Actually the assyrians werent around then, it was the Sumerians.
The Assyrians were a hilltop barbarian group that took over the Babylonian empire around 1300BC and then went on to conquer the Middle East and cart the Israelites off into slavery in the 8th Cent BC. This is why the whole middle east still spoke their language, Aramaic, in Biblical times (and why the Christian Assyrians (or Nestorian Christians) in Australia still do). I believe they were wiped out by a coalition of Medes and Chaldeans around 600BC.
