An ancient empire and people centered on the upper Tigris in northern Mesopotamia from the early second millennium BC to the 7th century BC, with Assur and Nineveh among its capitals.
Ancient Assyrian merchant letters were sealed in clay envelopes that had to be broken to be read. In 2026, scientists used a portable CT scanner to read 4,000-year-old letters inside their sealed cuneiform envelopes for the first time, without breaking them.