User:EllaMegan
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The Neo-Assyrian Empire was a warlike society with an expansionist ideology and, as a result of their constant expansion, they acquired a diverse and multi-ethnic empire. One Assyrian identity did not happen until, ironically, Ashurnasirpal II began deporting people from the empire. The majority of the displaced peoples were settled in the urban heart of the empire bringing with them what would become the common language: Aramaic, the first unifying factor.[1] The spreading of Aramaic is known as the Aramaization period and soon the new language would become the common language as well as the imperial language. As the people settled in the new land, they became exposed to Assyrian cultural ideas such as "royal ideologies, religious ideas and mythologies..." and it "was incessantly propagated to all segments of the population through imperial art, emperor cult, religious festivals, and the cults of Aššur, Ištar, Nabû, Sîn and other Assyrian gods."[2] This was a process known as "Assyrianization."[3] The process of Assyrianization was a gradual process that occurred through generations of intermarriages, military participation, and daily interaction with Assyrian people (those who weren't descended from the deportees generations earlier).[1] Through the generations of cultural and linguistic exchange there came to be a homogeneous Assyrian identity.