The Assyrian Empire grew out of the founding of the city-state of Assyria in the third millennium BC. Between the ninth and seventh centuries BC, it was the most powerful empire the Near East had ever seen, encompassing Mesopotamia, Anatolia, and parts of Egypt and the Levant. Assyria, the first capital of the empire, is the physical manifestation of the deity after whom the city is named, and the temple is its eternal abode. But it was also a rich center for regional trade, located along one of the main caravan routes, and established particularly profitable trading links with Anatolia, in what is now Turkey. Much of what we know about the city’s early flourishing comes from an amazing collection of more than 23,000 Assyrian pottery tablets discovered at the Turkish site of Karum Kenesh,