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| | Early history of Assyria |
 | | Strictly speaking, the use of the name "Assyria" for the period before the latter half of the 2nd millennium BC is anachronistic; Assyria [as against the city-state of Ashur] did not become an independent state until about 1400 BC. |
 | | In the north, Assyria was later bordered by the mountain state of Urartu; to the east and southeast its neighbour was the region around ancient Nuzi (near modern Kirkuk, "Arrapchitis" [Arrapkha] of the Greeks). |
 | | In the early 2nd millennium the main cities of this region were Ashur (160 miles north-northwest of modern Baghdad), the capital (synonymous with the city god and national divinity); Nineveh, lying opposite modern Mosul; and Urbilum, later Arbela (modern Irbil, some 200 miles north of Baghdad). |
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