sense achieved a much larger degree of critical acclaim which extended beyond the Chicago music scene. The album sold relatively well and received a strong positive reaction among alternative and underground hip hop fans at the time. "Resurrection" was Common Sense's last album produced almost entirely by his long-time production partner, No I.D., who would later become a mentor to a young Kanye West.


title: Common (rapper)

text: In 1996, Common Sense appeared on the Red Hot Organization's compilation CD, America Is Dying Slowly (A.I.D.S.), alongside Biz Markie, Wu-Tang Clan, and Fat Joe, among many other prominent hip hop artists. The CD, meant to raise awareness of the AIDS epidemic among African American men, was heralded as "a masterpiece" by The Source magazine. He would later also contribute to the Red Hot Organization's Fela Kuti tribute album, Red Hot and Riot in 2002. He collaborated with Djelimady Tounkara on a remake of Kuti's track, "Years of Tears and Sorrow".


title: Common (rapper)

text: The song "I Used to Love H.E.R." from "Resurrection" ignited a feud with West Coast rap group Westside Connection. The lyrics of the song criticized the path hip hop music was taking, utilizing a metaphor of a woman to convey hip hop and were interpreted by some as directing blame towards the popularity of West Coast gangsta rap. Westside Connection first responded with the 1995 song "Westside Slaughterhouse," with the lyrics "Used to love H.E.R., mad cause I f*cked her". "Westside Slaughterhouse" also mentioned Common Sense by name, prompting the rapper to respond with the scathing Pete Rock-produced attack song "The Bitch in Yoo". Common Sense and Westside Connection continued to insult each other back and forth before finally meeting with Louis Farrakhan and setting aside their dispute. Following the popularity of "Resurrection", Common Sense was sued by an Orange County-based reggae band with the same name, and was forced to shorten his moniker to simply Common.