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Assyrian Cultural Foundation

The Assyrian Cultural Foundation (formerly known as AUAF) is a non-profit organization inspired by Assyrian heritage, serving as a bridge between traditions and different generations in the hopes of building a stronger, more connected community through our various programs.

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GOAT Assyrian Food?

Is it Dolma? Pacha? Or even Girdu? Let's find out.

#Assyrian #AssyrianCulturalFoundation #AssyrianFoodFestival #AssyrianFood

Francesca and Emily are back at it again at this year's Assyrian Food Festival. Attended this year? See if you made the cut. Featuring some trivia and a friendship challenge.

#Assyrian #AssyrianculturalFoundation #ACFchicago #AssyrianFoodFestival

What began as an effort to clear away rubble became an extraordinary archaeological discovery.

At Nineveh’s Shamash Gate, Dr. Timothy Harrison and his team uncovered remarkably well-preserved structures, human remains, military equipment, and evidence of the city’s fall in 612 BC still lying on the floor of the ancient gate passageway.

Among the discoveries were more than 100 fragments of a monumental stela that can now be identified, dated, and attributed to the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal.

Watch Dr. Timothy Harrison explain how new archaeological discoveries are revealing the final moments of ancient Nineveh.

#Assyria #Nineveh #Ashurbanipal #Archaeology #AncientHistory #AssyrianHistory #ShamashGate #ARCC2026

Thank you to everyone who joined us for this special Memorial Day documentary screening and helped make the event a memorable one.

Honoring the Assyrian Who Never Came Home: Major Kenneth Joseph Yonan.

#Assyrian #MajorKennethJosephYonan #KennethJosephYonan #AssyrianAmericanVeterans
#Vietnam

Dr. Kiersten Neumann, Curator at the ISAC Museum, and Research Associate and Lecturer of Near Eastern Art and Archaeology, gives the audience at the Assyrian Renaissance lecture 2026 a glimpse of the artistic contents of an Assyrian grave during the middle Assyrian period.

Assyrian art evolved from the relatively modest and functional style of the Old Assyrian period (c. 2050 BC), centered in the merchant city of Aššur, where we find cylinder seals, small-scale religious objects, and trade-related imagery. During the Middle Assyrian period (c. 1400 BC), Assyria emerged as a regional empire, and its art became more imperial and martial, with stronger royal symbolism, monumental architecture, and reliefs portraying kingship, divine favor, and military authority.
In the Neo-Assyrian period (c. 911–609 BC), Assyrian art reached its height under rulers such as Ashurnasirpal II, Sargon II, and Sennacherib, becoming highly sophisticated, monumental, and narrative-driven. Vast palace reliefs depicted warfare, lion hunts, deportations, rituals, and courtly life with incredible detail and realism, designed both as propaganda and as expressions of cosmic order. After the fall of Assyria, many artistic traditions survived in the art of the Babylonians, Achaemenid Persians, and later Near Eastern cultures, while Assyrian motifs, such as winged guardian figures, heroic combat scenes, and royal iconography, continued to influence the visual language of empires for centuries.

For modern Assyrians, art remains one of the clearest expressions of historical continuity and collective memory. Contemporary Assyrian artists frequently draw upon ancient Assyrian motifs, such as the lamassu, cuneiform inscriptions, winged disks, royal beards, sacred trees, and imagery from the palaces of Nineveh and Nimrud, to reconnect modern identity with the ancient past.

0:00 Welcome & Introduction
1:13 Assyrian Art Through Time
1:56 Origins at Ashur
4:07 The Ishtar Temple
6:02 Early Kingship & Sargon
7:35 Old Assyrian Ashur
8:20 Shamshi-Adad I
9:30 Palaces, Temples & Ziggurats
11:21 Middle Assyrian Expansion
13:31 Temple Pedestals & Divine Symbols
16:45 Early Narrative Art
18:18 Foundation Deposits
20:27 Tomb of Babu-aha-iddina
22:13 Assyrian Naturalism
25:59 Rise of the Neo-Assyrian Empire
27:00 Capitals of Empire
28:23 Imperial Cities & Architecture
31:14 Royal Palaces & Kingship
32:15 Lamassu & Palace Reliefs
33:52 The Throne Room Program
36:17 Lachish Reliefs
37:22 Ashurbanipal & Royal Imagery
38:38 Rock Reliefs & Monuments
39:46 Temples & Sacred Furnishings
40:46 Sennacherib's Temple Basin
42:16 Queens' Tombs & Luxury Arts
43:43 Protective Foundation Figurines
45:48 Legacy of Assyrian Art
46:56 Assyria in Chicago
47:14 Modern Assyrian Artists
47:30 Assyrian Renaissance Today
47:48 Closing Remarks

Assyrian art evolved from the relatively modest and functional style of the Old Assyrian period (c. 2050 BC), centered in the merchant city of Aššur, where we find cylinder seals, small-scale religious objects, and trade-related imagery. During the Middle Assyrian period (c. 1400 BC), Assyria emerged as a regional empire, and its art became more imperial and martial, with stronger royal symbolism, monumental architecture, and reliefs portraying kingship, divine favor, and military authority.
In the Neo-Assyrian period (c. 911–609 BC), Assyrian art reached its height under rulers such as Ashurnasirpal II, Sargon II, and Sennacherib, becoming highly sophisticated, monumental, and narrative-driven. Vast palace reliefs depicted warfare, lion hunts, deportations, rituals, and courtly life with incredible detail and realism, designed both as propaganda and as expressions of cosmic order. After the fall of Assyria, many artistic traditions survived in the art of the Babylonians, Achaemenid Persians, and later Near Eastern cultures, while Assyrian motifs, such as winged guardian figures, heroic combat scenes, and royal iconography, continued to influence the visual language of empires for centuries.

For modern Assyrians, art remains one of the clearest expressions of historical continuity and collective memory. Contemporary Assyrian artists frequently draw upon ancient Assyrian motifs, such as the lamassu, cuneiform inscriptions, winged disks, royal beards, sacred trees, and imagery from the palaces of Nineveh and Nimrud, to reconnect modern identity with the ancient past.

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Assyrian Cultural Foundation

The Assyrian Cultural Foundation (ACF) is a non-profit organization inspired by Assyrian heritage, serving as a bridge between traditions and different generations in the hopes of building a stronger, more connected community through our various programs.

Hours

Mon–Fri: 9:00am to 5:00pm
Sat: Closed Saturdays
Sun: Closed Sundays

Support our Fine Arts Program by purchasing artwork using our Fine Art America link. Click Here

Visit Us

Assyrian Cultural Foundation
4343 W. Touhy Avenue
Lincolnwood, IL 60712

Contact Us

Telephone: (773) 274-9262
Fax: (224)251-7620

General: General@acf-us.org

Art: Finearts@acf-us.org

Music: Music@acf-us.org

Tutoring: Tutoring@acf-us.org

Homecare-CCP-E-mail: info@homecare-aid.com

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